I am doing up the kitchen which has an electric clock connection near the ceiling. I cannot reach the cable feeding this because of built in furniture in the room above. Therefore I need to hide it. A clock would seem to be the obvious choice.
Are there any present day sources for mains powered clocks? It seems they are extinct.
Any other ideas for uses for a non- switched 10amp feed near the ceiling wall joint?
Hang a battery operated clock over it!
Brian
The message from "ROBERT BASHFORD" contains these words:
Just put a battery clock in front of it.
The message from "Brian Reay" contains these words:
Tick-tock-rays!
Bug zapper?
On Sun, 4 Jun 2006 18:42:43 +0100 someone who may be "ROBERT BASHFORD" wrote this:-
Leave the connector where it is? Terminate the cable and put a blank cover plate over the box?
How do you know it is 10A? What is it fed from?
Another option might be to replace the clock connector with a fused connection unit and run lights in/above/under kitchen units from it.
get an old mains one
They were normally 1A, you sure you've not misread? Bell wire gets a bit hot at 10A.
NT
Just because you have a clock socket doesn't mean you have to use it. If it's a good place for a clock use a battery one.
Where does the 10 amp bit come from?
They were normally taken from the lighting circuit. Some of the plugs could take a small fuse, which was available in 0.5A, 1A, and 2A versions. (MK later did one which took a BS1362 fuse. I used these for under cupboard lighting prior to klik sockets.) For load calculations, you ignored the clock.
The message from snipped-for-privacy@care2.com contains these words:
eBay item number: 6286183834 or 6574433987
Though the former is hideous and the latter outrageously expensive.
|ROBERT BASHFORD wrote: | |> I am doing up the kitchen which has an electric clock connection near the |> ceiling. I cannot reach the cable feeding this because of built in furniture |> in the room above. Therefore I need to hide it. A clock would seem to be the |> obvious choice. |>
|> Are there any present day sources for mains powered clocks? It seems they |> are extinct. | |get an old mains one
Yes! But the reason for using an electric clock is that mains frequency is *on average* highly stable which gives a highly accurate clock.
Technology has now moved on, and clocks locked to the Long wave transmissions of Radio 4 which gives a ridiculously accurate clock. These are commonly available and not expencive.
On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 06:30:00 +0100, Dave Fawthrop wrote (in article ):
I agree.
Small detail though.
The Radio 4 transmitter at Droitwich is a frequency standard (used to be
200kHz, now 198kHz). It *can* be used as a standard for maintaining the accuracy of a clock once set (I made one that did donkey's years ago), but doesn't carry a time signal to set it in the first place.Commercial time pieces tend to use the MSF transmitter on 60kHz (currently Rugby, moving to Cumbria next year). This is a frequency standard as well but transmits a time code with time, date, day of week and summer/winter time. I designed and built a clock using this as well, many years ago using discrete logic components before it was all available on a single chip plus a few bits.
The commercially available clocks don't need any attention other than insertion of a (typically AA) cell about once every 1-2 years. They adjust themselves automatically and between summer and winter time as well.
Once thing to watch is that there is a similar service in Germany (DCF77 on
77.5kHz from Mainflingen) Some clocks will work with either, but I have seen some on sale in the UK which *only* support DCF77. The signal level is lower in much of the UK and these may not always work reliably with small receivers in home use timepieces
I've never seen one that uses Radio 4, although I've known it to be used for aviation radio navigation. Most radio controlled clocks use the special purpose transmitter that is soon to be demolished at Rugby, or sometimes they use the similar German facility.
Christian.
|> Technology has now moved on, and clocks locked to the Long wave |> transmissions of Radio 4 which gives a ridiculously accurate clock. | |I've never seen one that uses Radio 4,
Said transmitter still transmits Radio 4 Long Wave
| although I've known it to be used for |aviation radio navigation. Most radio controlled clocks use the special |purpose transmitter that is soon to be demolished at Rugby, or sometimes |they use the similar German facility.
Do you have a URL for demolition of the transmitter?
That was the reason in the past, now quartz clocks are far more accurate. If you get an old synchronous clock, expect it to waver a little each day, but always come back to the right time overnight.
The reason I'd choose a mains clock is to eliminate the occasional wrong times due to batteries on the way out. With mains its maintenance free. Unless of course you're unlucky enough to get one that cant start itself, in which case after a power cut you'll need to give the wheels a spin to get it going again.
A modern battery clock run from a CR supply mounted on the back plus alkaline battery for backup would give you the best of both worlds.
NT
On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 09:44:17 +0100 someone who may be "Christian McArdle" wrote this:-
At least some electricity meters use it.
On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 09:55:01 +0100 someone who may be Dave Fawthrop wrote this:-
British Uselesscom have lost the contract for running the service. The new contractor will be providing different transmitters. Together with the loss of the naval traffic Rugby can't have that long to go. It has been on the way out for perhaps a decade already.
On 5 Jun 2006 01:56:12 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@care2.com had this to say:
An important advantage of a clock that doesn't restart itself is that after a power cut it's pretty obvious that the time is wrong. If you have a self-restarter and a power cut of, say twenty minutes, you could quite easily be misled by the display.
In reality I think most people rely on their watch; (domestic) clocks are just for show!
Not me. I haven't had a watch since secondary school. If I don't have my mobile on me and charged, then wall clocks it is.
Christian.
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