- We're here in Puglia in southern Italy
to look at first fix Italian electrical installations
and how they compare with what we're typically
seeing in the UK.
There's some things in this video that will blow your mind,
particularly if you're from the UK or the US
because the way they do things here
is completely different to what we're used to seeing.
This property's also interesting
because it's very natured.
Around in this region, properties are built
in this very interesting style for old buildings
and this is a combination of old and new.
So, let's dive in and go and see what's been happening.
It's one thing we know
about Italian electrical installations,
it's common with a lot of countries in Europe,
they have an absolute fetish
when it comes to flexible conduit.
This stuff is absolutely everywhere
and in each room you'll find one of these boxes as well.
Now in this project, we've got black, we've got white,
we've got brown, we've got purple,
we've got green flexible conduits.
As we go around, we're gonna try and figure out
exactly what the combination means.
So, stick around to the end of the video
and we'll reveal what the color code is.
Before we delve into the depths
of the electrical system in the house,
we're here at the origin of the supply.
Most properties in Italy are on the TT Earthing System.
Or actually, the Earthing System isn't provided
by the distribution network.
You have to sort your own.
That means earth rods
and we'll come back to that a little bit later.
Here, I've got the meter box, which is just a meter box.
With this size meter,
I don't think you're gonna fit anything else in there
bar the electricity meter.
This is a temporary one,
just while they're constructing the project.
Eventually this has to go down near the road
so someone can read the meter.
Which is obviously strange
'cause there's smart meters in there.
I think someone's lost the key for this one as well.
So, they've had to pry it open to see what's going on.
The builders put in a temporary supply.
And this is their temporary supply.
But look at this, this is a substantial bit of kit.
Looks like it's just designed for the job
to keep the builders going on.
It does fall down a little bit when you go from here
as the cable drapes across and is wrapped around the tree.
But again, that's temporary supplies for you.
So, I'm here what will be the beating heart
of the electrical system,
where the distribution board is going to go.
As UK viewers would call it, the consumer unit.
Again, a different approach here.
This back plate is fixed in at the first fix stage
so you don't have to decide
who the manufacturer of the circuit breakers
et cetera is going to be.
That's decided during the second fix phase.
One thing you will notice is this is enormous
when you compare to what we fit typically in a UK home.
Which I think is great
cause it allows for loads of future expansion and changes.
Few reasons why it is slightly larger,
because we are on a TT system,
all of the circuit breakers in there
will be double pole for one
and they also don't get so hung up
about having an individual RCBO
or earth leakage protection dedicated to each circuit.
They still very much use the split load approach here.
This will be a three phase system as well.
So, the circuits will be split
among the three phases as well.
So, if you lose one to an earth fault,
you're not gonna lose all of the power in the property.
Following a similar pattern to what we saw
in a video we made in Tenerife,
the distribution board is here.
Directly underneath it is the first of many junction boxes
or cassettes of just I think being,
heard it being described as where you actually
do the interconnecting wiring
between the different circuits
and sort of sort out the switching arrangements in there.
You don't do that in the distribution board.
So, when we come back to have a look at this
when it's finished,
we're expecting to see clean and pristine layout in there.
So, I'm studying what is going to be a shower room.
And a quirk of the Italian electrical system.
In a bathroom, you have to have,
or we believe you have to have,
an emergency pull cord that's gonna be installed up there.
So, if you get into trouble in the shower, pull the cord,
and someone will come to your help when they hear the alarm.
Now what we've learned is,
the alarm only goes off in a house.
So, if you're on your own you could be there for some time.
And of course because we're in Europe,
we're actually allowed to have sockets in the bathroom
and we assume they're gonna go there
where these black conduits are coming
through the wall there.
So, you can plug in your hair dryer and other appliances.
Yeah, pretty useful.
We should adopt that perhaps in the UK.
Another mandatory requirement here in Italy
is the need for emergency lighting,
which again a pretty useful function
with a lot of power cuts in this region
because there's a lot of electrical storms.
So, that security of the emergency light, I think,
is again something we should look at adopting
on a more widespread basis.
One thing you won't need as an electrician in Italy,
very often actually, is your ladders.
Because most of the electrical installation during first fix
takes place in the floor.
Beneath this screed here,
we've got all of the conduits running the distribution
across the entire property,
along with the plumbers pipework.
So, we've still got that battle to go on
about who gets there first and who gets the prime location.
But you only really need ladders
for things that are going up high in this type of property
which is usually light fittings and that's about it.
Speaking of coordination between different trades.
Across this site, it seems everybody's getting on
and everybody's helping each other out.
However, it looks here some things are universal.
The plasterer see must have had an off day
and has decided just to fill the boxes
in a little bit too much,
where most of the other ones on the site
seem reasonably clean.
So, when it comes to fitting back boxes,
there seems to be a universal back box
being used across this property.
One that works with both plastered walls
and plasterboard walls.
We see three in a row here
so I believe there's a thermostat going there,
the light switches there,
and a power outlet for the socket here.
Across the room here, we're set up for bedside lights,
again light switches and power.
But again, with all this coordination going on in the floor,
you've got to be pretty sure at first fix
that you get all of this stuff in the right place.
Because this property has a TT installation,
you have to provide a means of connection to earth.
You're not relying upon anything provided
by the distribution network operator.
And I can best describe this as substantial.
In the UK we're used to a sort of, yeah,
a small earth rod that with a bit of luck
we could drive into the ground
and pray that we get a suitable low resistance
depending on ground conditions.
We're not taking any risks here.
This is a ring earth electrode
that goes around the whole property
with this exposed copper wire
and then it is further tied in at regular intervals
with this very substantial galvanized steel earth rod
there that's driven in
and then also will be connected to structural steel
within the foundation set up
where that is used within the construction.
After an agreeable lunch,
we met up with the Project Architect
and the Electrician responsible for the project.
When you take a conduit
up a wall. - Yep.
- Does it always have to go in straight?
So in in the UK we can only go straight
or we can go horizontal.
We can't do, we can't put anything on the diagonal.
(speaking Italian)
I've just learned from our Italian Electrician friend there
we're talking about safe zones
and where you can and can't run conduit up a wall
and it's pretty similar to the UK With respect to that.
We have a, a safe zone that comes up the wall to the boxes
and you could also wire horizontally between a boxes.
So I could take a pipe from here across to this box here
and then I guess back down again.
Not doing any rings here, of course.
When it comes to the under the floor system,
now remember this conduit here is buried
deep under the screed, so it can basically
take the quickest route possible
so there's no boxes in between this end
and where it goes to at the distribution board,
which is course is, is natural.
You don't want tight bends
and corners when it comes to pulling cables
into flexible conduit.
What I've also just learned is Italian electricians
won't waste time doing things you don't have to do.
If the light fitting here is gonna be double insulated,
you know the the square symbol
we used to seeing on so many products,
they won't run a CPC or earth wire to the fitting itself.
And and why would you?
Because it doesn't need one.
Okay, so I'm here on the roof with Nicola Azeta
who is the Project Architect for this project
and who's also been my translator
when it comes to speaking to the local craftsman as well.
So Nicola, one thing we're not short of
down here in Puglia is sunshine.
- Yes.
- And this property is gonna have
a solar installation as well?
- Yes, of course.
A solar installation of 15 panels, five kilowatt of power
and they will be put flat on the roof.
- [Gordon] And is that normal in Italy?
You have to have solar panels? - In Italy,
in Italy it's, it's mandatory to have solar panel
in the new construction of buildings.
A recent law of last year increase
the power you needed to install on
on your building
to one fifth of the
of the surface covered by the building in power.
So for example, if you have a house, a 100 square meter
you need at least five kilowatt
of of power for, for your house.
- So also the heating for this property
is gonna be air source. - Yes.
- Is that also pretty typical now in Italy?
- Yes.
It's quite diffuse to have a heat pump in Italy.
Especially now with this public grant that there was to
to restore existing buildings.
- So obviously in here in the South of Italy
we're not so worried about heating.
- No, exactly. (laughing)
- It's mainly about cooling. - Exactly.
- And there isn't really an alternative option
to a heat pump.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Yeah, that's uh,
and obviously that ties in well with the solar.
- Yeah, of course, of course.
Because the, the heat pump works with electricity, so...
- Yeah. So it works at the same time.
- Yeah, exactly. - So less reliance on the, in
in the UK we have the opposite problem.
We've got, we tend to use heating for heating.
(both laughing) - Yeah, of course.
- And then we need that at night
when obviously, - Sure
- there's not much sun.
Even if we had much sun
in the UK actually. (Nicola laughing)
So Nicola on this project, - Yeah.
- it's quite a complex project - Yeah.
- because we have rainwater harvesting.
- Yes. - Solar panels.
We've got the heat pumps, the home automation.
Is that left to the electrician
or does somebody else design it on their behalf?
- No, we, we put together a team.
I am the architect and we our studio,
(indistinct) Arquitectura was in charge
of the architectural design
and we had some consultant of ours
that took care of the design of the MEP,
you know, part of the house.
- Now when it comes to the electrical supply
we can see it hanging behind us in, in the,
in the distance. - Yeah. (laughing)
- [Gordon] In Italy you pay per the kilowatt
cause in in the UK we have enormous power supplies.
We could have - Okay.
- a standard house supply could be 23 kilowatts.
- Okay. Really?
- Yeah, but I think it's slightly different here
in Italy. - Yeah.
No, it's different.
Let's say the standard for years has been 3 kilowatt.
Now we are starting to need more power.
So you switch to 6 and 20 and you're alright
until
I think 6 is
mono phase,
but from above 6
is 3 phase.
For example, this house,
I think we will have a 20, 20 kilowatt connection.
- Yeah.
- Three phase because you know, with a
with heat pump and appliances and,
and pumps and, and induction.
- So a standard Italian home, 6 kilowatt single phase
is the standard power supply?
- Yeah.
For, yeah yeah.
- And does that cause problems?
- It happens that, you know, maybe you,
you put on the, the laundry together with the oven
and you know the the border switch.
- Yeah. It trips. - That, that, yes.
But that's...
Yeah, no, in Italy it is like that.
Yeah, probably because the, the electricity
is, (stammering)
was not so cheap, I don't know.
So, or they're not or arrived later
than the UK, I don't know.
So it's always been like that. - Yeah.
- It's improving in the late,
in the latest 20 years more, - Yeah.
- the more power.
- People get used to switching things back on.
- Yeah, exactly. (both laughing)
- So we finally learned the color coding
behind the flexible conduits from our friend the electrician
who we met earlier.
And it's simpler than we thought.
It is black for power or the low voltage supplies
for essentially mains power for sockets and lights
and extra low voltage is in the white conduit.
So that's things for the home automation system,
telephone, CCTV, and it makes sense here.
We're in the TV area
so there will be an internet connection.
There will be possibly a telephone point
or the TV aerial connection if we're still on that,
on that old aerial system.
Other parts of the property you could see cables hanging
out where there's gonna be CCTV cameras.
But what about those other colors?
Well, the purple and the green and the brown,
that was the builder helping out.
Sometimes electricians, you can't be on site
and you need to ask the builder to do you a favor.
And that's what they've done here in a few areas
where they're about to layer cement and concrete.
They've basically put in what they had in the van.
Well for me this has been an absolutely fascinating tour
of the first fix electrical installation that we see
here in Italy.
Depending upon when you're watching this video
you can check out what the project looks like
when it's finished by watching this video here.
If you're early doors to it,
check out what we found in Tenerife.
(birds chirping and street noise)