Do you get a little shock every time you touch your PC? In this issue I?ll show you how to fix that problem with less than 500 baht, one shopping trip, and 30 minutes of labour.

In the last issue, I wrote about protecting your computer and other expensive electronics with an APC-brand Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). This time, you'll read about how to get the most out of that UPS; protect your PC and other electronics, and eliminate the little shocks that many in Phuket get when they touch their PCs.

It's all about being well grounded and not getting your wires crossed is not just good philosophical advice.

In Britain, North America, New Zealand, Japan, or Australia, there's a reasonable expectation (a law, actually) that any electrical socket will have the positive (live, hot) wire and neutral wire in a predictable arrangement and colouring scheme. The negative (ground, earth) wire, too, is connected up, if there's a 3rd hole in the wall outlet.

In Thailand, though... well, things are less predictable. I've seen positive and negative wires swapped, even on work done by reliable electricians. I've seen ground wires missing or even attached to the neutral wire. You can also expect that wire colour coding is nonexistent or unpredictable.

In the electronics and home appliance stores, if you're buying a plug adapter or power strip or surge protector, just because you see three holes or three prongs on the plug does NOT mean that those holes and prongs are actually connected to anything. There's also no guarantee that the positive and neutral wires won't have swapped places when they come out the far end. Welcome to the Wild, Wild East.

When the positive and neutral wires are swapped, the OUTside of connectors (like light bulb sockets and your PC's metal housing) can give you a nasty shock, even when the thing is ?off?. An off switch ordinarily cuts the wire on the positive ?upstream? side where all the electron action is coming from. The housing of your PC and whatnot is ordinarily tied in with anything BUT that ?hot? wire. When those wires are swapped, though, those super-caffeinated, hyperactive little electrons are looking for any way to a place with a neutral or negative polarity... even if that path is through you.

Hiring a reliable electrician to check and fix the wiring in your house, though, can be a BIG expensive project, and unless you test the results yourself, you may find that the electrician's concentration lapsed at some point.

Worse, what if you assume your house doesn't have proper grounding? When you unwittingly install a second ground... or your house's ground becomes the ground for the whole neighborhood... you're opening yourself up to a world of hurt.

In the first case, the soil on one side of your property may have a slightly different negative ?potential? than the other side so your house becomes one big battery even when the power's off: electricity will run through your house's wiring from one ?ground? pole to another. In the second case, at some point your house's wiring will go ?kerpoof? under the strain of providing grounding for all those neighboring houses.

So what can you do that's safe, easy, and cheap?

Grab 300 baht and go to one of those home appliance stores like Homepro and Home Depot. You're going to buy three things: a plug adapter, a long, thick, insulated copper wire, and a copper rod about 1m to 1.5m long. If you have the extra money and a connection in North America, have a 220-volt electrical outlet tester sent to you. See a typical one: *http://tinyurl.com/walltester*

Be sure that it's not a 110-volt tester, which is the typical voltage in a North American home. If your home is in Britain or Australia, do not get a tester from home because your country's standard is to put the neutral and positive wires in places /opposite/from Thai/American/Canadian standard.

For 60 baht, buy a plug adapter like the one shown here. Use 150 baht for that copper rod as thick as your pinky finger, and the rest for a good long length of thick insulated copper wire. Notice that the adapters use only two wires going into the wall outlet. The ?ground? wire is, instead, a small metal ring.

To this ring you're going to attach an exposed metal section of that long wire. If you're handy with a soldering iron, use it. Make sure there's as much contact area as possible. Cover the connection with some electrical (non-conductive) tape so there's nothing for your dog/cat/kid to zap himself with.

Run that ground wire out of your house to some low, soft soil on your property. Borrow a big hammer and drive that copper rod deep. It's got to reach ground water to work. Permanently attach an exposed metal portion of your wire to the top of the rod, and solder it if you can.

Make sure there's as much contact area as possible. If you like cats, do your best to make it cat-proof: Either drive the entirety of exposed metal - rod and wire - into the ground, or cover the thing with a turned over sturdy flowerpot, so you don't electrocute Fluffy in your yard.

Test your creation with the wall outlet tester. At this point, the ground should be working. If you're lucky the positive and negative aren't reversed. If you're looking at the wall socket with the round "ground" hole at the bottom, the flat positive ("hot") hole is at top right, and the flat neutral hole is at top left.

If they are reversed, call any electrician, or perhaps buy an inexpensive plug adapter that you can open up and make a crossover so the positive and neutral wires are double-crossed. Two wrongs do make a right is not just inaccurate philosophical advice.

Now, assess the cable that runs from your PC or UPS to the wall. Make sure it's thick-ish, and has three prongs at the wall end. If you need to, buy replacements for less than 150 baht in any PC store, especially
in the basement of Big C. Don't buy the cheapest. Thick metal and thick cable are signs of important quality.


Now you've got a proper ground for just that one plug. Plug your APC-brand UPS into it if you've got one, and now you've got three extra-safe plugs. (If you don't have one already, pry open your wallet and get one. They're only 1850 baht. Don't plug your PC into it, and then make the mistake of plugging your monitor or printer into an ungrounded outlet: that's a neat way to accidentally run a current straight through both appliances!

That's it! No more shocks, and your computer's much safer than it was yesterday?