Big Clive dissects a crappy 13A dounble socket with USB ports

[Mike Tomlinson]

[spuorgelgoog]

The plastic back box looked to be thermoplastic not thermoset too.

I really would expect better for my 99p including free postage :-)

Owain

[ARW]

2m04s "Never seen a socket with two earth terminals?" - I don't believe him. 2m23s Yes that is me trying to plug in a USB plug.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , ARW escribió:

I wonder if he knows about high integrity earthing. Are the two terminals connected together on those kind of sockets? I can't remember.

That socket is absolute s**te though. It's got a nice smart cover on the back to hide the shiteness inside.

:-)

or

[ARW]

Yes - they are connected together at the socket

That's me!

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

And I thought it was only me!

[whisky-dave]

I thought the point was that they werent connected unless using with a meta l box, and even then it might not make a good earth connection.

[Tim+]

I've seen sockets with two earth points, but electrically they have all been connected. You just use the best placed one. I've never seen one with one terminal *per socket* meaning that both *must* be hard wired for a proper earth connection.

Tim

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Tim+ escribió:

I thought so, thank you.

In the video (or maybe the comments) I think there is a suggestion that if the two earth terminals on the crappy socket were used in an "in and out" fashion (incoming earth connected to one terminal, outgoing to the other) there would be no earth continuity with a plastic back box. Even with a metal one, the earth continuity would be iffy.

[Tim Watts]

Indeed - that's because they don't exist, barring the crap coming out of China like Clive found.

We were taught on a ring main to put one earth into each terminal, that way if a terminal fails, you still have a CPC to the socket faces, but of course no loop continuity around the ring.

[Tim Watts]

We don't even need to justify it - the unit Clive had is a big fat fail against any British Standard.

Apart from breaking the ring CPC continuity, or having one socket unearthed depending on how it's wired - what are you supposed to do if it's on a spur - put a link wire in?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Probably just me, but I've never understood the principle behind having two earth terminals. I'd say it doubles the chances of one not being properly tightened.

[charles]

It's quite useful to run a link to the back box when a spur has filled up the first one.

[ARW]

BS 1363 part 2 is the relevant BS for sockets.

10.2 says "all accessible metal parts shall be in effective contact with the earthing socket contact"

I would consider the socket Big Clive dismantled to be a failure of BS

1363-2

[Theo]

That's not quite it, because on this socket there's a front fascia piece of plastic to cover the screws, so they aren't actually accessible. The issue isn't that the screws aren't earthed, it's that one or other socket earth pin isn't earthed if only one earth terminal is used.

I'm sure not earthing a socket pin must violate BS1363-2 /somehow/...

Theo

[Tim Watts]

I'd say there is a higher change of all being tightened and one working loose later (not unheard of) or the wire breaking off (had that once) after replacing.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Yup. Pretty odd.

[tabbypurr]

We need a Clive on speed, one that presents the points in 40 seconds not 15 minutes!

NT

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , [e-mail] escribió:

:) I quite enjoy the relaxed pace of his videos. Judging by the number of hits they get, he's doing something right.

[John Rumm]

twin but not connected to each other!