We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember S Viemeister saying something like:
Why, there's not a woman in America who doesn't appreciate that extra six inches.
that's a lot of girth
In a 'regular' outlet two wires plus ground earth Live =3D Black, White =3D Neutral, Green or bare =3D ground/earth. Live and neutral serve top and bottom of the duplex outlet.
In so called Edison outlet, there are two live wires; the top half of the duplex outlet is wired to one of the 115 volt legs, the bottom to the other legs and the 'tab' on the live side between the two parts of the duplex is twisted off. The neutral is common to both. The circuit is fed from a double pole circuit breaker. The third wire is typically red.
IF: "presumably erroneously join the lives of two circuits if not removed when two feeds are in use" leaving the tab in place would s/c the 230 supply thereby immediately tripping the CB.
The advantage is that two fairly heavy loads can be plugged in to the one outlet; in fact if the two were exactly equal they would be in series across the 230 volts with zero current in the neutral.
While there is 230 volt within that outlet box it is not in an Edison arrangement used that way. In our garage and work shop for example we have some 230 volt outlets which at first glance look like regular but the flat pins are horizontal not vertical with respect to the round ground pin.
Cheers.
Further: The concern about single pole switching when a 230 volt UK appliance is used on NA 115 - 0 -115 volt supply is valid. While we occasionally use 230 volt tools/soldering iron in our 230 volt un- switched outlets they are not left plugged in after use! BTW I finally found (In a used goods store, for 50 cents!) a North American two pole switch which we fitted to our 230 volt table saw. Up til then had always depended on 'pulling the 230 volt plug. It's located where one can switch off with knee if necessary.
Stove/cookers. Which reminds me to ask; with apologies for asking so many Qs. ...............While 30 inches is a more usual width of stoves/cookers here, what is the normal 'depth' of a UK kitchen counter?
Never occurred to ask until watching one of those 'Invite other members of group to dinner' TV programmes, some UK counters appeared narrower, than here in Canada. But hard to tell! Camera angles etc. and, yes, some stoves did look slightly smaller. Here probably designated "Apartment size'?
We have situation opposite our stove, where the only fridge size that will fit next to our back door is 28 inches; and it would be real bu**er to cut say 2+ inches off the adjacent counter and cabinets to fit in a more normal 30 incher. Modifying the doorway next to the fridge would also be a lot of work! The fridge is a very ordinary, Sears Canada, top freezer section, model. Now some 30 years old and it may conk out one of these days!
The message from S Viemeister contains these words:
I didn't. It wouldn't have existed unless I'd done it myself which I was TEMPTED to do!
60cm models exist in the UK, but are not all that common. Much more typical is 55cm with some of them 50cm.Not on any of the ones I had, or any of the ones my relatives and friends have :-)
As is the case in the UK. See them in the showrooms, but not generally in people's homes.
Lucky you! At least on the typical US stove you can sit a decent-sized pan on each of the four plates simultaneously which is more than you can do on any 550mm cooker.
The message
from terry contains these words:
An absolutely standard NEMA 6-15 receptacle, then. Generally made to a very much higher standard than the usual NEMA 5-15 and not a pad plug and socket at all. Vaguely resembles a BS1363 plug and socket.
The message
from terry contains these words:
A good question to which you'll get varying answers.
Counter tops are almost always standard items in the UK, much more so than in North America. They come in two depths, 500mm and 600mm. Floor-standing cabinets beneath the countertops are almost all 500mm deep, but the 600mm worktop leaves 100mm/4" behind the cabinets which
So the more common depth of worktop is 600mm.
Nominally 600mm. But some applliances are also 600 deep so if you have something like pipework or a plug behind them they stick out...
Standard kitchen unit stuff comes in 300, 500, 600 and 1000mm widths.
I've just had a 60cm dual-fuel Hotpoint installed (in Scotland). Yes, I've seen far too many narrower ones, but in my searches 60cm was not at all uncommon.
Mine isn't like that - there are some otherwise nice stoves with the controls on the top surface, but I find that a safety hazard as well as a waste of cooking space.
My new US stove has a long centre burner - great for pancakes or poaching fish. They've become more and more common over the past 2 or 3 years.
My bank account is still recovering - in order to install the UK one, I needed major changes to the kitchen electrics, and had to pay a Corgi-man for installing all the bits and pieces for bottled gas. At least the US one was a simple like-for-like installation.
How much Corgi-man-ness is needed for bottled gas?
(nobody's inspected mine :-) )
I don't want any future problems with my insurance - so I had it done by a properly registered tradesman. He did a nice neat job - the two cylinders are chained to the wall, there's an automatic changeover valve, the inside valve is accessible but not sticking out into usable space, he changed the little brass whatsits, and adjusted the flow for LP.
I've got the changeover valve, stove changeover to LPG was trivial. Bottles were in a shed (with adequate ventilation) and now in a little hutch. No valve inside the house - just at the bottles, after the changeover. 13kg cylinders, not the gert 47kg ones, so I don't see the need to chain them to anything. (and one lasts 6 months).
I don't anticipate problems with the insurance either. Unless somebody can point me to something different - and it would have to be better than some of the scare posts we see here occasionally :-)
If there wasa fire/explosion and the gas installation in general was implicated I expect the insurance company would start asking question about who did the work. Now provided you are "competent" you can do your own gas work but I suspect you would have quite an argument on your hands convincing an insurance company about that and your competance.
Yeah, that old chestnut. Bit of a chicken and egg, isn't it. It's interesting that if the same happened but there was a piece of paper certifying the person who cocked up, it comes out better.
I'll stick to being quite keen on not blowing myself up or indeed wasting gas in the first place - I think that's a better reason than insurance for doing it right.
I'll now spoil it by mentioning that it had a leak for a couple of months. We had a bit of building work done which involved it being moved (twice) and they cut the pipe and joined it again - and the join never worked (and obviously they didn't test it). Since that bit of the run is outside, it just blew away, hence taking a while to notice. Took the ill-fitting compression joint off (see prior mention of odd-sized pipe), and put a soldered one on instead, and all was happy again.
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