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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

Wow, so self-delusion is alive and well in the UK!

"The only time its a slight issue"???

How about manufacturing, shipping, selling, storing, repairing, and paying for that overdesigned eyesore? How about looking at it? How about moving the couch out from the wall so the dang thing will fit back there?

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Those are all minor inconveniences compared with:

  * trip up a cable, and the plug falls out of the wall
    (Pulling a UK plug out required force. It will not pull out)
    Plus the cable exits a plug pointing downward, which
    means it will not pull out via the cable.
  * Sparks when you put a plug in or out.
  * Bent pins that look like they're about to drop off
  * No shielding on pins
  * Often no mechanism to stop things being put in sockets
    (All UK sockets only open once an earth pin has gone in

I wonder what the incidence of electrocution is in the UK vs US. I'm probably biased, but I certainly feel far safer here, especially having kids.

Trip on the cable, and the lamp falls off the table? Better? "Sparks"? Are you kidding?

Lamps seem very prevalent in the US. Why do most apartments I've been in not have ceiling lights? WTF? When I lived in the US I'd go in a room and spend a while finding 4 lamps and turning them on. Same in hotels.

Also, when you decide to put a lamp somewhere, you typically make sure the cable is not somewhere that can be tripped up.

But as I say, all rooms in the UK come with a fitted ceiling light, and a light switch by the door. So lamps are less common.

Even though I currently live in a U.S. apartment where the main rooms have no light fixtures (though they do have switched outlets), past experience hasn't shown a trend of not having light fixtures. Additionally, newer construction seems to have more fixtures, not less. This thread seems to be a circus of alternately overstating and understating problems though, so I'd take it with a huge grain of salt.

Way to miss the point.

Ok, the alarm clock. or the hair dryer (into the bathtub! Yay!) or the wireless access point...

So you're saying that if you trip over the cord while your hair dryer is plugged into an American socket, it doesn't fall off of whatever ledge it's on? Do you use an industrial hair dryer or something?

Gravity works differently in the US.

Sockets do not exist in bathrooms. If they do, they're special 'shaver' sockets purely for electric razors.

Hairdryers are usually used in bedrooms.

The last time I tripped over a cable was..... years ago. I can't even remember doing it. It's not an issue we have.

> Sockets do not exist in bathrooms.

Yes, they do. (The UK, or even Europe, is not the whole world.)

> Hairdryers are usually used in bedrooms.

Hairdryers are used in bathrooms if there's a plug in the bathroom.

Yes, I have been talking about the UK for this thread. Perhaps I should have been clearer.

Sockets do not exist in bathrooms in the UK.

Just FYI, the US NEC requires each entryway of a room in a dwelling to have a switch which can control a light.

It is usually, but does not have to be, an overhead light.

An alternative that is also code-conforming is to have the switch control a socket (typically, the bottom plug in several duplex receptacles in the room) where a lamp is plugged in. Sometimes people don't actually plug a lamp in there, so the switch does nothing, and maybe that's what you've been irritated by.

If the wiring is done this way -- e.g., bedrooms and living rooms -- it can be quite flexible if you want to rearrange the room layout. You move the furniture and plug the lamp into the bottom receptacle where-ever it is convenient and sensible.

> I wonder what the incidence of electrocution is in the UK vs US. I'm probably biased, but I certainly feel far safer here, especially having kids.

Cars kill 100 times more people than electrocution (not to mention severe injuries, which are rare for electrocutions), so they're probably a more important risk to worry about. Any slight difference in car accidents is going to swamp electrical concerns.

He was asking about rates on electrocution. Not asking how electrocution compares to car wrecks.

The latest source that I could find said that 400 people died of electrocution in 200, down from 670 in 1990.

I wasn't able to find any information on the UK. However, being from the US, I'd probably bet your wiring over there is safer.

http://www.cpsc.gov/library/electro.pdf

I just meant that as far as comparing the US to the UK for feeling safer (his words), electrocution concerns are pretty trivial. Unless he spends an unusual amount of time near wall sockets or suffers from an acute case of electrophobia.

I've also experienced UK drivers vs US drivers.... God I feel much safer here ;)

Yes but what about the Schuko?

  > * trip up a cable, and the plug falls out of the wall
  >  (Pulling a UK plug out required force. It will not pull out)
  >  Plus the cable exits a plug pointing downward, which
  >  means it will not pull out via the cable.

This one is a mixed bag (trip up a cable, throw the expensive grandma lamp to the ground).

  >  * Sparks when you put a plug in or out.

Not at all. Euro plugs earth pin always makes contact first.

  > * Bent pins that look like they're about to drop off

Bent pins? UK plugs are only marginally sturdier.

  >  * No shielding on pins

What use is it?

  >  * Often no mechanism to stop things being put in sockets
  >  (All UK sockets only open once an earth pin has gone in

All euro sockets have plastic spring-loaded linked stoppers that prevent accidental insertion of random stuff into the holes, and insertion of anything in only one hole (you need to push both sides together).

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