Re: [89attendees] Mystery Power Outlet

[Elwyn Davies <[e-mail]>]

On 03/03/14 10:27, DRAGE, Keith (Keith) wrote:
> Conversly, the removal friction is probably caused by the large contact area of the pins, which means you can draw the rated current without it getting warm.
>
> Try drawing 13A out of the UK square pin plug and see how warm it gets.
>
> Way back when I was at college, the power feed for the disco lighting used to be an ad-hoc arrangement of 2 5A sockets through which we used to regularly draw 30A, with no sign of them getting hot at all.
<electrical "engineering" geekery on> The reason why UK square pin plugs 
all have
fuses is that the sockets are wired in rings (makes domestic 
installation cheaper) that are wired and fused for 30amp total load (and 
the original story was that you were only supposed to get some very low 
temperature rise on the wiring).  Assumes the average householder isn't 
going to plug in 10kW of appliances in a couple of rooms at once 
('diversity').  Of course disco drivers and other lighting operators 
worked out that you could draw 30amp from a standard double socket using 
two paralleled plugs with no problems (give or take some jobsworth 
health and safety baboon).  The downside is that the scope for melting 
your screwdriver/knife is quite considerable.

The 15amp round pin version of the (2 amp)  'mystery socket' is still 
the default option in theatres where circuits are individually 
controlled, bits of electrical string chained together, etc so that 
having 10 fused plugs in the chain could be really irritating.

Bring back the stackable Wylex plug!!!
<... off>

Regards,
Elwyn


>
> Keith
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: 89attendees [mailto:[e-mail]] On
>> Behalf Of Warren Kumari
>> Sent: 03 March 2014 10:16
>> To: Ole Jacobsen
>> Cc: Ben Campbell; [e-mail]
>> Subject: Re: [89attendees] Mystery Power Outlet
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 10:06 AM, Ole Jacobsen
>> <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>> Yes, this is generally described as the "old" British outlet. There
>>> are (at least) 3 version of this, see
>>> http://www.yikes.com/~ole/plugs/plugs-uk-r.jpg for a picture.
>>>
>>> The one you are talking about is on the LEFT in this picture and is
>>> still the official standard in India. The monster in the
>> middle is the
>>> standard one used in South Africa.
>> Yeah. The South African plugs had a tendency to get stuck in
>> the sockets. This left you with 2 options:
>> 1: Grabbing the plug, pulling as hard as you could, while
>> wiggling it and muttering choice SA swearwords. This would
>> usually result in the back of the plug coming off, leaving
>> you looking at the pins and wires or
>> 2: Jamming something between the plug and the socket and
>> trying to lever it out (also while muttering swearwords). I
>> discovered the hard way why you should use something
>> non-conductive for this purpose. 15A at 220V will happily
>> vaporize a knife blade, causing a monster big bang, and the
>> person performing this to soil himself...
>>
>> W
>>
>>
>>> So, why would you find one in "modern" Britain? Well, usually these
>>> round-pin outlets are used for such thing as lights (lamps)
>> where the
>>> ciruit is not designed to carry the full 13 amps of a normal outlet.
>>> These outlets are often switched and often hooked up to dimmer
>>> controls, in summary: designed to prevent you from plugging
>> in normal
>>> stuff.
>>>
>>> Having said that, I always carry an adapter for this type
>> of outlet,
>>> comes handy for stuff like CPAP machines etc, but do check that it
>>> isn't associated with a dimmer switch!
>>>
>>> Brits on this list will now chime in and tell you that I am
>> wrong and
>>> that these plugs/sockets are obsolete, but that really is not the
>>> case. The are installed in modern buildings in Britain
>> every day, but
>>> usually to prevent you from plugging your devices in --- airline
>>> lounges are prime examples of such torture.
>>>
>>> Ole
>>>
>>> Ole J. Jacobsen
>>> Editor and Publisher
>>> Home: [phone]
>>> Cell: [phone]
>>> Japan Docomo: [phone]
>>> UK Orange: [phone]
>>> E-mail: [e-mail]
>>> URL: http://organdemo.info
>>> Skype: organdemo
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, 3 Mar 2014, Ben Campbell wrote:
>>>
>>>> My room has one power outlet that I don't recognize. It's
>> the only available outlet near the nightstand, where I
>> generally like to plug my phone.  I thought it was a UK style
>> outlet, but my adapter does not fit. On close inspection, it
>> appears to have 3 round holes. The rectangular pins in my
>> adapter won't fit.  It's otherwise the same layout.
>>>> Any idea what this is?
>>>>
>>>> My euro adapters would fit, except it appears to be gated on the
>>>> ground pin. (Fortunately, none of the _normal_ UK plugs in my room
>>>> are gated, so I can use the euro adapters in them.)
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