France mains sockets

Le 31/07/2024 à 15:23, Joe a écrit :

Full sockets for just about everything are totally normal in the EU, at least Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

Full sockets? You mean ones with spaghetti stuffed in them?

I see Types E and F (Schuko) can be used in France. Which is dominant and is one standard used for new installations?

Why is Type D 6 amps if it is based on a British 5 amp plug?

As I recall, and I haven't seen one for a while, the pins of a '5A' plug would take considerably more than 5 Amps. The design of the socket and the wire terminations would be a limiting factor, and I would expect better designs to handle a lot more than 5 Amps.

A very simple socket design might only make contact in three or four small areas, almost points. I recall years ago seeing a socket design using many thin rods in a cage arrangement with the ends of the cage twisted slightly, giving many sprung points of contact with a round pin.

When I worked in Joburg, My German boss had equipped his house and the factory will all German style sockets. S Africa normally uses 15A round pin type.

I had a bunch of kit on UK 13A so I used a UK extension with a German plug on the end.

Could we re-rate our 13 amp plugs to 16 amps for consistency with continental equipment designed for Schuko sockets? Could a compatible

Some 13 amp plug/socket combinations get worryingly warm even on 10 amps for a long time. Experience from using a 13A-plug-in EV charger before I got the proper wall box.

nib

Me mums Hoover Keymatic washing machine eventually destroyed its plug and the 13A socket it was plugged into. some part melted. some parts charred.

Oh, the 1970s....

But was the entire cable in the hole and tightly screwed down, or were some of the strands missing? I seem to remember this being the problem.

The best type of plug in my experience was the old MK one where you wrapped the wire round a terminal and then screwed down a nut with a captive washer onto it; also featuring the plastic springy cable relief.

I've got 2.5 mm^2 cable neatly into one of those too!

nib

I liked them too. You needed to twist the strands first though to prevent one or two sticking their heads out.

But socket covers make UK sockets LESS safe - they can be gripped by children and pulled out. Then they can be turned upside-down and the "earth" pin pushed in, opening the shutters enough that metal objects can be inserted into the live.

Yet the number of fires caused by electrics in Western Europe is considerably lower than the UK.

I was endeavouring to answer the question, which was: 'Who ignore you when you tell them that the socket has a shutter, opened by the plug, and that although little Freddy *could* insert two knitting needles in the socket he'd have to work jolly hard to do so?'

Reference?

This would suggest you are mistaken:

You are probably thinking of the Hypertac contacts which come in a huge range of sizes.

Source of stats for that?

In one house as I child I had a 15amp round pin socket in my bedroom. There was also a disused gas supply pipe for a gas lamp.