Hello all
Probably a stupid question, but Ive asked lots in the past so why stop now.
My place in Spain will soon be built and we have a number of spare appliances over here we would like to ship to Spain to use out there. Is their electrical system the same as ours i.e. 230 Volts and could I just connect a Spanish type plug up to the applicance and expect everything to work? (Assuming the apartment has not been fitted out with UK type sockets)
Thanks and hapy new year to you all!
Richard
Yes. The whole point in changing to 230V (we didn't change a damned thing except the labels) was to harmonize with Europe. Even your TV should work, it's only the French & Russians who use a different transmission standard in Europe.
Would the Spanish authorities accept UK sockets? The wiring practices are different to the UK. I think we are the only country to use a 30A ring and individually fused appliences. They wire as radials with 16A breakers. (Please note, much simplified!!)
Andrew
In article , snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com writes
Yeap, even better get a few travel adapters
And Spanish wiring practice leaves a lot to be desired ...
Dave
Simple answer = yes. (Not nec. TVs, & Videos etc but you might be lucky)
DG
Come on, I resisted the temptation for that line!!
Yes, except that Spanish wiring is occasionally (even in new properties) of the French Provincial standard and getting anything at all to work can involve prayers to minor saints or deities.
Great! should save me a few bob. cheers all as usual for the feedback.
Richard
Great! should save me a few bob. cheers all as usual for the feedback.
Richard
"zaax" wrote | >My place in Spain will soon be built and we have a number of spare | >appliances over here we would like to ship to Spain to use out there. | >Is their electrical system the same as ours i.e. 230 Volts and could I | >just connect a Spanish type plug up to the applicance and expect | >everything to work? (Assuming the apartment has not been fitted out | >with UK type sockets)
It won't be fitted with UK sockets.
| Yeap, even better get a few travel adapters
Most travel adaptors are rather vile. Better would be to take a good stock of 4- or 6-way strips, rewire the plugs on those to Spanish, and mount them neatly near the sockets. British appliances can then be used without having to change plugs, and retain the protection of the 13A plug fuse.
A Spanish (or UK with Spanish plug) socket tester might be a good idea. I don't know about Spain, but I think several European systems don't tie Neutral and Earth together as we do and are less fussy about polarity.
Get the electrician to label the CU breakers in Spanish *and* English. You don't want to be wandering around in darkness wondering what "upstairs sockets, outside streetlight and neighbour's chicken incubator" is in Spanish.
Owain
FSVO "work" :-) Surely Spain uses System B/G (PAL colour, 5.5 MHz sound carrier offset). Your UK System I TV will deliver a picture, but no sound, unless it's multi-standard, which many are these days. You might have to delve into the set-up menus and change the sound system setting.
In message , Dave Stanton wrote
But it will be covered by Part P - the common EU standard :)
Not so; there are different versions of PAL. One such has the sound and vision carrier spacing different to the UK, so you'll get either picture
*or* sound, but not both.
Something like a video recorder with SCART can be used as a cheap way out of this if the TV can't be reset to PAL B or PAL G from PAL I; or are there are little tuner boxes, although these seem to cost more than a cheap VCR.
Think all europe is standardized on PAL except france, so even this should work.
Have a mate in Italy who bought a satellite TV system, from sky and installed it in tuscany. Sky still thinks he lives in East Anglia. Just on the edge of the sky satellite footprint :D
I think much of spain is too....:D
There's a lot to be said for wiring it up UK style if you intend to stay a long time as well.
Its actually better as a system.
But check regulations. However most latin countries are fairly relaxed - just find out who to bribe.
Untl it needs fixing....
On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 12:20:19 +0000, The Natural Philosopher strung together this:
Yes, but there's two different standards of PAL, B\G and I. I found all this out recently after I bought a PAL\NTSC in car TV from the US, only to find it's not the PAL I standard which is only used in the UK and also Australia I think.
As has already been pointed out, there are at least two versions of PAL with the difference being in the way the sound is dealt with, so you may get pictures but no audio.
Nope. There are many different versions of PAL, and IIRC the UK one is unique in Europe.
Almost, it's used in Eire too, but they also use VHF, so in some areas you may not get all the channels on a UHF only telly.
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