Mains sockets with USB ports

[T i m]

Cheers, T i m

[Dave Plowman (News)]

When I bought this house, the BS required it to be re-wired as part of the conditions. As they did in those days, to protect their investment. Old wiring was a mixture of rubber and lead, with an ancient fusebox.

So in precisely one week of holidays, I did a basic re-wire. Just one central light and a couple of sockets per room - but doing it in such a way as to make it as easy as possible to extend at a later date.

Once living in the house and deciding on room layout etc, I re-wired each one before decorating. Saves the nonsense of having sockets behind furniture or whatever. Or light switches where it is easiest for a sparks to put them.

I'd installed a separate ring for the kitchen. When doing the major alterations to that, I installed sockets along the worktops with about an equal socket/gap ratio. On the principle you can never have too many, and the cost being a small proportion of the overall kitchen.

[T i m]

Quite.

We went to the BIL's new (to him) house the other day and I found myself floundering for the pull cord for the light switch in the bathroom because it was a fair way into the room! ;-(

Same here.

Our 3 doubles on the worktop are 700mm apart but the worktop is only just under 3m long. ;-)

I think if I was to fit some more they would be in the middle, to deal with the things that tend to come and go?

Cheers, T i m

[Roger Hayter]

When you want to transmit a wireless signal, do you go to your tobacco tin full of dehydrated photons, or do you start moving charged particles through resonant bits of hardware?[1] Mutatis mutandis, reception.

[1] After fifty plus years of desultory reading I still can't make any sense of simple physical models of capacitor "current". But radio waves are still possible, as is leakage of AC via capacitance.

[spuorgelgoog]

Put the IP phone on POE and/or use a POE to USB adapter for charging iThings.

I think I've got 10 above-worktop / general kitchen double sockets and probably another 6 below-worktop ones.

Owain

[Tim Watts]

Yes - but I'm not sure how this relates to "what people and cows can feel"? Are they sticking their fingers (or hooves) into the radio?

[T i m]

If I had 10 on my main worktop they would be touching each other. ;-)

However, if you have a large / square kitchen ...

Cheers, T i m

[PeterC]

A couple or so years ago, on here, there was a v. brief exchange re. SF's MK being made to a price. Doesn't meen that more expensive ones from elsewhere would be any better, of course. BTW, ISTR seeing some articles on cheap USB leads not only being risky but also capable of wrecking equipment. 3.1 and C can be the worst due to the power. Also some C aren't to standard on wiring.

[spuorgelgoog]

When I say "above worktop" I mean "above the worktop will go when I get some".

Well, room with sink and cooker; Robert Carrier might find it a bit limiting.

Owain

[T i m]

Ah, a roundtuit. ;-)

Our 'galley style' kitchen is just a kitchen (not a kitchen - diner etc) and is actually pretty efficient *because* it's 'compact' and follows the 'Kitchen work triangle' pretty closely.

That's quite important to me and because I do much of the cooking, I designed and installed it that way. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Roger Hayter]

The person I was replying to was apparently boggling at the idea of palpable ac felt via good quality, standards compliant insulators. I was merely pointing out that capacitative current was part of the mystery of electomagnetic theory.

[Graham Nye]

It's not just the charging current. USB-C supports multiple charging voltages. Apple's 61 W power supply for the Macbook Pro provides

5 V, 9 V and 20.3 V over USB-C so these 5 V integrated socket outlets seem to be becoming popular just as USB is moving away from a single 5 V standard.

[Bob Eager]

I added an extra double at the last moment, next to an existing one. Even managed to get it actually in the ring.

Mostly. Occasionally the sous vide bath takes over for hours.

Ours has a sticker on the plug. Put there so that elderly M-I-L wouldn't unplug it 'for safety'. She died from dementia.

[Bob Eager]

I would, but that model doesn't do POE. It's a smaller wall mounted one - the other nine are mostly POE-capable.

[Tim Watts]

I rest my case, m'lud!

Essentially whatever you do will be obsolete to some degree within 2 years.

Whereas something like:

can be upgraded, takes little space, doesn't even cost a socket and can be turned off ( or unplugged) when not in use.

[Johnny B Good]

Conceptually, a nice idea. One can only hope that the 6 quid over-spend on a 3 way half metre extension cord and a couple of 1.2A USB wallwarts from Poundland is a genuine reflection of the extra costs involved in manufacturing what amounts to a "Single way socket adapter" capable of safely handling the full 13A load rating of the socket outlet it is intended to be plugged into.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Then make sure the things you buy use the standard 5v? ;-)

It's not the PS which is obsolete. It's makers moving goalposts to try and make you buy something new extra yet again.

If Apple or whoever wish to use a non standard charger, why not invent a new connector too? They obviously not very upset about it being standardised.

[Tim Watts]

Who is going to want to do that, to save £6, when they started with the premise of "Sockets with integrated USB"?

[Tim Watts]

Well, you can, if you never want to use new things and/or enjoy slow charging.

I'm starting from the premise people might actually want a practical solution that can evolve as all tech does ;-) The one true standard in all of this is 230-240VAC 50Hz - so it's probably the best place to draw the demarcation point. 5V looked solid for a while, but with the caveats the current kept jumping.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I usually charge things overnight. Carry a spare battery if it is likely to go flat 'in the field' Only things I really want fast charging on are power tools. Perhaps an electric car.

At some time there will be a limit on what the connector will handle if they keep up upping the watts going through it.