round pin sockets

[Frank Erskine]

It wouldn't be a problem - just a bit of an inconvenience.

[Adam Aglionby]

Seen the cost of cleaning and re-lamping a chandelier...?

Subjectively light from a lower angle is more relaxing.

Strange plugs stop the cleaners and laptop users plugging in.

As mentioned 15A is British Standard virtually theatre lighting connector, exactly beacuse such things are fused back at the dimmer fuses in line would be a pest.16A Ceeform is taking over to an extent and are available in theatre black with voltage colour in a stripe round them.

5A was popular for school installations, small fingers fit in 15A sockets well. Most theater place should stock 5A or be able to get them in short order usually black rubber.

TLC do white plastic:

[Adam Aglionby]

Usually dimmable circuits, problem with most remote sockets is they will only dim from full not start at a preset level looks messy changing states. Even modest hotel lobby might have 20 or more channels of dimming to create right atmosphere dependent on time of day.

Cheers Adam

[Steve Walker]

And whoever it is should be shot - many hotel rooms are occupied by business people, who want to be able to see their paperwork, so as to make use of the time they're stuck away from home!

SteveW

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Fred saying something like:

Historically, when the only power outlet in a room was the light socket, they were commonly used for powering an electric iron or similar. I came across an old cottage a few years ago which had only a small meter, no sockets and one light fitting in the living room only. I bet the occupiers used one of these things.

[Andrew Gabriel]

In the past, I often found myself in a hotel, trying to work, if only I could read the paperwork. In a Holiday Inn in Rome, I recall adding up nearly a kW of lighting in the room, generating in total about 1 candle power of light. I would sometimes take the lampshades off (much to the annoyance of the hotel staff), and on some occasions, go out and buy some brighter light bulbs, which for amusement value, I would expense.

Nowadays, I'm more likely to be reading anything on a laptop, rather than reading through a fanfold listing of a system crashdump, printed on a lineprinter which hadn't had a new character band or ribbon fitted in the last 5 years.

[RobertL]

It is common to use old style round pin sockes for the DC (12 or 24 Volt) main in houseboats, with 13A modern sockets used for 240V AC. Boat chandlers sometimes sell them.

Robert

[Andy Dingley]

When our house had its first electricity supply installed, there was a cheaper rate for "lighting" as compared to "heating" supply. I imagine this would have encouraged ironing from the light sockets.

[js.b1]

The lineprinters are still used by government expense departments... in hotels which are likewise expensed... with CFL bulbs in use...

[Andrew Gabriel]

Much as I hate to say it, I've still got a DataProducts lineprinter. It's about 25 years old, cost nearly as much as my house did at the time, and it's hardly been used at all. Just haven't yet managed to chuck it out, although I no longer use it.

[Fred]

Yes and no.

The round pin sockets are connected to the 6A light radial rather than the 32A ring main. By using round pin sockets it prevents someone from plugging a kettle or fan heater into the socket and blowing the fuse/MCB.

On the other hand, since your lights are plugged into the ring main you can use regular plugs and your remote controls do the same job, so in that way, no, you are not missing out on anything.

[Fred]

I've just found that CPC sell a fused variety; the description isn't clear whether it is only the 15a plug that is fused though. It implies the 15a plug is fused for 5a, I wonder why? However they are about £8, so much, much more that the un-fused variety.

[Dave Osborne]

Well, these products come from MK

639WHI is 2A fused (presumably @ 2A) 641WHI is 5A fused (presumably @ 5A) 643WHI is 15A fused @ 5A

These products have BS 646 fuses which are smaller than standard BS 1362 plugtop fuses and are only available in 1A, 2A, 3A and 5A varieties.

You can get them from any wholesaler e.g. Neweys, CEF, Edmundsons, etc. Judging by Google results, CPC are cheap for this product.

[Appin]

The message from Rod contains these words:

In the real world, yes.

If you have your main room lighting provided by table and standard lamps

-- which creates a totally-different ambiance -- then you really don't want people unplugging lamps in order to plug in something else. Therefore having unswitched 2A sockets controlled from the lighting switch is a sensible and trouble-free way of going about things. Nor are people so likely to "borrow" for use elsewhere a lamp with a 2A plug on it.

[Fred]

That would explain why the 15a plug is fused at 5A: you can't get a bigger fuse.

I have one of those plug in shaver adaptors that is fitted with a 1A fuse. Are these the BS646 size?

TIA

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Or even worse, dimmer.