Internal wiring of USA v UK mains plug

snipped-for-privacy@care2.com wrote in news:1183141239.957620.211930 @q69g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

The way I see it:

The lower classes see thmselves more as DIYers, even if they are bad at it. The lower classes generally cannot afford to have out of date electrical upgraded to modern standards, so try to bodge what they have to something they feel is useable, sometimes with disasterous results.

"N Cook" wrote in news:f62e5g$174$ snipped-for-privacy@inews.gazeta.pl:

They are named with a spec code that electricians learn, which is pretty simple (first digit pertains to the voltage/terminals, the second amperage).

Not like BS and CEE numbers which directly mean nothing, although I think one could boil those 30 down to about 5.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk:

and

official

In

I know of these:

Special plugs for computers servers and other IT gear. They have a T shaped earth pin.

I think it is some variation of BS546 used for theatrical lighting.

Then there is all varieties of CEEKon fittings.

we

Not really. Domestically, for GP recepticals, there is only the the one basic standard with a few minor variation, all backwards compatible to the parallel blade two prong plug.

Eeyore wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com:

Technically likely not. But there is a two round pin plug that will fit into most of Europe's sockets, and the CEE7/7 (AKA Shucko) which will fit into a subset of those.

Mid '30s - and 240v AC from the start.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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I can see that a modern three pin socket might accept older plugs, but the other way round?

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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There is a plug which will 'fit' but isn't up to the maximum rating of those outlets. So really of little use.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk:

Nope, not without an adapter, which is considered by professinals potentially unsafe, and are often used in an unsafe fashion.

I stand by the context of my original text, the lowest denominator is the two prong parallel plug, which will fit into nearly all domestic sockets since the 1930s. Before that the recepticals were unpolarised, although it took until the 1970s for polarised two prong plugs to be required on lamps and TV sets, and later some other appliances.

So, an appliance with a basic two prong plug, will fit into a two prong receptical, a U-Grounded 3 prong vertical slot 15A receptical, and the "T" slot 20A general purpose receptical. An unpolarised appliance with also connect to a pre 1930s unpolarised receptical or light socket adapter or a 10-15 receptical (whose slots were designed to accept both angled and vertical prongs).

Grab the ground pin with some pliers and twist it off.

John

There's about 3 different types of receptacles you'll find in a US residence, the rest on that list are either industrial stuff or obsolete things you might find in the occasional 1950s or earlier house. Generally you'll find mostly 15A 120V grounded types, then the clothes dryer will have a 30A 240V receptacle and the kitchen stove will have a 50A 240V receptacle. Other high powered items like an electric furnace, water heater, spa, etc will be hard wired. Sometimes you'll find a 15 or 20A 240V receptacle in the garage for something like an air compressor or small arc welder but these are generally added by the homeowner. It's really not very complicated.

I know the UK has a number of plugs and receptacles in the same category, I've got a small pile of various oddballs from over there right here.

GFCIs have been mandatory here for decades on any receptacle located outdoors or within a certain distance of water, such as in kitchens and bathrooms. Modern code is now requiring arc fault interruptors in bedrooms, and eventually everywhere.

Not really. In a domestic environment anything that can't be plugged into a 13 amp outlet will be hard wired. Including cookers, water heaters, showers, etc. A very posh home workshop may use BS 4343 industrial types though as some machine tools on single phase may need more than 13 amps. Three phase domestic supplies are pretty unusual.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Well that's not much different than here, only difference I see is that we have 30 and 50A 240V plugs to allow cook stoves and clothes dryers to be high power yet not hard wired. Standard clothes dryer here is 4KW, kitchen range is 12KW. I had a Creda dryer for a while from the UK, it was a nice unit, but tiny and took forever to dry.

Looking through the box here... There's an IP44 plug, not even sure what it's for, but I've never seen anything like it, looks very heavy duty, a round pin 2 amp plug that says it's for table lamps which oddly enough has three prongs just like the big clunky plugs, got a few of those, hmm, could swear I had another type as well.

I like the quality of the parts overall, but these junction boxes are

*teeny*, it must be a real pain to wire them. I like the BC light sockets as well, though they don't hold large heavy bulbs very straight.

Am 29.06.07 11.50 schrieb Eeyore:

Sure it is!

Here you are wrong. The Euro plug is a flat, 2 prong, 4mm round contact plug, with pins 17mm apart, fitting into regular 16A/240V outlets, but meant only for low power devices. Its current rating usually is only 2,5A and they are widely used for connecting consumer electronics (where the other end of the cable often is pluggable too, having the 8-shape socket, if you look at it, with 2 small receptacles 10 mm apart), small AC/DC power supplies, 240V to 2...24V transformers and such.

They fit into the round 5mm receptacles of German type 3 contact "Schuko" sockets, where the plug body actually dives into the outlet cover by some

20mm, allowing it to take on mechanical forces applied to the cable, rather than having the contacts themselves deal with it.

The lack of appropriate machanical stress handling is my biggest rejection of the American type 130V power plug system, in addition to extremely poor design of those flat contact receptacles, which wear out very easily, giving poor contact with all bad things to follow..

Am 29.06.07 17.59 schrieb Gary Tait:

It is "SchuKo", from german "SchutzKontakt", meaning protective aka grounded contact, which are the 2 grooved in metal stripes at the top and bottom of the plug housing.

Am 29.06.07 18.41 schrieb Dave Plowman (News):

Just the opposite. The Euro plug is not designed that you can travel across Europe with your

3680W water boiler and plug it in everywhere, but for all those

Not in my experience. I've owned houses that were first wired in the early 1900's, and I don't recall ever having a bad wall outlet. Most of the really old ones have been replaced, not because they failed but rather because they had to be upgraded to accept a 3-prong plug.

A decent 3-prong molded plug, plugged into even a cheap (79 cent) dual wall outlet, seems to be perfectly reliable. Our biggest problem is cats chewing on the cords, some of which seem to be tastier than others.

John

design

I've replaced a number of two prong outlets in my house (vintage 1928) because the outlets failed in just the manner described. I don't know the actual vintage of the particular sockets involved--although it's pertinent that no two were the same, leading me to believe that they themselves were later replacements for the originals.

In some cases it was possible to easily rewired with grounded 12/2 romex from the breaker box. In others, where that was not practical, the two-prongers were replaced with new outlets--also two prong.

These are still available and should be used if upgrading to a properly grounded outlet is not done.

In any case, IME the OP's statement is entirely accurate. The edison-style outlets are either inherently--or at least 'as implemented'--prone to losing secure contact.

jak

jak

Has meaning current ?

Absolutely not. Any 'oddballs' you have date from roughly before 1960.

Graham