Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Weatherproof 13A switched outlets

What you see below are two units of weatherproof 13A switched socket outlets.

Picture 1 – Weatherproof 13A switched socket outlets


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Weatherproof 13A outlets are very useful accessories to buildings and homes. With them large amount of spaces can be turned into good use.

The picture above shows one example of an existing installation that has turn corridor areas into very comfortable study areas where the students and the university staff can use laptop for many long hours in fresh outdoor air.

Nowadays a study table (some people call it reading tables) would definitely need 13A power outlets. Even when someone is not using the internet, often a laptop is felt to be necessary for reading due to vast amount of easily downloadable reading materials from the internet.

Most of the downloaded materials are usually not printed out to paper, but carried around in laptops for the time when a small opportunity for reading them becomes available.

Below is a zoomed out view of one of the study tables at one of the corridors at the ground floor level.

Picture 2 – Weatherproof outlet installation environment

If you look at the height of the ceiling slab, it is almost two volume in height. This is a tropical country with great many days of rains.

An electrical socket around the location of the table and chairs would definitely be exposed to sun and rain. More importantly, an unsuitable electrical outlet would definitely result in a high risk of electric shock hazards.

That is why a suitable electrical outlet fixture is necessary.

Picture 3 below shows a closer view of the outlet opening and cover. Here you can see the rubber gasket better. The gasket prevents ingress of water into the socket even when the laptop plug is in place.

Picture 3 – Closer view of the rubber gasket

Picture 4 – Rubber gasket with the socket cover at the closed position

Picture 4 above shows the view of the weatherproof socket from below when the outlet cover was in the closed position.

This was not exactly the same outlet as in the previous pictures. However it was exactly the same type and model.

The previous pictures were taken during daytime at the ground floor of the building.

During the night, however, it crossed my mind that maybe I should have taken a better shot of the rubber gasket from below the socket. I was then at another reading table at a fourth floor corridor of the same building.

I also took a shot of the conduit entry into the outlet fixture as shown in Picture 5 below.

Picture 5 – Conduit entry into the weatherproof socket

Observe that each outlet fixture is provided with two pre-made conduit openings at its topside. This is for convenience of looping the wiring to outlets at another location.

Of course, if this is not provided, a tee-off draw box can be installed at a point along the conduit.

Notice also in the previous picture (Picture 4) that another two pre-made openings are available at the bottom side of each unit.

This gives the alternative of have the conduit entry from below or the top of the outlet fixtures.

xxx MORE RELATED PICTURES xxx

I attach below a few more pictures of weather-proof outdoor socket outlets for readers who need them.

This new extension on each of my existing posts will be a live section where I will keep adding new related pictures to old post.

This way I do not need to write new post just to add one or two pictures that are already related to an old post.

Picture 06 - Weather-proof 13A switched socket outlet and the conduit work at a building rooftop

The picture is from one of my old projects.

The location is on the roof top of an attached 5-storey podium block. This level is used as a secondary plant room where air-condition cooling tower and fire fighting water tanks are located.

A fire fighting main pump room is also nearby here.

Therefore, this outdoor area is a good location as a maintenance work area that may be required once the office complex is operational.

The conduit that you see along the parapet wall runs all around the roof top. IP66-rated outdoor power sockets and bulk-head lighting fixtures are installed at uniform intervals along the conduit run.

Picture 07 - Closer view of the 13A IP66 power socket

Picture 08 - The socket with the cover open

I took this shot to show you that this type of outdoor is not weather-proof during usage, unlike those at the university faculty in the main post above.

Picture 09 - The IP66 label

Beginners, please take note. This is how you know the the socket fitting is weather-proof.

You also need to make sure that the product is original. A risk of electric shock is an issue of life-and-death.

The product need to be reliable over many years in terms of the water-proofing quality.

Picture 10 - The weather-proof bulk-head light fixture

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