3kw comet kiln-plug socket renewed 3 times...

[Fredxx]

A 16 Amp plug and socket isn't sufficient to provide 5.5kW

Can I suggest you fix your signature and use 2 hyphens '--'

[Bob Eager]

Or even better, the correct 'two hyphens and a space'.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And of course brass oxidises. I'd guess the contact resistance goes up where a plug is left in a socket for a long time.

Wouldn't suit me in my kitchen - and elswhere. Have a few things which I leave in position, but switch off at the socket. Unplugging would look less tidy.

[Terry Casey]

I'm not suggesting getting rid of them, just that in a lot of cases the switch is never used so fitting the unswitched variety in these positions would stop anybody turning them off by accident.

Sorry if I've already told this tale before but I went to work on a 22 channel cable TV system at the London Stock Ecchange in 1969. Due mainly to the old GPO monopoly - but also because they had ducts all over the city - they provided the main trunk with the Stock Exchange providing the local distribution within the individual buildings.

The GPO trunk terminated in the basement and was powered from an unmetered feed via a switched spur. When I arrived on the scene the network was still being commissioned and because of the difficulties of parking, the GPO guys, like us, worked on foot and the only level measuring set accurate enough for the job was damned heavy!

Once or twice a week, they would pick up where they'd finished up the previous day and found no signals! There were, of course, no subcribers at the time, so we didn't get phone calls to help pin down the source of the problem so they would trudge back along the trunk checking from building to building until they found the cause of the problem - someone had switched off the power!

I don't know about now but in those days most large buildings had a Housekeeper, usually with a flat on the top floor and, out of hours, he would make a routine security check. Sooner or later, he would spot the neon on the spur, to his mind wasting electricity at that time of night and switch it off!

Eventually the Stock Exchange sent its own electricians to every building to swap out the switched spur for an unswitched one ...

[Jim]

I have idly wondered why MCB spurs don't seem to be available. 3A, 10,

13A and 16A MCB spurs would be quite useful and there would be no chance of someone putting the wrong rating of fuse in them.

[charles]

probably because there's already an MCB on the distribution board. I don't think it's very good practice to have MCBs in series - but someone will probably say it's fine.

[Jim]

Happens all the time. From a fused sub main to another CU, for instance.

[Bob Eager]

We had this problem at home on a much more limited basis.

My M-I-L lived with us for about two years before she died from vascular dementia. Being of the age she was (94) she was meticulous about turning everything off.

One thing was the kettle, which has a base unit that we leave plugged in and switched on at the socket. We'd get up, fill the kettle, push the button and then come back to find cold water. All of the phones need a mains supply (IP phones) and she turned those off too. Plus, on one occasion, the central heating spur beside the boiler.

It was sufficient (to my amazement) to put stickers on each plug/spur saying "DO NOT TURN OFF" - these were red and white ones from CPC and looked 'official' so she did what they told her.

On a related note, she did not like taking pills. When she died, we found a hoard of boxes of pills. However, for the last few months she was bedridden and we gave her the medication (not easy anyway as her hands shook and she dropped the pills). The solution to that (my idea) turned out to be using the little plastic 'cup' things they use for medication is hospitals. These were 'official' so she took the pills - and it was also harder to drop them as the cup was easier to grip. The cups were easy to get on eBay!

[charles]

but a "FUSED" Sub-main doesn't involve an MCB

[Jim]

Jesus!

OK, an MCB protected sub main. Happy?

[tabbypurr]

Jesus doesn't involve an MCB either