As an ex electrician and qualified electrical engineer, I have recently been taking an interest in how they seem to be doing things in the Philippines. From what I can gather most places are fed by overhead lines and each household provides its own earth. This is what is termed a TT (Terra to Terra) system in the UK and is normally found in rural situations.

Here in the UK with TT systems, in order to provide a rapid disconnection of the supply in the event of a live to earth fault, a RCD (REsidual Current Device) is used as compulsory. I believe this is known as Ground fault interruption in the Philippines, but i get the feeling this is as rare as hens teeth.

The risk of electric shock seems far greater in the philippines than with an installation here.

I would love to hear of forum members experiences with how houses they have lived in or built have been wired, what sort of shock protection measures are in place etc and how they deal with the fluctuations in voltage due to constant "brown outs".