The only reader-added tag so far is "S'pupp".

The wiring of the notorious Chungking Mansions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chungking_Mansions_Electrical_Wiring_%282013%29.jpg

Artist's commentary said:
mismatched capacitance

I'm not sure what the original says, but he probably means a mismatched wire size rather than capacitance (which is a different electrical concept). For example, if you use a too-small wire on a breaker that's too big, you can start a fire since the wire will heat up before the breaker trips.

Claverhouse said:
The wiring of the notorious Chungking Mansions:

That looks like low-voltage telephone wire, still a pain to work with but that kind of messy ad-hoc wiring is pretty common all over the world.

cats said:

I'm not sure what the original says, but he probably means a mismatched wire size rather than capacitance (which is a different electrical concept). For example, if you use a too-small wire on a breaker that's too big, you can start a fire since the wire will heat up before the breaker trips.

The original says 容量 (capacity/volume/capacitance) の合ってない (not matching) ケーブル (cable). It's possible he did mean "mismatched wire size", but that's definitely not what he typed.

I see it as both silly and EXTREMELY UNDERSTANDABLE

Is that just because he's likely renting an apartment, or do they have to go through the training even for their own house / property? Sounds tedious, but I guess if their properties are so close to each other in the city, burning down 'just your property' would still cause a lot of problems for others...

Moonspeaker said:

The original says 容量 (capacity/volume/capacitance) の合ってない (not matching) ケーブル (cable). It's possible he did mean "mismatched wire size", but that's definitely not what he typed.

Thanks for the detailed response. A cursory look online seems to imply that 容量 is used to indicate the capacitance (measured in farads, not typically a concern for residential wiring) of a cable, but could also be used to indicate the size (as in the physical dimension, measured in mm2 most places, or AWG/gauge in the US) of a conductor, which would be more important to match up when you're working on household wiring. From the context I'd assume he's talking about the latter. In any event thanks for your translations, I do electrical and electronics work as a hobby so this didn't quite sound right to me.

MAGNUS-8M said:

Is that just because he's likely renting an apartment, or do they have to go through the training even for their own house / property?

I can't speak for Japan, but in the US, certain work even on your own home requires either a permit and inspection (if the homeowner does it) or hiring a licensed electrician (if someone else does it). Typically a renter in an apartment wouldn't be allowed to change this sort of thing, unless he was licensed AND had an agreement with the owner.

cats said:

A cursory look online seems to imply that 容量 is used to indicate the capacitance (measured in farads, not typically a concern for residential wiring) of a cable, but could also be used to indicate the size (as in the physical dimension, measured in mm2 most places, or AWG/gauge in the US) of a conductor, which would be more important to match up when you're working on household wiring. From the context I'd assume he's talking about the latter. In any event thanks for your translations, I do electrical and electronics work as a hobby so this didn't quite sound right to me.

I'm willing to defer to your expertise; I would never have considered a wire's physical size and capacitance to be synonymous otherwise, in either language.

Moonspeaker said:

I'm willing to defer to your expertise; I would never have considered a wire's physical size and capacitance to be synonymous otherwise, in either language.

The AWG can effect the capacitance due to the diameter of the conductor. So "size" might be correct here.

cats said:

I'm not sure what the original says, but he probably means a mismatched wire size rather than capacitance (which is a different electrical concept). For example, if you use a too-small wire on a breaker that's too big, you can start a fire since the wire will heat up before the breaker trips.

That looks like low-voltage telephone wire, still a pain to work with but that kind of messy ad-hoc wiring is pretty common all over the world.

Moonspeaker said:

The original says 容量 (capacity/volume/capacitance) の合ってない (not matching) ケーブル (cable). It's possible he did mean "mismatched wire size", but that's definitely not what he typed.

cats said:

Thanks for the detailed response. A cursory look online seems to imply that 容量 is used to indicate the capacitance (measured in farads, not typically a concern for residential wiring) of a cable, but could also be used to indicate the size (as in the physical dimension, measured in mm2 most places, or AWG/gauge in the US) of a conductor, which would be more important to match up when you're working on household wiring. From the context I'd assume he's talking about the latter. In any event thanks for your translations, I do electrical and electronics work as a hobby so this didn't quite sound right to me.

I can't speak for Japan, but in the US, certain work even on your own home requires either a permit and inspection (if the homeowner does it) or hiring a licensed electrician (if someone else does it). Typically a renter in an apartment wouldn't be allowed to change this sort of thing, unless he was licensed AND had an agreement with the owner.

From context the proper term is ampacity here, but a lot of people would just call it "current capacity" or "maximum/safe current load" anyway instead of the so-called "proper" term (which is a portmanteau of ampere and capacity anyway). Same goes for Japanese, where people just say 容量 for short instead of 電流容量 ("current capacity") or 許容電流 ("tolerated current").