British style sockets/plugs are the best. I find that two pin plugs are always falling out of the sockets.
I just had my house in Vietnam fitted out with universal sockets that will accept all plugs tyoes. Life changing decision.
I just had my house in Vietnam fitted out with universal sockets that will accept all plugs tyoes. Life changing decision.
European plugs (especially German style) are far superior, and European two pin plugs never fall off sockets. That is only a problem with US plugs.
I'd choose UK plugs over US plugs any day of the week, but I still think EU plugs are 10x better than UK.
I, at least, try and dispose of any non-plastic-coated plugs though.
The reason for a fuse is because of the high current capacity of ring circuits vs branch/radial. The fuse protects the power cable of appliances catching fire as they can’t handle the current available on the circuit .
Ring circuits are a thing due to minimizing copper usage when rebuilding after ww2.
Fuse: I'm not familiar with ring circuits and everything you mentioned, though I was aware it's for fires. Other places (and the UK as well in most apartments I had) have centralized fuse boxes. Is this still needed?
Either way, these are reasons for why things were done the way they were done, but reasons aside, the usability is inferior.
Sadly it carried on for far too long, my house built in the nineties has it.
The wiring system was designed during world war II when there was a copper shortage and someone calculated that it used less to use larger conductors to several sockets than to run smaller individual ones to each socket.
“Just baby proof” means remembering to keep those little plastic covers in place in every outlet. That doesn’t seem like superior usability.
Child protected schuko sockets exist and work just fine. We have them installed in our place and I never had an issue with them. Neither do things fall out, nor can you poke at them with a screwdriver.
One common complaint I get from my newly arrived expat colleagues is that their PC gives them slight electric shocks when they use it. IANAE (I am not an electrician), but I assume that this is because of some capacitor voodoo in the PC's power supply. The problem is cured by grounding the assembly.
The British plug/socket embodies the British ethos: nanny state, 'cannot be too careful' etc. In British parlance it is 'belt and braces'. But yes I agree it may be overkill.
In absolute terms, yes. But in 30 years I have never seen a 2-pins europlug fall from a socket on its own. I still prefer the French plugs with the Earth pin (and I quite like the British one as well), but europlugs are fine and really not comparable to American plugs.
If you have, then why was it unplugged? A plug should be plugged in (in which case it is safe) or it is superfluous.
I've managed to struggle through to the age of 54 without treading on one of our thrusting tri-pronged plugs. It is surprisingly easy to avoid stepping on them.
It’s really not that complicated and I’d feel completely comfortable doing it myself today but I understand how that may not be true for everyone so the requirement is probably reasonable.
That said, you're theoretically supposed to do a full set of earth resistance measurements etc. on the new wiring, which is hard if not impossible unless you've got proper electrician's test equipment. But in reality no one does that when DIYing it.
The flat back of most plugs increased the risk of standing on this type of plug. It's similar to the experience of standing on Lego, except it will dig much deeper into your foot, and falling over is better than putting all of your weight on it.
It can be a common occurrence, because using an extension cord or an appliance you don't always need to have plugged in can just be laying around. And kids aren't known for being tidy. If you managed to get past being a clumsy kid and had the self awareness to avoid it, props to you.