So, how many sockets in a living room?

[Andrew Chesters]

Don't know. It'd be a damned shame if it did. :-(

[Ian]

Care to expand on that, Harvey? I must have missed that. The W*****s of Westminster strike again.

Regards Ian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd agree about the wiring until you develop a technique, but fall out? They're extremely common in broadcasting where such things matter. ;-)

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 20 Feb 2005, Ian wrote

Sorry - my error. (I was thinking of "adding" rather than "replacing" a socket, which is where the "notifiable in kitchens, etc." comes into play.)

[Dan Mills]

Ahh, I sense someone who has tried to get a CEE form in while up a ladder & facing away from the socket BTDT! Remarkable how the covers always seem to be 'missing' after a while isn't it! The other one I just love (probably from the same species of licensing muppet), is the "requirement" for 2M separation between sockets on different phases (It went out in the 70's, and was stupid even then).

IEC is OK (if difficult to wire), when inside static gear racks, but someone needs killing for deciding it would be a good idea on certain 1200W theatrical lanterns!

The powercon are nice, and come in the same form factor up to 32A! very useful, but I slightly disagree about unfused being bad. Dammit, I want to know where the fuses are (And in every plug does not count as knowing)!

Regards, Dan.

[Andrew Chesters]

And the bite your bloody fingers too!

Grr, now don't start...

Yes, I agree, to a point. If they were to become more prevalent, we would all need to re-wire our infrastructures to radial circuits, or fusing local to the outlets.

Andrew

[John Rumm]

Often a trailing strip will be the neatest of all the solutions, since it can be fixed to or in the unit in question (i.e. TV cabinet, HiFi stack etc)

Material costs are only a small part of the equation. The other parts (distribution etc) add up to the lions share. Hence even a 20% cost reduction in the material cost does not translate to 20% less cost in the final product. If these sockets are compatible with the original ones they will still use the same amount of copper in the terminals, and still need a compatible fuse. These are likely to be the more expensive parts of the plug in both material and manufacturing costs. They also represent a good proportion of the distribution weight. Net result is a couple of "p" difference to the end user (assuming the retailer passes it on).

I can't belive a large volume far eastern OEM is paying anything like that for a plug. 5p - 10p perhaps.

You have Tesco selling halogen desk lights at 3.99 retail. What proportion of the cost do you suppose is the plug, and what is the switch gear, casing, lamp, lamp fitting, transformer, telescopic rails, product safety testing, import duty, warehousing cost, distribution cost, and VAT etc.?

More copper involved, so unlikely to ever be cheaper. Also don't forget three times as many switches to include.

Handy saving out of the three grand bill for a rewire then....

It is hard to identify a class of person that will save millions though. Large house builders perhaps, but then they pass on the costs to the consumer in the end anyway so perhaps care less that you might expect. They are also a conservative lot, an unlikely to implement a change like this until it has public acceptance. Otherwise they risk potential customers thinking, "not sure about those sockets - they look different from what I am used to, they must be some new fangled inferior continental idea"

Perhaps Tesla had the right idea ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup - IIRC it's the locking thing. I'd add that I use them on portable audio gear which gets a real hammering and they're quite the most reliable mains connector I know. Or possibly the most reliable connector full stop.

[Mike]

EN standards can be used and are enforceable in all EU countries. Many of these are of course IEC standards with a new number, such as the common IEC plug.

Many BS standards are subsets of EN standards and are fine but those that aren't won't stand up in law if there is an equivalent EN standard, which for safety issues there is. Trying to impose spurious requirements to preclude an international standard is prohibited except in issues of national security.

Of course such components must be used as specified. Once cannot just drop them in instead of our nasty 13A things.

an overview of what is in fact a sordid history of protectionism by the UK and a few other countries. Hopefully the commision will one day force this through.

[Dan Mills]

I always liked the old style camlocks, you HAD to pay attention, and the muppets tended to become really obvious!

Just be careful, it looks like a speaker plug (and having seen them forced in completely ignoring the keyways), I am quite prepared to believe that with enough ignorance a powercon would fit in the speaker output hole!

NEVER assume that something is foolproof! Having seen a loudspeaker wired up to a BS658 15A Plug before now, if you think something is so blatantly wrong that no one would do it, you are probably wrong!

regards, Dan.

[Rich Grise]

I did this very thing once, in a manner of speaking, when I was about 8. One of my Xmas presents was some kind of toy that had an earphone. It was one of the standard 2K magnetic earphones of the day, and it plugged into this toy, which never really worked right - the microphone that came with the toy was a joke - but I did notice that the plug on the earphone would almost exactly fit into the socket on the end of the power cord for Mom's sewing machine. I wondered what would happen, so I plugged it in.

**** **** ***** BZZZZZZAAAAAAT!!!!! ***** **** ****

The loudest sound I'd ever heard. The whole family instantly appeared at the door of Mom's sewing room, wondering what the hell the racket was. (and if I was, yet again, trying to burn the house down! ;-P )

Interestingly, nothing blew up! (vastly different from some of my other early experiments! ;-) )

Cheers! Rich

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Dan Mills wrote (in ) about 'So, how many sockets in a living room?', on Mon, 21 Feb 2005:

BS 658: Specification for apparatus for the determination of distillation range (including flasks and receivers)

Try BS 546.

I've seen a conversion lead with a British 5 A 3-pin plug on one end and a MUSA on the other. Twin screened cable, of course.

I have a British 13 A plug with a BNC mounted on the cover, but that's a calibrator for LISNs used in EMC testing.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Italians use something like our 2A BS 546 mains socket for their telephones -- I bet they ring loadly when you plug it in!

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Andrew Gabriel wrote (in ) about 'So, how many sockets in a living room?', on Mon, 21 Feb 2005:

The pins are too big to go into the socket.

[Pete C]

Or a shaver adapter is what I use for low powered stuff.

cheers, Pete.