Random thought... has anyone ever seen hotels (eg in 'British tourist' areas) where they fit British sockets instead of/in addition to local ones? I wonder if there's a particular reason for not doing this (maybe they're against code?) other than cost/can't be bothered/not thinking of it.
Theo
snip
The charger might accept a wide range of input AC Volts, but its output is fixed, 9V DC @ (up to) 1 Amp.
The phone wanted 4.5 V DC & got 9 V DC instead.
100% over volts kills the phone & if you're dead unlucky the charger is knackered by the excess current drain.
Not quite the same but I was working on a cruise ship which was being refitted. After the refit the vessel was going to operate cruises aimed at a British clientele and one of the things that was changed in the passenger cabins were the power sockets,I think they were Schuko before and British BS 1363 sockets were installed in place of them. As it was in a German yard I expect the Schukos were reused elsewhere. The voltage was 220.Some ships will have a mixture of 220volts often a Schuko and US type at 110 Volt. Frequency on most reasonably modern ships will be 60Hz even on the 220 sockets and that includes the British shaped ones. Not that much of a problem for most items taken on board by passengers which will mainly be things with universal chargers like cameras. Some hairdryers will run faster.Doubt anyone takes a portable cassette player anymore though it was often crew who were caught out with personal stuff like portable stereos.
G.Harman
If it uses the same input cable for (effectively) battery and mains, what connector is on the other end?
The various input plugs (Various mains plugs, cigar lighter and aircraft connection) each have a moulded in female standard figure 8 connector, with a flat side on the DC versions, so it looks more like a B. The flying input lead has a matching shrouded male capital B shaped connector moulded onto the end, so the DC plugs can't be inserted with the wrong polarity. It's got more official approval marks on it than you can shake a stick at, and IIRC, came from a shop on Tottenham Court Road many years ago. Or possibly Maplin.
I'm sure I've seen 400Hz on aircraft... don't recall the voltage though.
Andy
The reason for 400Hz is that it permits higher power in smaller motors and lighter construction of alternators for the same power output. 400Hz motors can run close to 8x faster than 50 Hz motors.
The light bulb is almost $3000, with a life of 300 hours...
They don't seem to sell the light bulb for that one at all.
The Citizen M Amsterdam Zuid has 1 UK 13 amp socket (& several Schuko sockets) in each room.
Oh, & Malta generally... ;-)
Why the 60Hz out of curiosity? Royal Navy vessels have both round pin 5A and 15A sockets labelled 115V and 13A sockets labelled 240V, both at 60Hz. The only thing I remember was plugged into the 15A in our mess was a Numatic vac, whereas irons and personal kit all run via the 13A sockets.
Can't stand all these Chinese socket bodging adapters - plenty of foreign students use then in uni for laptops. Why can't they buy a genuine UK IEC C7 or C5 lead and stop destroying the wall sockets by ramming in all sorts of 13A approximations?
Don't know really.
60Hz is a NATO standard for the participants warships and I suppose that is because "you know who" has the most vessels plus post WW2 a lot of them bought up ex US tonnage to rebuild their Naval fleets. I wonder if that explains it's adoption by merchant fleets with all those Liberty and Victory ships being bought up all over the place after WW2, but then I'm assuming they were AC and not DC. Purely speculation on my part I'd reckon the US used AC and the UK construction stuck with DC till it was too late by which time American practice had become established for Marine use despite the 50Hz being more widespread on land around the globe. There is also the argument some 60Hz equipment can be smaller/lighter than the 50Hz equivalent but on most tonnage it wouldn't be a factor that was that important.G.Harman
Interesting theories. As previously stated by others, it's of no real consequence - a laptop power supply doesn't care whether the frequency is 50 or 60Hz.
True, but I've heard that using some American domestic appliances with motors in the UK (on a transformer for the right voltage) can cause them to wear out very quickly.
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