Termites could burn your house down

[Cyberdragon]

what earth?

Well I'm assuming with the talk of a theoretical earth leakage breaker he was also talking about theoretical earthed wiring.

Earth wiring is not necessary for operation of an RCD.

But an external path to earth is, and with no electrical box or any sort of metalwork, let alone a ground wire, I don't see how that would be possible.

[shakalnokturn]

Earth wiring isn't necessary, in the worst case a human will do the trick (that's why it's always good yo have a nice new sensitive RCD) in this case there was no way the RCD would trip with a switched phase or neutral and no nearby wood damp enough to conduct to ground.
Would have needed a non-insulated earth connection just resting nearby.

[SeanB]

Can confirm that termites love soft wood. Years ago we cut down a turpentine tree, and left it as logs at the boundary, yo control soil erosion. Years later those turpentine logs were absolutely unscathed by termites, but the pine logs next to them, despite being 4 times the diameter, were just a bark shell over termitories.

Guy, a simple way to fix the termites is to go to the industrial suppliers store near you  and buy a few big bags of Borax, sold as a laundry brightener. Then simply either dig into the soil around the house, or make a near saturated solution to pour around the foundations lavishly. Termites do not like that at all, along with roaches and pretty much every other insect.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

Borax or get some ants. They simply loooove them some termites. Now what to do about the ants?
I only use AFC Flex cable in metal boxes. I've seen Romex go up in flames for a multitude of reasons, handyman - homeowner bodges, mice etc. Nothing is perfect, but for what we all do here, a pound of prevention....

[amyk]

Certainly, in WA, even 100+ year old houses have been rewired with PVC over the many years since then.
I had occasion to climb around in the roof of a "Federation" era house, & came across some "tramline" type wiring.(bare copper wire supported by porcelain standoff insulators).

It had long ago been disconnected, & the wiring in use was all PVC.

An interesting sidelight ---someone in the past had put a TV antenna inside the roof, which does work OK with tiles, but not with a metal roof like this house had.

The antenna was resting across both sides of the old "tramline' wiring, so it's just as well it had been replaced.

That sounds like what's known in the states as "knob and tube" wiring.  I've seen it in a few old houses (even still in use in a few lighting circuits at a friend's 1920s-ish house).  The knobs are porcelain insulators used to support the wire, and hold it where turns were made, and the tubes were porcelain sleeves with larger heads at one end the were fitted in a hole wherever the wiring passed through a rafter, joist or wall stud.  I'm happy that I can just pull a single cable with hot, neutral and ground all in one these days.  MUCH easier!

K&T still had insulation over the wires. I've never seen it with uninsulated bare copper wires.

If you're curious about the history of electrical wiring, archive.org has some good old books about it.

[Cubdriver]

Certainly, in WA, even 100+ year old houses have been rewired with PVC over the many years since then.
I had occasion to climb around in the roof of a "Federation" era house, & came across some "tramline" type wiring.(bare copper wire supported by porcelain standoff insulators).

It had long ago been disconnected, & the wiring in use was all PVC.

An interesting sidelight ---someone in the past had put a TV antenna inside the roof, which does work OK with tiles, but not with a metal roof like this house had.

The antenna was resting across both sides of the old "tramline' wiring, so it's just as well it had been replaced.

That sounds like what's known in the states as "knob and tube" wiring.  I've seen it in a few old houses (even still in use in a few lighting circuits at a friend's 1920s-ish house).  The knobs are porcelain insulators used to support the wire, and hold it where turns were made, and the tubes were porcelain sleeves with larger heads at one end the were fitted in a hole wherever the wiring passed through a rafter, joist or wall stud.  I'm happy that I can just pull a single cable with hot, neutral and ground all in one these days.  MUCH easier!

K&T still had insulation over the wires. I've never seen it with uninsulated bare copper wires.

If you're curious about the history of electrical wiring, archive.org has some good old books about it.

D'oh!!  Good catch - I somehow missed that he said BARE wires.  Yes, the K&T I've seen and read about was insulated.  Uninsulated wire carrying mains through the walls and in the attic seems a bit alarming to me.  Once again, vastly different standards in different countries.

-Pat

[tooki]

what earth?

Well I'm assuming with the talk of a theoretical earth leakage breaker he was also talking about theoretical earthed wiring.

Earth wiring is not necessary for operation of an RCD.

But an external path to earth is, and with no electrical box or any sort of metalwork, let alone a ground wire, I don't see how that would be possible.

You do realize that this “impossible” alternate path to earth is literally the exact raison d’être why RCDs exist? Whether an earth wire is present or not is actually not relevant to the RCD’s functioning. (The earth wire does, in grounded appliances, provide protection against some other failure modes.)

[TerraHertz]

what earth?

Well I'm assuming with the talk of a theoretical earth leakage breaker he was also talking about theoretical earthed wiring.

Earth wiring is not necessary for operation of an RCD.

But an external path to earth is, and with no electrical box or any sort of metalwork, let alone a ground wire, I don't see how that would be possible.

Exactly. This is a light switch wiring. Two wires, one Active, the other to the light. When they are shorted, light comes on. There's no Earth wire, and even if bare conductors touch the wall woodwork, it's unlikely to draw enough current to ground (the actual ground on which the house sits) to trip an RCD. The 'slow burn' effect is due to the light being in series with the current path. Hence no thermal runaway to arcing, and the whole charred mess staying just below ignition temperature for wood. Luckily.

[Cyberdragon]

Certainly, in WA, even 100+ year old houses have been rewired with PVC over the many years since then.
I had occasion to climb around in the roof of a "Federation" era house, & came across some "tramline" type wiring.(bare copper wire supported by porcelain standoff insulators).

It had long ago been disconnected, & the wiring in use was all PVC.

An interesting sidelight ---someone in the past had put a TV antenna inside the roof, which does work OK with tiles, but not with a metal roof like this house had.

The antenna was resting across both sides of the old "tramline' wiring, so it's just as well it had been replaced.

That sounds like what's known in the states as "knob and tube" wiring.  I've seen it in a few old houses (even still in use in a few lighting circuits at a friend's 1920s-ish house).  The knobs are porcelain insulators used to support the wire, and hold it where turns were made, and the tubes were porcelain sleeves with larger heads at one end the were fitted in a hole wherever the wiring passed through a rafter, joist or wall stud.  I'm happy that I can just pull a single cable with hot, neutral and ground all in one these days.  MUCH easier!

K&T still had insulation over the wires. I've never seen it with uninsulated bare copper wires.

If you're curious about the history of electrical wiring, archive.org has some good old books about it.

D'oh!!  Good catch - I somehow missed that he said BARE wires.  Yes, the K&T I've seen and read about was insulated.  Uninsulated wire carrying mains through the walls and in the attic seems a bit alarming to me.  Once again, vastly different standards in different countries.

-Pat

The earlg Edison systems used bare wire even here, but that soon stopped after the introduction of the NEC in the 1890s. So if you see bare wires here it's a Victorian era DC system.

[TerraHertz]

For completeness - I cut holes through the inner of the double brick wall foundation under the bathroom concrete slab. Expecting the termite trail between ground and the timberwork to be in there. And it was.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

I don't see any metal shielding to keep the termites from wanting to crawl onto the wood, or maybe it's just not zoomed up in that area. Looks like that pipe doesn't have it though..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite_shield

[WornerBro]

Well, I was looking for a thread with termites. Here I can add that I have termite shields, but they don't work. In general, termites appear in the house in the warm season, but they do not just appear in my house, but colonies are fleeing from somewhere. I even read faq about termite control and found out that that a typical termite inspection can cost between $ 65 and $ 100 and is usually accompanied by a report on wood destruction by insects. Moreover, they often do not guarantee the effectiveness of spot treatments, as termites can feed in many different directions.