"Upside-down" wall sockets

In this type of plugs the protection is two-fold: the pins have insulated sleeves, but the plug also goes in a recess in the socket that prevents contact to the pins from the side.

This is not present in US plugs/sockets.

Like USB A... what a dumb design.

Well, if it does, it'll short to safety ground and trigger the GFI.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Let's ban cars, I see more deaths from car use than electrocutions and fires from 2 prong outlets. Life is dangerous, AC outlet design is not high on my list of worries, it ranks below excess government regulation. Mikek

It isn't clear which you mean by "it", but in the UK your statement should say "... trigger the GFI, if any is fitted".

Here most outlets don't have ground, and if they have it is hardly ever used because most things are sold with a schuko plug that doesn't connect to ground in a Danish outlet. GFI is mandatory

and yet people are not getting electrocuted left and right

-Lasse

So you're saying that the object came before the reason?

AIUI it's required in many places.

Please read it first.

You're the one making the absurd causality claim. It's your job to defend it.

Like that's going to help anyone.

Den onsdag den 9. november 2016 kl. 15.05.40 UTC+1 skrev Boris Mohar:

you don't think the water would be grounded already?

Having had a flood in my basement bad enough to rise to the outlets, I can say from experience that... this isn't it. If you have that much water in your house that it's up to the outlets, "safe" isn't a word you're going to be using much, unless you pair it with "not".

For the curious, all the GFCIs tripped, and a few circuit breakers, leaving only the UPSs running, and one of the things those were powering was in the water :-P

One thing I was NOT thinking was "which way are my outlets?". I was more like "Holy crap this is dangerous!"

Nice outlet, it looks like a smiley... But indeed its coexistence with schuko may be a bit troublesome...

and it comes in different versions:

for IT:

or double with no ground:

I had hoped that we had moved past the day when people would question the orientation of outlets, or arbitrarily assign at installation an orientation based on whether they would end up in a hospital or a home.

Receptacle orientation is clearly a social construct and varies across time and place.

--sp

And in different frames of reference. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

So, you're expecting to have power still on AND 12+ inches of water AND the bottom of the "taller" neutral blade above the bottom of the "hot" blade AND the yoke for the receptacle ungrounded AND a plastic jbox?

In addition to all of the wire or metal object falling reasons that have been mentioned, I also heard that the finger most likely to accidentally touch a prong in the thumb, and since you mostly hold the plug with the thumb on top, if you should accidently touch a prong it will be the ground.

Good grief, another "mine's bigger than yours" from a lefty in right-pondia.

I think there is something to that. I have been shocked by 120 VAC any number of times and I'm still here. But then a lot of the fatal aspect has to do with what part of the body the current passes through. Still, you get a lot more current from a 240 line than a 120 line given the skin resistance.

Apples and Oranges. I'm in the US.

Actually the ones requiring a ground pin aren't compatible with double insulated devices with two prong connectors. The latest is an outlet that only allows insertion when both prongs enter the two slots simultaneously.