TNB: Faulty internal wiring the cause

Tuesday March 3, 2009

TNB: Faulty internal wiring the cause
By CHARLES FERNANDEZ

FREQUENT voltage surges at a low-cost apartment in Taman Yulek in Cheras have deterred residents from using their electrical appliances.

The voltage surges, which has happened several times in the past, has damaged household electrical appliances and the residents are fuming.

The last major incident was just before Chinese New Year and the residents suffered extensive damage.


Hands on: (From left) A TNB technician, Saiful and Dr Goh
checking a circuit board at the Taman Yulek apartment.

The residents, led by spokesman Wong Ah Chee and local MCA representative Dr Jeffrey Goh, are taking up the matter with the Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB).

Dr Goh said the problems started after the local residents’ committee was disbanded and there was no more proper maintenance.

“The problem is also due to a poor wiring system as the apartments are more than 30 years old. There are five other blocks facing the same problem,’’ said Dr Goh.

The latest incident also caused a temporary blackout after a main cable burst at the apartment block.
He said 14 units were affected during the recent incident and that there is an immediate need to upgrade the entire wiring system at all the blocks.

Tong Yoke Beng, 65, said she had been staying at the apartment for the past 30 years and the recent voltage surge was the worst which damaged most of her electrical appliances. Another resident Choy Choy Lin, 52, concurred with Tong.

“Now, we are cooking and washing clothes without the electrical appliances. We had to replace our damaged items twice before due to this..

“We hope TNB will rectify the problems as soon a possible as many of us here are senior citizens and need to use the electrical appliances,” said Choy.

TNB engineer for South Zone, Saiful Syahrul Nizam, who is in charge of maintenance, said the problem was in the internal wiring system, which needed to be replaced.

“As far as TNB is concerned there is nothing wrong with the external wiring which is under our jurisdiction,’’ Saiful said after a team from TNB conducted a check at the affected block.

He said the residents should engage a wiring consultant to look into the matter and that they would have to bear the costs.

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So should the management ask TNB to check the circuits?

Afraid not.

If it's still under the warranty period, the ball goes back to the developer.

For all house owners:-

From the passed inspection at the condo regarding the electrical installation. I would like to comment as following:-

1. The wiring (loop-in and loop-out) for the lighting and power point are not done as per IEE or TNB regulation. As i found in my units the wiring was not twisted when they connected them to the connectors. this will cause disconnection of supply and this may damage the light fittings or our electrical equipments.

2. I suspected my units' wiring are with jointing in the mid way as I found my air corn point with different colour of wire from end to end.

3. I also found the nuetral short to earth can not be trip. Only live wire short to earth can trip only. For your information by using current ELCB, both nuetral and live wire if short to earth will trip the ELCB. But at present for our condo units which are using current ELCB only live wire can trip only. why?

4.The sub-main cabling from all the units to the LLN metering Room ware using Aluminium cable. This aluminium cables ware joint up behind the LLN meetering with copper cable which can not be accepted as per IEE or TNB regulation.

5. Some of the openings at the electrical, telephone, MATV Riser rooms are not seal up properly.

6. Some of the doors for the electrical, telephone, MATV Riser rooms are not fire door.

7. The electrical metal trunking in the riser was not joint properly which cables in the trunking exposed.

All the above items are not defective items which the developer have to retify or to replace even after defective period otherwise we can bring these items to the authority concern. We can hold the responsibility of the developer even after the defective liberity period.