Plug vs. Plug — Which Nation's Socket Is Best? 1174
CNETNate writes "Is the American mains socket really so much worse than the Italian design? And does the Italian socket fail at rivaling the sockets in British homes? This feature explores, in a not-at-all-parodic-and-anecdotal fashion, the designs, strengths and weaknesses of Earth's mains adapters. There is only one conclusion, and you're likely not to agree if you live in France. Or Italy. Or in fact most places." (For more plug pics and details, check out Wikipedia's list of the ones in current use.)
um no (Score:5, Informative)
8 fucking pages with two small paragraphs on each page? fuck. off.
Re:um no (Score:4, Funny)
And they missed out this fantastic example [twitpic.com] which I saw in a shopping mall in Abu Dhabi.
Gizmodo covered this about a week ago (Score:5, Informative)
http://gizmodo.com/5391271/giz-explains-why-every-country-has-a-different-fing-plug [gizmodo.com]
Is this really front page news? (Score:4, Funny)
Seriously, why don't you just post "Nothing happened today" in big letters on the front page?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Is this really front page news? (Score:5, Insightful)
I like useless articles like this sometimes. This one gets the electrical nuts out of the woodwork and I start learning things that I'd normally have no reason to go out and look, but are interesting nonetheless.
Swiss (Score:3, Interesting)
Of the various plugs and sockets I've spent time living with (Australian, US, European, British), my personal favourite is the Swiss one. Small, secure, strong and aesthetically pleasing. The habit the Swiss have of also integrating a socket with most light switches is also quite useful.
Better idea (Score:4, Interesting)
If there was some move to rewire the entire world with a single residential standard I'd vote for NEMA L15.
Single-phase power is a hack.
Re:Better idea (Score:4, Informative)
Practically all generators on the grid are three phase. In most urban areas the lines outside your house are three phase so it's not that much of a stretch to bring it into the house. The electric utilities would be much happier because they wouldn't need to worry about phase imbalances any more.
We could use 16 phase, but it doesn't really give you any advantages over 3 phases and it makes you use a lot more wires.
Three is special because it is the lowest number that provides all the benefits [wikipedia.org] that you get from going polyphase.
Article summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Article summary (score out of 10):
10- UK
9 - Denmark
8 - Italy
2 - Australia
1 - USA (no surprise)
1 - Japan (surprise)
0 - EU
I suspect bias. I also suspect this article was meant to be humourous. BTW an American plug can handle 15 amps easily; it's how I run my spare heater.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Article summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Article summary (Score:4, Insightful)
>>>That'll be 15 amps at 110v: to get the same power out of a British socket would only require 7.5 amps which would be (relatively speaking) safer, surely?
No actually 110 volt would be safer because that's typically not enough "push" to overcome skin resistance, and therefore little harm will be done.
Also in the U.S. we do have 220 volt plugs for high-energy devices that need more energy - things like stoves or hot water tanks. They are bulky three-prong affairs.
Sorry, American socket takes top honors... (Score:3, Funny)
Aha! Time for my favorite indie design this year (Score:5, Informative)
Min-Kyu Choi's Folding UK style plug. All the goodness of the UK plug, none of the bulky crap. http://www.minkyu.co.uk/Site/Product/Entries/2009/4/20_Folding_Plug_System.html [minkyu.co.uk]
Oh yeah? (Score:3, Informative)
Well, the Canada plug is better than the U.S.A. plug!
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:4, Funny)
Non-optimal (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't see the advantage to fusing the plug versus a device with a replaceable fuse.
B.t.w. Christmas tree lights in the US have fused plugs with fuses on the hot and ground so that it can be plugged in upside down. Since there's no separate "device", just wires with bulbs, having the fuses in the plug makes sense.
Re:Non-optimal (Score:4, Insightful)
Symmetrical
But the live is more dangerous than the neutral. UK plugs must have the fuse right after the live pin, and appliances must have the power switch in the live wire (nowadays probably both wires).
if the spring wears out
The only times I've seen broken UK sockets is when they've been abused, e.g. the ones in the back row of a school science lab. House sockets from the 1960s still work.
I don't see the advantage to fusing the plug versus a device with a replaceable fuse.
It protects the wire between the socket and the appliance. The maximum current from a UK circuit is 30A, but that requires a bulky cable (like the one in the wall). You don't want that bulky cable on a desk lamp, so you put a fuse in the plug. The desk lamp will typically have a 1 or 3A fuse in the plug.
Unfortunately, the 3, 5 and 13A fuses are the same size, so it's possible to make the desk lamp unsafe by replacing the 3A fuse with a 13A one. People sometimes do this if the fuse keeps blowing (the lamp is probably faulty...) and end up with an unsafe appliance.
The IEC connector, in all its forms. (Score:5, Informative)
Technically, the IEC power connector, as found on the back of most computers, is one of the best. You usually see a chassis-mount IEC male connector and a cord-mount female connector, but the reverse forms are available. [futurlec.com] IEC "wall sockets" [bryant-broadcast.co.uk] are sometimes found in rackmount server outlet strips. The plug is shrouded, and the socket has an enclosing slot for the shroud, so at no time are energized pins exposed. The shroud engages the enclosing slot before the pins make contact. That's a key safety feature. It allows a smaller plug; if exposed pins are energized while the plug is being plugged in, the plug has to be made larger to keep fingers away from the pins.
IEC is a flat-pin design, which is good. Getting a large contact area on round pins is hard, so round-pin connectors of a given size usually carry less current. Flat-pin contacts just slide between two flat spring-loaded blades, which can accommodate wear on both surfaces. The split-cylinder contacts of round-pin female connectors have to match closely, so as they wear, the inside radius of the cylinder increases and no longer properly matches the pin. Round pins vs. flat contact blades are sometimes used; they wear better, but the the contact area is small.
The older round-pin European connectors are only rated for 10A, sometimes only 7.5A. At 240V, this is adequate. IEC connectors are rated for 15A, and there's a 20A form.
Today we expect connectors to just work, but it took considerable engineering to get to that point. As late as 1980, computers had serious problems with connector unreliability.
objective my ass... (Score:5, Informative)
there's no "objectivity" in that article.
Shoot...just look at the Dutch plug (no pun intended): Two paragraphs, one sentence each. The UK one, it's like reading a biography.
That and there were some facts missing.
Japan uses 100V [wikipedia.org] not 110V
GFCI sockets exist in the US
The British mains (aka 230V mains) are much more potent so they needed shutters 'cuz it was killing kids (oh will someone think of the children!)
Besides, the shutters are in the socket not the plug and guess what, shutters exist for other types OTHER than the British type (aka Type G).
Here's another kicker: just because there's a fuse in the plug [wikipedia.org], doesn't make it safer. A 13A fuse (the max) can fit in a 3A cord. In order for the fuse to cut the power, it has to melt but in this case, the cord will melt and catch on fire before the fuse does. FAIL
A GFCI socket (which is fair to claim as the article brings in shutters on the Type G socket) will detect current even small amounts leaking to ground (a fault) and shut the power off immediately. There are even sockets that have other kinds of resettable circuit breakers as well.
And some appliances have a fuse box on the back that's connected directly to the cord.
Now as far as shuttering goes, guess what...they have 'em for Type B too, known as tamper resistant [cooperwiringdevices.com] meant to protect children from shock!
I was involved in plug standards in the 80s (Score:5, Interesting)
The best system in the world, for real, is a combination of the Europlug and the Schuko plug. Proper Europlugs and Schuko plugs have bodies which fit partly into the wall so the load is not taken by the pins. The Europlug pins are partly insulated so if you can see metal, it's safe. You can fit lots of them onto a power strip, so a strip for electronics can have many connectors in a small space while a power extender can give you 16A in a small footprint.
The reason the UK still has the BS1363 plug is because it has square pins, and the manufacturers thought the Chinese would not want to invest in special tooling to make them when they had the world of round pins or cheap strip pins (as in US) to go after. Then Mrs. Thatcher came along and they decided to let the Chinese make them anyway.
Every time you buy a computer in the UK you get a BS 1363 to IEC lead and a Schuko to IEC lead. That's how cheap they are: manufacturers throw them away rather than be bothered to have two different SKUs.
Re:PoW (Score:4, Funny)
Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)
I did not agree with the tiny 10-page article that barely had enough substance for 1 physical paper.
It's worse than that. I hate to spoil the ending for you but he comes to the conclusion that the British outlet is the greatest with a 10 out of 10 score. Why? Safety features. Features like shuttering and built in fuses. Both of which are optional on American outlets [amazon.com] as well -- I'm sure -- as they are on outlets around the world. Maybe they're standard in the UK but they're optional in the US. I'd rather have the option than even more regulation. Also, the picture for the US is ungrounded. I'm beginning to think this article was written by someone who's never really cared to understand the diversity of plugs in countries other than his own (which I would never use in the US and very rarely see). Nationalistic garbage is about all this amounts to. Yawn.
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
The 2008 NEC requires shuttering outlets in the US. It's just a matter of time.
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
The shutters on UK plug sockets are built out of distilled Chuck Norris.
That's why the metal bits on the plugs are so fat and butch.
You can kill someone with a UK plug, and not only by leaving it lying around for someone to step on barefoot.
However it is a big plug, and a big socket. Someone did design a thin version though.
I liked Denmark's happy face design myself.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Thanks to the electrical manufacturers, "shuttering" is no longer optional for residential installations that follow NEC 2008 or later (406.11).
Re:No. (Score:5, Interesting)
I kind of like Australia's socket design. In the US, our NEMA sockets are designed so that a plug for a 30A socket can't plug into a 15A socket or vice versa. In the Australian design, a higher current plug can't plug into a lower-current socket, but a lower-current plug *can* plug into a higher current socket. Which only makes sense.
Of course, all of them are pretty weak compared to EV charging connectors like J1772. Designed for 10,000 connect/disconnect cycles, and the power pins don't go live until the data pins confirm a connection. And the data pins can talk with the device to determine what kind of power to deliver.
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
A device with a low current plug needs substantially less current than a high current socket can deliver. Allowing the user to plug it in works just fine.
It's like SAS vs. SATA controllers. SAS controllers can handle SAS or SATA devices and the keying is such that either can be plugged in. SATA controllers can only handle SATA devices, so they are keyed to prevent SAS drives from being plugged in.
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
And to clarify what fiery death means, the wire running to the outlet will try to deliver the demanded current, and it's typically too small a gauge to supply it without heating internally. The wire heats up, and either a breaker trips (or fuse blows), or a fire starts, somewhere in the home walls where you can't see it at first.
You can get this with a typical room heater, drawing about 1750 Watts. at 110 volts, that's nearly 17 Amps, just a smidge more than the standard 15 Amp circuit is rated for. Put a couple of 150 Watt bulbs on the same circuit, and the circuit wiring will heat up. A 20 amp fuse or breaker on line only graded for 15 can be quite enough to let that heat get serious.
There are tolerances built into the ratings - if you're not an electrician (or an EE who actually has some practical experience), please forget I said that, and believe there are NO tolerances built into the ratings.
Don't get me started on aluminum wiring in mobile homes, and various other criminal practices still within the older codes.
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
Think about it for just a minute and it might dawn on you - you don't need to be an electrician to get this. A 15A appliance will work in a 30A socket, but a 30A appliance won't work or will cause safety problems in a 15A socket. You don't want people plugging 30A appliances into 15A sockets and the socket design ensures this. It's kind of like backward compatibility - it only works one way and it should only work one way.
Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, OK, maybe we Brits are a little over-proud of our plugs. A Polish engineer I know called them "an insult to electrical engineers".
But seriously, where is someone explaining why some other plug is superior? In my experience US plugs get bent pins, can be woefully insecure in their sockets (literally dropping out) and the ground-nonground mixing that goes on on powerstrips seems clearly dangerous.
So (excluding British plugs) which plug would you choose to champion? Any?
I know it's not comfortable to admit that the US version of X is not the best in the world, but if you had another option that you preferred, I'd be more convinced.
Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)
Hokey fuses and ancient plug designs are no match for a good American socket in your wall, kid.
If this is a news site for nerds, then why is this a flamewar about A/C plugs? Commander! Tear this site apart until you've found some nerds. And bring me the women, I want them alive!
Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)
So (excluding British plugs) which plug would you choose to champion? Any?
Of those that I've used personally - Soviet, Euro, Australian/NZ, and North American - I liked the southern one [wikipedia.org] most, strictly on the basis of convenience. It has 3 asymmetric pins, so you can grab it and plug it in correctly in one try without even looking at it, a feat I couldn't repeat with any other design. Plus, having a power switch on every plug is both handy and a good safety feature (and the switches normally also glow when turned on, so if you keep one that way you can find it in the dark).
Looking at pictures for British plug, it seems that its 3 pins are in a similar configuration, but there's no switch or glowing LED.
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
Grounded North American plugs generally don't bend that easily.
Some bending is designed in, so that a sharp sideways yank on the cord will bend the blades and allow the cord to disengage the outlet without tearing out the outlet and potentially shorting it.
The sooner we outlaw two prong plugs in North America the better.
Re:No. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd rather have the option than even more regulation.
How can you object to something that improves safety and comes with no inconvenience whatsoever?
Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)
He's American.
Re:No. (Score:4, Funny)
Then how is it that Americans created Mac OS X while a Finn created Linux?
Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)
Then how is it that Americans created Mac OS X while a Finn created Linux?
A computer scientist created Mac OS X and a computer scientist created Linux. That fact that one is a Finnish and one is an American had nothing to do with it.
Re:No. (Score:4, Interesting)
An American created open source. A Finn couldn't figure out how to get write an OS and talked other people into doing it for him.
Are we going to keep doing this nationalist crap, or can we realize it take people from every country to progress?
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
in other news, Canadians invented basketball, the minivan, the donut, and perfected bacon. Where would y'all be without us!
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)
Americans bagging Brits. As an Australian, I'm torn as to which side to take. I guess I'll just have to bag the New Zealanders instead.
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
and you do realize that the National Electric Code in the USA REQUIRES all circuits in Kitchens, Bathrooms, and Rooms which contain Water sources (like utility rooms) to have GFCI grounded circuits, and that a single GFCI outlet can protect all outlets wired in series after it..... right?
Oh and it has required these for many many moons....
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
Nowdays the code is requiring Arc Fault Circuit Interceptors, (AFCI) which are even more sensitive to sparking.
GFCI sense current to ground. AFCI can detect short circuits between two hots (on opposite legs of the 240 volt entrance), or one leg and neutral.
Neutral tends to be tied to ground at the main panel, which is why GFCI works for most cases.
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
"GFCI sense current to ground"
Nope, it's a toroid which generates current to trip a switch when there's a difference in the current between the hot and the neutral. It works just fine with no ground at all. The only time you'd have a difference between these at the outlet, is if current escapes the system through a path other than the outlet.
I looked into it when the electrical code forced me to replace the illegally retrofitted three conductor grounded outlets in my house with ground-fault circuits. It didn't make any sense to me without a ground... but lo and behold, they do indeed work with no ground at all.
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
Circuit breakers are not fast enough to save any lives, just fast enough to prevent a short.circuit from starting a fire. You need a ground fault circuit interrupter for a cutoff quick enough to save lives.
Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)
Fuse? Who needs that when the entire house is wired with circuit breakers [wikipedia.org]. Fast enough to save your life if you drop the hairdryer into the bathtub.
Because the fuse trips at 2 to 13 amps and the circuit breaker will be way higher?
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
Nope. The electrician didn't fuck up.
If you take a look at the electrical code, and at the 15 amp outlets you're talking about you'll notice two things.
1. That 15 amp outlet is rated for 20 amps pass thru current.
2. The electrical code permits a 20 amp circuit to have multiple 15 amp outlets.
So if you want to see if the electrician did things correctly, check
1. Is the 20 amp circuit wired with 12 gauge copper wire or heavier?
2. Are there multiple 15 amp outlets on the circuit?
If both answers are "yes", he did things according to code.
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
> Well, he also thinks that a country that loses many times more people to cancer than the USA-- and has people with life-threatening conditions on waiting lists for months-- has a great health system.
Well, it's better than your free healthcare!
Seriously though, the really fantastic thing about the UK system is that it provides a baseline that you can't fall past. However bad things are, it's always there. Want better? Get medical insurance. For example, I pay Bupa ( http://bupa.co.uk/ [bupa.co.uk] ) £35-ish/month, which covers any tests I need done, and any surgery. That's not after an employer contribution, that's £35/month all in.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Informative)
UK plugs are about double the size, have significantly thicker pins and have a fuse built in.
Other than that, identical.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Informative)
and the plastic guards across the power pin sockets that only open when the earth pin is inserted.. prevents little fingers etc.
oh, and they always (almost always, not on really old sockets) have a switch next to each socket so you can turn them on/off.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Informative)
They can handle it - it's part of the job description. We have the same thing in Australia and I have yet to have a switch fail anywhere in my house (or houses I have lived in throughout my life). It works on high current kitchen appliances like kettles and toasters and it works on lights.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Funny)
Worst pick-up line ever.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh yes, that switch, the fuse in the plug and the protective plastic cover over the live socket must add something like 1p to each socket in whatever Chinese prison they're being made in this week. Sure, they last forever and save lives, but it's just too much of an expense for me.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Funny)
And they leak oil.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, the little security flap adds about $0.08 to the cost of a socket (about $1 retail given markup). The inline fuse is differnt from a GFI, and instead of allowing the device to die a horrible death and trigger the GFI, it protects the devices from surges in the first place. They use GFI in the breaker box (as the breakers in my new house here in the US also do and it's not the builkding standard in this state as opposed to the expensive GFI sokets I needed all over the place in the old house). T
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Informative)
This also differs from a GFCI in operation. A GFCI detects ground faults. That means current leaking from the primary to the ground pin. In normal operation, this shouldn't happen. But if a circuit is shorted, or becomes damaged, the ground (which is usually connected to the chasis on metal items) can be connected to the primary lead. So the GFCI detects this leakage, and kills power. Surge protectors, GCFI and fuses are very different systems, each designed to protect from a specific hazard.
Now, a circuit breaker is a fuse. Their very nature only protects against excess current only. There are two important differences however. A breaker is a lot faster at disconnecting current than a fuse (it's designed to be fast), and it's resettable. So to say that the UK version is better because it has a fuse shows me a lack of understanding of practicality or safety. Fuses are designed to protect the wiring. That's it. Nothing else. A fuse prevents a short circuit from melting the wiring in the house and causing a fire. With the excess current required to trip a fuse, the damage to the equipment is likely damaged already. And it will be more than enough current to kill a person (It only takes about 0.015 amps to kill someone, regardless of voltage).
Re:US vs UK... (Score:4, Interesting)
Apparently, it's a common feature in the UK to have a single high current line supplying most of the house. In the US, there would be several breakers and several wires for the same purpose.
I like the UK scheme. It's more economical and more rugged. Protection is provided where it's needed, at the individual plug. The big disadvantage is that if you do manage to make a good solid short at one outlet, you trip the main breaker and the whole house goes dark.
The UK uses 240 V, which also reduces wiring losses in the house This is a big deal in these days of conservation, and it's nice not to have the lights dim when you switch on a vacuum cleaner.
african kid who made a GFCI from ... nails (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Insightful)
They do have the convenient habit of only coming in "flat surface mount" variety though, so the cord is already against the wall. Or at least, the cord sticks no further from the wall than the plug itself does. Most US plus for some reason think it is a great idea to stick far further out from the wall than even the huge British plug due to plugging in perpendicular. You can get the smaller "flush mount" plugs for some things in the US (usually extension cords, sometimes computer power cables) but they're then next to impossible to remove because they become so flat (a bonus for the larger British plug).
I also don't recall the British plugs having the "plug falls out of the wall due to the weight of the cord" problem that FAR TOO MANY US sockets do. It could just be the house we lived in when we were in England had new enough sockets that wasn't a problem -- I don't know for sure. I do know I've experienced the plug-falls-out problem in many, many houses and apartments in the US.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Interesting)
Having lived in the US, UK, Malaysia and France, I would concurr that the British plug system is far better. It was properly thought, and universally implemented across the country 50 years ago using an act of parliment on the premise that using anything else was dangerous and therefore potentially negligent. More features have been added since then (including household earth-leakage trip sensing).
I've had problems with a French pin snapping in a socket leaving an exposed live pin for my 3-year-old son to play with (luckily I spotted it in time and managed to cover it).
In the US I almost got used to the risk of shocks off electrical appliances. I also had a lab fire destroy some of my work because somebody had knocked out the cable of the pump supplying the coolant.
In Malaysia where the national standard specifies the british plug type, the biggest issue was that cheap Chinese imports sometimes didn't use it.
When basic safety is involved, I don't think that it's over-engineering. Your comment about extra points of failure doesn't make any sense.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, but belt-and-suspenders is a good philosophy when it comes to something like this. When you take your laptop and plug it into the hotel outlet, you're trusting whoever wired that outlet to have done it to code. It almost always is, but the one time it isn't could be the one that damages the laptop or takes your life.
GFI and fuses are apples and oranges. Fuses and circuit breakers are current overload protection. Ground Fault Interruption protects against current moving in a path it was not intended to (e.g. between hot and ground rather than hot and neutral). There are plenty of ways to kill yourself with current moving between hot and neutral as intended. You can use more current on the cord than the circuit is rated for. You plug your 2A cord into a 20A circuit, and you can start a fire by drawing 10A and the GFI is happy as a clam. Your laptop is off and your frayed cord is drawing one amp because of the current that is currently melting the plastic in the cord. In that case not only is the GFI and circuit breaker happy to let you start that fire, the 2A fuse in your plug is too. You need arc-fault detection.
GFI units include a circuit breaker, so yes, there is redundancy. I'm assuming the UK codes don't let you wire buildings without circuit breakers, so it's not like the UK relies on plug fuses exclusively and the US on circuit breakers. If I am correct, then the UK has redundant current overload protection where the US does not. GFI handles ground faults, of course, but that's almost not relevant in many cases, e.g. non-grounded equipment which is supposed to have an electrically isolated case. Of course you'll want GFI if you're in the habit of using your laptop in the bathtub, but in most cases arc-fault interruption would be even more desirable.
Imagine a world where you have overload protection in your device (e.g. laptop), in the power cord plug, in the circuit breaker panel; the breaker panel also provides arc and ground fault protection. People would *still* die from electrical faults in that world, although many fewer. If you assume everything works perfectly, you can install all your protection at the breaker panel. In fact, in such a perfect world, all you'd need is current overload protection at the panel, and the odd GFI here and there to protect the people who use their laptop in the bathtub. But in the real world, you can't count on anything working, as advertised, including any of the fancy stuff you install in the panel.
In any case, the outlets in the US design wear out too quickly, in my opinion. It's a lot like the original USB design, which was fine for plugging your printer in and leaving it plugged in for the life of your system or your printer. The plug was not designed for lots of connect/disconnect cycles.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Price of safety (Score:5, Informative)
The classic "baby sticking a fork in the socket and dying a sizzly death" scenario seems remarkably thin on the ground.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
UK plugs are quite a bit more sturdy -- you can't bend a prong on a UK mains plug with hand strength. They do take up a bit more wall space though.
The voltage isn't a trivial issue either. More volts to the wall means the house wiring doesn't need to carry as many amps and less fire/electrocution risk.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Informative)
I also am in awe that socket adapters are legally sold that convert non earthed sockets into earthed sockets and light bulb sockets into earthed sockets, the safety implications are huge. I think it is a fair assessment to use 110V non earth sockets as many home have them.
I also notice that no appliance I own in the USA uses insulation on the live pins of the plug to prevent accidental shocks when the plug is slightly out of the socket, none of the sockets contain safety shutters and that 110V cords to high wattage appliances such as vacuum cleaners get warm and the lights change brightness when I switch such appliances on and off. IMO the British home electrical system is much better than the USA system and I have tried to view it impartially over the years.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree that plenty of devices in the U.S. don't use a ground pin, but I've rarely seen appliances with no ground. Have you really seen a refrigerator or a microwave or something with no ground pin?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They sell 2-prong to 3-prong adapters because you typically attach the ground to the cover screw via a small prong or wire. Since ground and neutral are tied together in the breaker box, you have the same safety of the a 3-wire system in a 2-wire system, minus the redundancy of an extra ground.
The problem is people don't hook up ground adapter.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You're supposed to, but typically people don't. In fact, they overwhelmingly don't.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Funny)
This is so true - the UK plug is ridiculous (Score:5, Insightful)
I was going to just copy and paste in my older post titled "The UK plug is the nanny state run wild", but I can't find the damned thing.
The simple fact of the matter is that the pins on the US plug are so short that by the point it is far enough out of the socket to expose enough of the pins to touch them with your fingers, it's unplugged. No partially insulated pins or other wacky design contrivances are needed.
The UK plug appears to have originally been designed by someone who was laboring under the misunderstanding that they were designing a connector for welding equipment, not domestic appliances. It can safely carry 100A of current, if you replace the fuse with a solid link. Why? The plug contains a maximum 13A fuse and the ring main circuit in a UK home is limited to about 40A if I remember correctly. Why a 100A connector when it can only ever be supplied with 40A?
Shutters on the sockets are a very recent development in the US, and a probably just being copied from the UK for no other reason than shutter envy. There's no real demand for them, because Americans are somehow able to resist the temptation that apparently so often overcomes their British counterparts to stick things in the socket other than a plug.
When my family moved from the UK to the USA back in 1982, I thought the US plug was flimsy compared to the UK plugs I was used to. But, really, a Honda Civic looks flimsy compared to a Caterpillar bulldozer, but I know which one I'd buy to drive every day. (Yes, I have to get a car analogy in.)
A major advantage of the USA plug is that it's smaller - you can plug six appliances into a power strip and not have the power strip be the size of a house. If you have a laptop bag, the USA plug isn't some great big lump in the bag. The US plug is designed for its intended use, not designed to be safe even if being used by newborn babies to plug in their industrial welding equipment.
You might say, well, the US plug can't carry as much current for heavy loads. It's true that you can't get as much power through a single US plug as you can through a UK 13A plug, but that's because the voltage is higher. The US plug can carry 15A at 125V all day long. My wire feed welder works just fine plugged into a normal US 15A outlet - the plug doesn't even get warm.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Funny)
How many Americans have been killed, per year, by the 2" long plastic guns attached to those plastic GI Joe soldiers? Those are routinely confiscated at airports.
It must make you feel a great deal safer, knowing that plastic soldiers are not going to attack you during your next flight with their 2" long rifles.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Funny)
Man up.
If you can't handle a bit of unprotected metal carrying 110V and fake grounded adaptors you're not cut out for this continent.
110 vs 220 (Score:3, Insightful)
OTOH, 110 is far less likely to whack you on your ass if you DO get shocked!
Re:110 vs 220 (Score:5, Funny)
Lone Dragon
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, it seems that BS1363 allows non-earthed plugs also, quoting from wikipedia:
"Moulded plugs for unearthed, double-insulated appliances may substitute this contact with a non-conductive plastic pin to open the shutter." So, should a fair assessment include non-grounded plugs British plugs also?
As a native of the US, I find the items you point out incomprehensible, but acceptable just due to familiarity. I would absolutely love UL and the NFPA (the non-governmental bodies that, in reality, sets most of
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Appliances don't have to use the earth ground pin if they're double-insulated.
Yes, you can buy adaptors to eliminate the earth pin, but they have a loop that needs to be connected to the outlet plate screw, which needs to be grounded. If you don't use that, and there's a problem, it's your own fault. However, many older houses don't have 3-prong outlets and the system has no earth ground connection, so there's not much you can do. What would you suggest, every 50+ year old house being rewired? We're alr
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Informative)
US plugs are safer because they only carry 110v. That, in and of itself, makes US wiring safer. 220v is much more deadly than 110v. Since all of my appliances work just fine on 110v, in what way is 220v better?
From the stats I can find, UK deaths by electrical outlets are .486 per 100,000 and US rates are .015 per 100,000, more than an order of magnitude safer, even without massive numbers of safety features. I have grabbed live wires at a plug a few times in my life, and it just jolts your arm a little bit. I suppose it's possible to die that way, but I don't know anyone who has personally. I've never even heard of it in the US but I guess it does happen (faulty wiring in the home or workplace was included in the stats above). Bottom line, I am seriously not worried one bit about grabbing live outlet lines. It hurts a little, so I don't do it for fun, but I'm really not worried about dying or anything.
I like having very small (polarized) plugs for small appliances. Who wants to carry around a ginormous brick in your bag just to plug something in? For serious appliances like microwaves, there are serious 3-pronged grounded plugs. This gives options based on the appliance rather than a one-size-fits all system of massive plugs.
If my pins get bent, I just bend them back. This happens so infrequently, it's amazing that someone even mentioned it. Also, I have NEVER had a plug "fall out". Seriously? Fall out? If someone kicks it, I would RATHER it come out of the wall so they don't go flying head over heels and really injure themselves. I have lived in the US for almost 40 years now, and I can count on one hand the times a plug was kicked out or bent.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:4, Insightful)
From the stats I can find, UK deaths by electrical outlets are .486 per 100,000 and US rates are .015 per 100,000, more than an order of magnitude safer, even without massive numbers of safety features.
Does that include death by fires stared by electrical faults? I don't know the statistics, but anecdotally, household fires are alarmingly more common in the US than anywhere else I've lived.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Interesting)
I started doing that when I saw them installed consistently like that in an industrial situation, but I didn't fully understand the reason. I do know that plugs are less likely to pull out due to weight on the plug like that.
Finally I asked an electrician. He said the reason is that if something falls on the plug, pulls it partly out, and makes contact with the prongs, it hits the earthing pin first rather than possibly hitting the hot lead first.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Your electrician screwed up, but not badly. There's no real standard about which way they must face, but there is a convention: they usually look like a face. However, if the outlet is switched by a wall switch (usually for plugging in a table lamp and being able to turn it on from the switch by the door), the outlet is supposed to be inverted so it's obvious which outlet is switched.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Funny)
I haven't been able to read the article yet, but one thing which is definitely different between the US and UK plugs is that no US plug has a fuse in it.
Also, the US plugs are woefully inadequate for inflicting really serious injuries when stood on with bare feet.
Re:US vs UK... (Score:5, Insightful)
The British people are strangely proud of the ungainly BS 1363 plug [wikipedia.org]. No surprise at all that it won the comparison.
What is it with the Americans on here? The British people are not proud of their plugs, the British people take plugs for granted. It's not like there was a national vote on what plugs to use or anything.
To warp this into a issue of national pride is just wrong.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Depends on your criteria (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe it's just me, but at a certain point I WANT the plug to come out of the socket. I know I can't be the only person in the world who's tripped over a cord sometime over another, and the plug just yanking out of the socket is a lot better than the actual wire popping or the outlet coming out of the wall. It's the real-world equivalent of a fuse - when something is obviously wrong make the system break at the safest and most convenient point rather than somewhere random.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
God forbid safety comes before savings.
Why should safety vs savings be immune to a normal cost/benefit analysis?
How many people are significantly (or even mildly) injured due to the design of the standard US plug? How many fewer are injured with the UK plug? Now, how much does it cost a society (taking everything into account, from the cost a table lamp to the cost of a meal at a restaurant which uses appliances with these plugs) to mandate the use the UK plug over the US plug?
Safety over savings is a lau
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Swiss best design (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a pretty ingenious solution to the bulk problem of the UK plug: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6DvjKkGT6s [youtube.com]
Re:Europlug and the stupid British socket (Score:4, Insightful)
Except Insulated pins [wikimedia.org]
2) The European socket allows you to plug the cables upside down (which is extremely helpful in certain situations).
I've never need to do this. I don't think I've ever seen a European plug inverted either. Can't be that useful.
Honestly, the european plug is fine. So's the UK style. The article was stupid, but it's equally stupid getting upset over it.
Re:US Electrical system is better (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately, you'd be wrong on both accounts.
First of all, current kills, not potential difference (=voltage). Both 110 and 220V are plenty to overcome the resistance of the human body so from that perspective there's hardly a difference.
Secondly, many appliances can *really* do with 220V (actually, it's even 230V). For example: tumble dryer, oven (electrical), washing machine, dish washer, electrical stoves and basically anything that needs to heat water. Nearly all of those are manufactured to draw about 2000-2500W maximum, which makes for a current of about 10A (at 230V). Ovens and stoves may even draw much more - induction stoves can often draw about 7000W. Good luck doing that at 110V...
Re:US Electrical system is better (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, I said that in my post. It's not hiding:
Other appliances, generally those with electric heating elements (such as a range, water heater, furnace, machines such as a tablesaw) run off dedicated 220V circuits.
Every appliance you mention, with the exception of the washer (which receives hot water from the water heater) runs on 220V in the US.
Re:US Electrical system is better (Score:5, Informative)
Going to have to politely disagree here. Appliances such as coffee makers, toasters and electric kettles most certainly benefit from 220.
There's a reason you don't see many electric kettles in the U.S... they take longer than the stove to almost boil a pot of water, compared to the 20 seconds or so you get in the UK for a rolling boil.
I also quite like the switches on UK outlets, although the size of the sockets is somewhat ridiculous.
I'll never forget my first trip to London (about 15 years ago)... the flat I stayed in was in a 150 year old building. Switches on all the outlets, and a central touchscreen that controlled the AC, heat and scheduled the water heater to kick on and off. Hot water in the kitchen sink was on-demand (much like the "electric showers" you see in small flats now).
At the time, it was absolute magic to my teenage American brain, and I began wondering why we don't do more in the U.S. to curtail wasted power.
Then there was the ubiquitous gas broiler on every stove I came across...
But the combo washer-dryer deals that take 5 hours for a load suck. And they're generally in the kitchen for some reason.
Re:OMG Ponies! (Score:5, Funny)
Cuter than the Danish smiley? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:K_plug.jpg [wikipedia.org] ...didn't think so.
Re:What a BOGUS article (Score:4, Insightful)
That "current UK tech" *is* from 50 years ago - that's how our plugs have been for a very long time - since 1946 in fact. So 63 years.
We also have RCDs on our circuits in addition to fuses - Even the ancient house I live in has an RCD protecting the mains sockets and the light circuits.