Can anyone recommend a converter to change a double socket to a triple (or bigger?!) socket please?
I'm looking for the type where the existing double socket is actually removed and the converter wired in if that makes sense.
I know the ideal solution is to cut in a new double and extend the ring but a slipped disc in my back means I want the easiest option for approx 6 sockets even if it costs more.
There seems to be plenty of singles to doubles but nothing to convert a double.
Note that this is fused and the fuse carrier is at the left end. Therefore you need approx. 60/70mm of free wall to the left of the existing socket. That should allow for the extra width of this (as against a standard double) plus some space for the fuse carrier to open. It also ends up somewhat more proud of the wall than a standard socket - about 20mm.
(There is also a single-to-double in the same range on the site.)
What load are we looking at? Less than 13A (about 3kW), the easiest is a 6 way extension block with a short cable to an existing socket.
You can get individually switched socket extension blocks as well as unswitched or master switched or even the "clever" things that have a monitored socket and only power up the other sockets when a load appears on the monitored socket.
I had seen the ones on ebay - not questioning the suggested vendor at all but I'm just not comfortable buying electrical stuff on ebay.
I did look on screwfix but didn't find the clipsal ones - they do look like what I'm after. Thanks very much.
The reasons for these changes is babyproofing. We've got a young 'un who will shortly be crawling and is very inquisitive! The idea is to loose all the existing extension blocks and try and make things a little safer and neater.
Also looking at window locks as our windows upstairs are from floor to (almost) the ceiling and easy to fall out of. A gadget to protect the DVD player, fireguards X2, stair gates X3, table corners, kitchen cupboard locks etc etc. Blimey!! :)
Education of the youngster is the best answer. Use of the word "No" combined with the word for the danger like "Hot", "Sharp", "Electric" or just "Dangerous" for less specific hazards. Physical removal from the hazard as well of course.
This is called "good parenting". Something that many people don't seem to bother with these days and then wonder why they have badly behaved little brat who won't listen to them a few years later.
So you want to change from extension pblocks you can fully isolate by unplugging to a many more live sockets just asking for things to be poked into? OKaayyy...
Of those some do need specific measures, like the windows, fires, stairs, unused power sockets and cupboards containing poisons/clearners/medicens, etc.
The DVD I wouldn't bother with, they'll be able to use it quite well very quickly and the slot or tray won't take Duplo bricks like a VHS machine does. On the later just "deprive" the youngster of the machine until you get a chance to remove the offending object. Having them around when you go to great lengths (even if it's very easy, act it up) to remove the object so you can explain that Duplo should not be in the video and look at all the trouble and lack of videos it has caused. Don't think that they don't understand just beacuse they can't use articulate like an adult. They will very quickly make the connection between not having X and their action Y if you explain and show them.
Table corner, depends how sharp it is but as with many things the best way for children to learn is from experience. Same applies to Hot, Cold, Sharp etc, let them experience a mild form so they know it's not nice.
You can buy plug in socket covers, but I've never seen the point, as UK 13A sockets are all shuttered, so poking things in isn't really such a problem. Personally I've always considered that these covers just cause a problem, pull them out, turn 180 degrees and push the (plastic) earth pin in and voila, on many sockets the shutter opens, at least partially! I have used this method in the past when desperate to recharge my electric shaver and having no access to a shaver socket or an adapter (it only works with the two pin plugs with thin pins that angle inwards and a flexible, not proper UK two pin plugs with fatter, rigid pins, but of course it shouldn't be done anyway).
You have obviously not watched a small inquisitive child poke things into sockets and weedle that thing past the shutter. Never underestimate children, they have a brain that is probably better than most adults as it has yet to have have all the social, behavioural and self preservation constraints programmed into it.
As for socket covers, they do work. Most are a fairly tight fit, little (and sometimes big) fingers are not string enough to pull them out, even if left a mm or two proud to let big fingers get purchase.
Agreed, though I am only 4 years older than my brother, finding him digging into an unprotected socket with a screwdriver in the 1950s gave me the jitters. I swiped (knocked) him away from the socket. I must have been all of nine or ten at the time.
Thought that was part of growing up. Powered many a device by shoving the wires in the holes with matchsticks rather than fitting a plug. Being told and the use of covers doesn't work nearly as well as getting a mains belt for instilling respect and caution. I can still remember my first one, and (a while later) my worst, after many years.
Seems to have worked for our two, they have a healthy respect for mains connectors without having had the "pleasure" of a belt from it.
I remember mine as well, it was across the end of my left thumb from the pins in bayonet lamp holder. Trouble your first mains belt can quite easily be your last, forever. Not quite the same as walking into a table edge, getting a nick from a sharp knife or touching something a bit too hot. They are all going to have an associated "learning experience" but not likely to kill you. A belt from the mains can vary from "Ouch" to "Dead" rather to easily.
Indeed - I know (of) more toddlers that have been killed by getting something stuck in their throat (1) than by a belt off the mains (0). I know of people who have died from all sorts of things and know many who have had electric shocks from the mains but none who have died from it. That doesn't mean there aren't those who have been killed, or that I would encourage toddlers to do it but it has to be put in perspective - more people probably die playing cricket than from mains electric shocks. Electric shocks in bathrooms are a Bad Thing, which is recognised in part pee, which is fair enough. I'm not saying it's good for you but it's also not a case of "don't touch that, you'll die".
RoSPA site on "Accident type: Electric/Radiation; Object or product involved: Fixed Socket; Victim's age: 0-4" gives:
2000 - 106
2001 - 71
2002 - 21
You can select on "Type of Injury" but that doesn't include "Death". Also this will only be reported incidents, presumably those requiring some form of Dr or hospital treatment. Some what disappointed that the database doesn't appear to go beyound 2002, that is almost ancient history.
But at 50/year (ish) of reported incidents of 0-4 yo's doing something with a "fixed socket" that requires treatment it seems reasonable that at least a death is quite likely. If you search the datebase on 0-4 and just electric/radiation you have 500(ish) incidents/year.
The total number of electrical deaths in the home per year is small anyway. I suspect the ratio of electric shocks to electrocutions is probably 1000:1 or more. I'm sure we've all had electric shocks, in many cases several, but none of us were electrocuted (OK, flawed logic, I know;-) Whilst I know of lots of cases of electric shock in people I've known over the years, I've can't think of a single one where any medical attention was sought, so they're all unrecorded anywhere.
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