bulb fittings ES or BC

Be interesting to compare like for like. Most of the ES I have here are inside fittings, and usually a high quality ceramic design. The odd pendant BC bulbholder low cost and plastic. And the latter can give trouble after many years. But are cheap as chips and simple to change. So I'd like a cheap as chips ES plastic pendant bulb holder to compare. But for some reason, none of my usual electrical wholesalers stock them. Nor do the sheds - even where the majority of the bulbs they sell are ES. But all seem to sell BC bulbholders on their own. So most odd. ;-)

I prefer ES but most of mine are BC.

I do, if I see enough cheap bulbs why not change the fitting so you can use them. And if I want to know how many of X or Y it takes to screw in a light bulb I can't run scientific tests using BC can I :-)

not it won;t because phones can be current charged and not voltage as most will be using lipo batteries. It's a bit like advanced shaver sockets where you can ahev 110/240 V. I'm hoping the days will soon be gone when you hav e to buy the exact charger and match teh voltages. Most of my bench PSH and even the plugin ones seem to work from 94V AC to

Spot on.

European lighting industry has really struggled here. Turns out (what a surprise!) that no matter how much more efficient and longer lasting bulb you make, most people won't pay more than £5 for one. Actually, they prefer to pay 50p less even if it costs them £50 more in electricty.

I have relatives for which change a bulb is no longer an option. Having a longer lasting light is a preferred option.

I meant "change a bulb - something not too difficult for many relatives and neighbours of old people to do for the old people, free of charge".

(And there is of course another cohort of people who can change a bulb for themsleves but can't change a ceiling fitting.)

Do you agree with that, Morten ?

Some of mine have been there for decades now and still unscrew fine.

Never managed to do that to even one.

That is a TT system; in EU parlance. This is the old, standard form of three phase feed.

Not so. You may have effects of around a third of your appliances getting the power they are supposed to have, and around half the power they are supposed to have for the remaining two thrirds.

But modern fuses and would drop the 2/3rds, and leave the third of the TT if a single fuse blows.

-- mrr

Because there are no cases of electrocution that way from a BC holder. Even if you do poke your fingers in, you can't get a good contact, and muscle contraction can't lock you connected to the live. So any risk/cost analysis would come down heavily on keeping the connector.

(This is not the case with ES, where there have been deaths resulting from gripping the metal thread when changing a lamp.)

That's allowed, although I think it legally has to be fitted by the retailer before the buyer takes the item home.

Larger plugs are used in these countries, but not normally for portable appliances, only stationary/fixed appliances.

However, comparisons of current ratings between different countries is also down to differences in their regulatory authorities. Many years ago, BT (probably GPO) tried to get the US 15A plug certified in Europe for use on their racks, but it only got a 50V 2.5A rating here.

Blow the circuit, but the circuit is normally just a few outlets.

They're cheap in the US, but also nowhere near the reliability of EU ones.

US has retro-designed polarity into their system. A few countries don't have a neutral (any conductor near earth protential) at socket outlets.

US and Canada are E26, rest of world is E27 (Japan is mixed). You can often get an E27 lamp into an E26 holder, but sometimes it will jam and then the wrong bits unscrew when you try to remove it (but that's quite common with some E26 holders anyway).

In message , Andrew Gabriel writes

Though IIRC MK, and maybe some other make some kind of safety BC fitting. switches off supply to the pins, or some kind of shutter or something?

They often are just an add on adaptor, but as you said factory etc fitted and with an anti-tamper screw to prevent removal. But I've not seen one on anything recently. My guess is they cost more than simply fitting the correct UK plug or lead one way or another.

I don't really see a problem. If the rest of the world used only one type of plug and we were the odd one out, perhaps.

Hager Ashley and IIRC Crabtree do that too. The pins are not live until the bulb is in and turned.

Actually, no. The two devices start at 5V and negotiate a higher setting through software.

Andy

My wife bought a food slicer from a German company on-line. It is fitted with a moulded Euro 2-pin plug but was supplied with an adaptor like this:

or

It is well made and a an excellent fit for Schuko connectors, unlike this s**te commonly sold in supermarkets and many other outlets, including Boots:

But it IS an adaptor, so there is no way it can be permanently fixed together, unlike this type:

or

which screws together.

The inference of the tamper-proof screw, though, is that it is illegal for a frequent traveller to buy anything in this country which can used in other countries as well if the adaptor can't be removed, which is plain stupid!

I recently bought a tool (SDS drill? circular saw? detail sander? hot air gun? - can't remember which) which came with one. Doesn't need to be an anti-tamper screw (and it wasn't), anything that requires a tool to remove is acceptable.

Very handy it was too - I could use it in the UK, and then when I got here (Germany) I just removed the adaptor.

(Not a cheap-n-nasty brand either. The hot air gun was De Walt, and the rest were Bosch blue, Makita, Metabo, etc)