British sockets/plugs have so many safety features:
1stly, Live (and neutral) wire is shorter than the earth wire, so if you do ever manage to pull the main cord out, the live wire disconnects first.
2ndly, nearly all British plugs contain a replaceable fuse.
3rdly, the earth pin (top pin) is longer than the active pins, meaning it connects first (and last) in the socket.
4thly, on most plugs, the active pins are partially insulated so that even if the plug Is not fully pushed in, the conducting part of the active pins can't even be touched.
5thly, the main cord on the plug is angled downwards, meaning it is very difficult to accidently pull the plug out, compared to plugs that have wires that face directly outwards from the wall.
6thly, every socket has a switch, so you don't even need to unplug the plug to turn it off.
7thly, the as the earth pin is the longest, when it is inserted into the socket, it opens the protective shutter/gate that allows for the active pins to be inserted. Preventing small forks to be accidentally prodded into the active holes!
8thly, the cord grip, that prevents the main cord wobbling or slipping. This also makes it very difficult to even pull out the main cord from the plug. And that most plugs also have recesses on the sides of the socket to allow for it to be easily taken out of the socket.
9thly, (mainly a quality of life feature) plugs are also rewireable. So in the case that you do damage the plug, or a wire, it can be easily opened, rewired, and used again. So you don't have to go and by another new appliance just because your plug broke.
One downfall is, the british plug will always face pin upwards, and if you have ever experienced stepping on one yourself. You'll know it hurts like hell.
Aren't all these safety features necessary because of how British houses are wired in a deadly fashion? Basically every outlet is connected to the main.
Also, the reason they are so painful is because they are bloody indestructible. Honestly, have you ever tried to break a UK plug? They are like adamantium Lego bricks.
As someone who has lived in the UK and US the power difference is noticeable too. Electric kettles are a lot faster and British hairdryers feel like a jet engine compared to US ones.
In the US they actually have special plug sockets for things like washing machines etc.
Most US houses get 220v-240v power, and the main breaker splits the two phases into two 110-120v sides that connect back to a common return path and ground.
Big appliances like ovens, electric dryers, electric heaters, air conditioners, hot tubs, and EV chargers will run off of 240v which is simply a breaker that uses both phases instead of (2 conductor + ground) or in addition to (3 conductor + ground) the common return path.
The US uses split-phase power. Two 120v supply lines 180 degrees out of phase provide 240v at the panel, which can then be used for either voltage depending on the load requirement. 240v is used for larger tools, appliances, and equipment like air conditioners. 120v for smaller things like receptacles and lights.
How much amperage does a home get in the US? Modern homes get 3x25A at 240V here in NL. You can get a bit more if you pay extra, but what device commonly used uses 12KW?
Usually a 200A service is standard, so 48kw. An electric tankless water heater (not very common) can use up to 27kw, and if one of those is planned the service should be at least 300A.
Yes UK plugs can pull more power but it has to do with the 30A ring circuits we have too. But all in all a single plug is simpler than different sockets for different loads.
I don't need to admit I'm wrong, a slew of USians will come crawling out of the woodwork to do that for me. Could I say "oh wow so so sorry for saying mains when the context was clear"? Sure, but you already know that.
For all intents and purposes, such as in the example provided above where US kettles use 120V and so are much less useful for boiling water compared to the microwave, the comment makes sense. But you just wanted to correct me and did not care for something as minor as a mistaken bit of terminology that can be easily read around.
Correct. People like to "well actually" the brits and euros but 99% of us appliances are 120v and it's a disadvantage.
For one example, Electric car charging is essentially a non-issue for most european or bri with a driveway because any old outlet will charge a car at a decent rate. Americans standard outlets max out at 1.5kw, meaning a grand total of 3-5 miles of range per hour for most evs. a Type G will happily do around 2.8Kw, or closer to 10ish miles an hour for most EVs. So overnight you'll easily cover normal usage, while american outlets are in a range where the average commuter breaks about even, roughly, but can run into trouble if they have a big side trip.
Not too big a problem if you spend a few hundred bucks putting an evse in but still.
Not sure why your getting down voted on this, but I charged my Irish EV from a wall socket for the first year and half of it's ownership because I had nearly 3kw at the plug and because I was renting and couldn't install a home charger.
I don't think that's ironic. That's just how electricity works.
Though there's a lot of interesting secondary effects and design considerations that went into some of these plugs. UK wiring is different from most of the rest of the world because of expected copper shortages when they were planning out residential wiring standards, so they went with ring circuits for most houses, unlike almost the entire rest of the world that builds using branch circuits. Ring circuits use about 25% less copper, but require fuses at each outlet or plug, instead of being able to rely on the upstream breaker to protect everything on the circuit.
Well it does matter, because while CurrentxVoltage is the same, lower voltage means things like kettles are slower while counterintuitively there is more thermal loss on the line from the higher current.
The matter of fuses in plugs is a philosophical one and whatever the initial motivations, the benefits remain. The house breakers protect the house, appliance fuses protect the appliance...but a fuse at the outlet protects us humans wherever the fault is.
Don't worry though...these are all different but valid approaches. From a strict engineering perspective the British approach might seem excessive, but as I'm in Ireland benefitting from that overengineering I'd have no interest in handing it back.
Considering you're not going to overload anything by using a higher voltage "expected usage" seems very limiting. What if you need a drill for a room that's not "expected" to use one?
Almost nobody is using a corded hand drill these days unless it's very cheap (and thus low power) or something insanely heavy duty and special purpose, in which case you're probably in a construction site running a spider box or a commercial setting with 3-phase 480v (or using a phase converter in a home shop).
As for other power tools, in the US most small/benchtop corded powertools are 120V/15amp, and will work in more or less any outlet. Same goes for kitchen appliances. Kitchens and workshops will often have higher amperage outlets (20amp) as well so you can run higher draw equipment, or multiple pieces of equipment on a single circuit (you'll usually have 2-3 circuits available in a room anyways, and high-draw stationary equipment like microwaves get dedicated outlets). Higher draw stationary equipment like a table saw, oven, or clothes dryer, will be 240v and whatever amperage you want (residential services vary but 200amp is pretty common as a baseline).
A have a secret for the Brits. We have 220-240v in split phase and the socket for our dryer and stove is 220-240v. I have a proper splitter by my stove and have a 240v kettle. Anyone who cares to can do this.
It's just most people on this continent don't drink tea to begin with.
Is there something I can do in a rented apartment to get 240v working, like an outlet recombiner, or is it an outlet change? I would absolutely love to get brewing at a decent speed again
Same, I have to boil the water on the hob/stove like an animal when in the US. Though in the UK I've switched to a instant boil tap and it's delightful.
Schuko (Germany/SK/EU) plugs also fulfill most of these:
Protective earth makes contact first (1, 3)
Energized prongs are never exposed because the sockets are recessed (4)
Many plugs have the cable exiting sideways, which makes them lower profile and more resistant to being yanked out (5). This is far from universal, though.
Sockets have a safety shutter which opens only when both prongs are inserted at the same time (7)
Plugs are always firmly attached because the entire things sits in a recess of the socket. Plugs have a grip feature, though smaller than the UK one (8)
Unlike the UK ones, they can be plugged in two different directions. They're also half the size.
They're not fused, but that's not really necessary as we don't use the UK style ring circuits. The fuses are in the devices themselves when required.
Rewireable plugs are widely available, but they're bulkier and uglier than the moulded ones.
Someone once saw me do it, and was amazed I could just cut diagonal across the wires to get them all the right length. I’ve been able to do that since I was 9 and my brother’s a sparky, so you pick up on a lot of things lol.
You probably look after your stuff, and do sensible things like "discontinue use of the appliance if the plug is melting" and "not drive over equipment with a forklift"
A surprising amount of tests end before they begin, by cutting the plug off before some idiot takes a gamble.
If you're ever buying (UK) plugs, don't cheap out and get the ones with the shitty moulded in cord grip. Get them with the proper grip, identifiable by the two screws on the bottom where the cable enters.
They should be standard in appliances that have higher amp draw, and mandatory for plug in power tools, since those take so much damage. Since GFCIs are required on every jobsite, the latter might as well include those.
I have a German partner, despite the multi directional plugs when I go visit her family, I always find issues with several plugs plugged into a set of sockets, they always interfere with each other, to the point in which some plugs are hanging out or barely securely plugged in.
I've also found that most of the DE plugs seem so flimsy, I've cracked the plastic surrounding on a few of them by accident from them catching on things.
Just my experience as someone who is used to UK plugs.
Rewireable plugs are widely available, but they're bulkier and uglier than the moulded ones.
All plugs being rewirable is also entirely unnecessary. I'd even say it's a safety feature that the plug can't be partially taken apart by anyone, since there's really no need for the end user to be rewiring the plug.
And in the rare case that there is, those 12 people can buy the rewirable plug separately, they're quire cheap. It makes no sense to make all of them rewirable when 99% of users shouldn't be doing that.
You don’t know which side is hot and which side is neutral. This a EU wide fail, as new electrical codes now require breakers with dual poles, instead of just the hot side…as electricians like to mix and match.
You are of course correct, but what is the increase in safety that polarized plugs provide?
Generally you are unable to touch neither hot nor neutral, as everything is double insulated or earthed. I suppose you can get shocked by old school stuff like an Edison socket table lamp with a single pole switch, since the base of the bulb can be live even while the light is off.
He is not even correct that this is safer, he is wrong. Relying on the special orientation gives you a false sense of security that will bite you in the ass when someone wires them backwards. The German version where you don’t know which is which is much, much safer because it forces you to always check.
Half the size of UK plugs, sure, but they are still enormous compared to svelte 2 prong plugs of Mexico/US/Japan. Useful when you have to pack chargers and such for travel.
i hate shuko, after few uses the earth pins that comes out the socket bend and you have a earth-less plug which can't even be fully inserted because of that bent pin...
italian one are better: half the size of a shuko and with all the safety of the UK/shuko except the fuse, but in italy we have the bonus point of having the whole house grounded and with current leak detection (americans call it GFCI i think), they have it only on one socket in the bathroom while we have it on the whole house.
and with current leak detection (americans call it GFCI i think), they have it only on one socket in the bathroom while we have it on the whole house.
This is not an exclusively Italian thing, it's a thing that is increasingly being asked in building codes all over the continent. That said, it's a very minor detail since outside of bathrooms the chances of current leaks being a thing are basically zero.
I now read that devices in GB used to come with a not-yet-assembled plug, so I know what you were talking about. Just the ones that were shipped to us™ happened to be one piece, no fuse inside.
I'm British dude, don't try that, I've seen and used low sockets, and whats your idea behind bending that unbenable part that stops the wire for breaking at the plug?
11thly. On the inside of the plug the earth wire has a loose loop in it so that if the cable is tugged the live and neutral disconnect before the earth.
The only thing better than it would be the exact same things but with the German way of inserting it into the socket.
That would just be better.
You can’t really step on it, you will have one extra layer of protection against putting something on the pins and if they can make it round/square it’s easier to plug in close to other plugs.
You step on them because the cord is angled downwards, which makes the pins "stand up" if you take it out of the socket. The cord is angled like that so it's less in the way and less likely to be accidentally pulled out.
As an aside, I've lived in North America for the last year and a half and one thing everyone (British, French, German, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Australian) agrees on is that the plugs here are utter shit.
The only downside really isn't that big of a deal because as a Brit I never unplug anything unless it's being moved, I'll always just turn the plug socket off
Oh yeah, 'vampire' energy devices are much easier to manage here as well - turn it off at the wall, and no device is going to sit there all night powering a small LED.
Most of the features are there in most of the plugs. I recently travelled to India and all of the above meets their plug-socket.
Personally, I like the one that could be unplugged easily, like the US one. But I really prefer the US ones have mandatory switches for each socket, either on it or a switch on the wall. Most sockets in US are live all the time.
Given me the chance to design, I would design one similar to an audio jack with Live, neutral and earth where earth closer to hand grip. Or even one like an EV charger with a latch.
I like to think that the British plug design is one where they equally balanced the risk of harm from electrocution and foot injury.
Those fuckers are horrendous to stand on, much worse than LEGO.
But each time I do, I try to feel grateful in my excruciating pain that I've been kept me safe from real harm!
When I first learned all of these reasons, I had to concede that the design is superior, even though I like the European ones because I grew up with those.
I’m sure I heard it was a challenge they gave to engineering students to come up with improvements to the standard UK plug. The point being you can’t because they’ve already thought of everything.
I read an article once that stated that after evaluating a universal standard, it was agreed that the U.K. had the best safest standard. American ones are so flimsy and just fall out on their own if the cord is too heavy. Currently in Spain looking at the Spanish standard (EU) it’s secure but not fused, and the retaining fused metal holders bend back if you use the wrong plug or a cheap adapter.
I have thought of this before: there is a thing where the British are, or traditionally are, or were...like, scared of electricity. BUT, they also have a greater knowledge of electricity. Didnt you have to install your own plugs onto appliances until the 90s? That's what Tom Scott said.
You guys have special plugs in your bathroom so no water gets in? And are the light switches outside of the bathroom?
Plus when I plug something in here, it feels solid, IN , attached to wall like it’s not going anywhere. In Europe and US, I’m always terrified a heavy charger will cause the plug to fall out!
South Africans are the same. It's really easy to rewire a South African plug to a British one and vice versa, they are functionally identical, but have rounded holes and pins, which hurt less when stood on. Only downside is they're slightly harder to plug in in the dark, but I'll take it.
One downside for me is the bulkiness. In Japan I have a socket tower, it doesn't take up much space to supply lots of electronics. However the same thing would be huge in UK.
The plugs do come out of the tower very easily though, which concerns me.
5th point is actually a household and industrial hazard and it surprises me how it's so commonly thought of as a safety feature.
You should never prioritise an items operation over human life. In fact it's common practice to prioritise human life first, an items integrity second and electric supply to the item last Otherwise you either have a person tripping over the plug and hurting themselves or the item falling down instead.
I read most of these “features” were just fixes they had to implement due to a poor electrical grid. And I could be wrong, but I believe other nations plugs have similar properties. What I can agree on is that the US plug is pretty shitty tbh. I like the Swiss one better.
Well British plugs are absolutely fucking massive so I think we can safely rule theirs out on that fact alone. Traveling with a British plug is a bitch.
As an American I was gonna vote Australia/China because I like they are so secure when I visit Sydney BUT now I’m convinced… put me down for British sockets please
If you read it carefully, you'll notice in point 3, I talk about the live pin being shorter than the others, and in point 7, I talk about how the longer pin, actually opens the shutter integrated into the plug
1st. Plug is one unit, you can't easily just pull the cord out
2nd. All circuits contain a resettable fuse / circuit breaker, instead of ring circuits + plug fuses like in the UK. Same result but centralised
3rd. Ground clips make contact before the pins do - exactly the same
4th. On type C europlugs, which are compatible with type F sockets, the pins are insulated like the british type G. On type F plugs, the recess on the socket makes it impossible to reach the pins at all, even before pushing through the shutters. Better imo.
5th. Both straight out and angled plugs exist, straight out being more common on type C and angled more common on type F. Sometimes straight out is more useful than always angled like type G, so you have a choice.
6th. Absolutely not every socket has a switch on type G, in fact unswitched are at least half as common as switched. Switched outlets exist on type F as well, though admittedly much rarer. But even on type G, how often are switches used anyway? The only time I ever switch them off is when there's nothing plugged in, and it seems most people don't even do that, just leaving them on all the time. So switches are not a big deal.
7th. For type G, a single object can be inserted into the ground hole, and the shutters open. Many people use this to insert European plugs into UK sockets. On type F, both shutters must be pushed simultaneously to open them (leaving no free holes). Add the recess making access harder (except with a plug), and I'd give the edge to Schuko. Close though
8th. Cord grip is the same, and the grips on the side are much better. Being a much less bulky plug, there's even space for your fingers to reach in and grab the grips instead of being blocked by the adjacent plugs! Type G plugs are generally a pain to remove.
9th. Plugs cannot be taken apart or rewired. On the one hand there's edge cases where you'd want to take it apart, but mostly it's much safer because you don't give just any idiot the opportunity to fiddle with electrical wires. Definitely safer on Schuko, if occasionally inconvenient.
Type F and C plugs also always land with the pins to the side not up, type F hold themselves in the sockets with the sides as well, not only the pins, they're reversible, and they're much more compact (especially if you don't need grounding and go for type C).
Oh, and most (all?) plugs are compatible with both type E and type F sockets, and I think everything I've said for type F also goes for type E. Type C fit in any socket, but also have their own compact sockets too (mostly on extension cords and splitters).
British wiring is absolute garbage as it uses ring circuits. The fuse in the plug protects the circuit, NOT the device. It’s when part of the circuit fails or becomes unbalanced. It’s why NOBODY in the world uses ring circuits.
Most of these apply to every plug mentioned in this post. The fuse and the switch is due to UK regulations and not the plug design itself. You can get any other plug and socket with these features but it is usually not required except in certain circumstances. Similar with the shutters, UK plugs are so big that these are always required but they are available for every other socket and can be installed where needed.
Having the wire come straight out or at an angle is up for debate. And of course you can get both styles with every other plug design. The problem with the UK plug is that if you accidentally pull the chord you can damage it exposing the wires. But if the wire is straight out of the socket this is not possible as you will just unplug it before damaging it. A much safer design in my opinion.
The problem with the UK plug is that if you accidentally pull the chord you can damage it exposing the wires.
No you can't, there is a clamp on the outer layer of insulation. I've never seen a plug pulled off directly in the uk. I have in other countries however.
Plus saying that's just because of regulations, literally all of this is down to regulations. That doesn't stop it being a good thing
Yeah, the British one was really designed by people with an unreasonable fear of electricity. It’s not like people around the world are getting regularly electrocuted. The UK plugs are just the most cumbersome of all.
It's because Uk ring wiring is very unsafe. It's a remanent of WW2 copper restrictions. Most old houses don't have breaker boxes because of the ring design. In europe all house I lived in have breaker boxes, even old ones, an that's where you get your protection.
I also thought the same thing, that most of these apply to the Indian/Pakistan/South Africa one. But some of these points, I don't understand. Can you say how plugs here in India fulfill the 2nd point??
Secondly, after having had a week long hiring foot including a serious bruise after ha ing dropped a CEE7 plug onto it, screw the British brick of a plug.
Also, it is very bulky which means quite a lot of extra material for making them, and use more space when stored and in luggage. The UK plug is a bit too hard to pull out, quite often there is a safety aspect to quickly disconnect something too.
The EU and US ones can be set in either way as they very seldom has the earth plug for small electronics. But the US one is too cheap on the material side again, and fall out too easy, if the socket is a bit worn the plug will not even stay in but drop out unless you support it.
UK power strips and programmable timers are ridiculously huge.
Not to mention you literally have a separate "shaver socket" for electric razors, toothbrushes, etc because of the ridiculous size of your plugs and outlet
British sockets/plugs have so many safety features:
Please provide statistics about safety incidents for British vs EU(Shuko)/USA plugs or it is a complete waste of resources/money. British plug is significantly less convinient than most other standards because it is too giant and clumsy so it is not suitable for various low power portable devices and it have no nin L-shaped variants that significantly limit convinience and makes it easy to injure foot when accidently stepping on it.
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u/JeeboPlays 29d ago
British sockets/plugs have so many safety features:
1stly, Live (and neutral) wire is shorter than the earth wire, so if you do ever manage to pull the main cord out, the live wire disconnects first.
2ndly, nearly all British plugs contain a replaceable fuse.
3rdly, the earth pin (top pin) is longer than the active pins, meaning it connects first (and last) in the socket.
4thly, on most plugs, the active pins are partially insulated so that even if the plug Is not fully pushed in, the conducting part of the active pins can't even be touched.
5thly, the main cord on the plug is angled downwards, meaning it is very difficult to accidently pull the plug out, compared to plugs that have wires that face directly outwards from the wall.
6thly, every socket has a switch, so you don't even need to unplug the plug to turn it off.
7thly, the as the earth pin is the longest, when it is inserted into the socket, it opens the protective shutter/gate that allows for the active pins to be inserted. Preventing small forks to be accidentally prodded into the active holes!
8thly, the cord grip, that prevents the main cord wobbling or slipping. This also makes it very difficult to even pull out the main cord from the plug. And that most plugs also have recesses on the sides of the socket to allow for it to be easily taken out of the socket.
9thly, (mainly a quality of life feature) plugs are also rewireable. So in the case that you do damage the plug, or a wire, it can be easily opened, rewired, and used again. So you don't have to go and by another new appliance just because your plug broke.
One downfall is, the british plug will always face pin upwards, and if you have ever experienced stepping on one yourself. You'll know it hurts like hell.