UK multiway power adapters vs. kittens

[Jack Campin - bogus address]

[note: strange crossposting but there is a reason for it]

As understand it, recent changes in UK wiring regulations discourage or even prohibit the use of multiway adapters that fit into a socket. You're supposed to use a multi-socket trailing adapter instead.

This strikes me as a rather bad idea if you have sources of randomly cascading fluid around the house. Such as kittens still young enough to wet themselves when life gets just too exciting (a phase they will often go through when a few weeks old; our lot have just produced their first soggy patch on the duvet at five weeks while using a pile of cushions as an adventure playground).

There usually isn't much alternative to putting a trailing adaptor on the floor, and if you haven't completely filled it there will be open socket holes that stuff can drip into. The same would go for people with a lot of houseplants to water. There are always going to be accidents, and I'm not convinced the fusing in these adapters is so good that no kitten has anything to worry about.

In fact I can't see any reason at all why a trailing adapter should ever be safer than a socket-mounted one. It's must easier to overload a socket by cascading a chain of trailing adapters than it is to use more than one socket adapter in the same socket.

Somebody explain the actual law on the matter and the rationale for it?

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel [phone] for CD-ROMs and free | fax [phone] stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob [phone]

[Owain]

If anything, Part P of the building Regulations (in England and Wales) encourages the use of all forms of multiway adapters rather than fitting proper additional sockets.

Most of the better ones have keyhole slots for wall mounting.

It isn't, although kittens seem to be fairly indestructable.

Older socket adapters were unfused. For some years the law has required

3-way ones to be fused. The fuse in the plug of trailing adapters limits the demand to 13A, even if daisychained. Unfused adapters could (theoretically) have a 39A load, which is more than the total permitted current on a 32A ring circuit, and could lead to overloading as the current would not be evenly distributed around the ring. Socket adapters can also place mechanical strain on the socket, which the trailing lead ones don't.

Daisychaining extension leads or trailing adapters is bad, not so much because of overload but because the resistance in the long lead and multiple connections can prevent the protective device blowing sufficiently quickly to clear a fault before damage to the wiring (or user) occurs.

I have always found kittens to be comparatively uninterested in mains cables - they are too thick to play with, and kittens seem to have an instinctive mistrust of anything snake-like. Curly phone flexes on the other hand ...

Owain

[CatNipped]

Here in the states we have "child-proof" socket covers. These look like plug-ins, but they're made of plastic and have a solid plastic cover. They fit snugly to keep little hands from plucking them out.

I'm sure you have something similar in the UK - here in the states they're about US$0.60 each.

Hugs,

CatNipped

[Dave Liquorice]

Older adapters were unfused, you could plug many together and try to draw lots of power from a single socket. 1st Adpater say a 2kW fire, next adpater a 1.5kW iron and a 2kW kettle 4.5kW on a 13A (3.25kW) socket. With the first adapter expected to carry that load as well. Possibly through poor connections, it doesn't take much resistance at a 20A to generate significant quantities of heat.

Modern trailing adapters are all fused at 13A, OK the 1.25kW "overload" in the above scenario isn't going to blow the fuse quickly, if at all. But at at least there is a fuse there to blow, eventually.

[Ted Davis]

Translation into American: "three-way outlets" and "extension cords".

We have been using both for many decades in the US, and the recent extension cords (multi-outlet, domestic use) come with child resistant plug-in covers for all but one outlet - these also protect against spills, drools, and cat vomit. The plug-in three-way adaptors have never had them. They can also be purchased separately for use anywhere, especially wall sockets.

The common extension cord has three outlets in a molded plastic blob on the end, but no fuse - outlet strips (plastic or metal case not molded on, with all the outlets, usually more than three, all on the same side) sometimes have fuses or breakers. Surge arrestors - outlet strips with extra circuitry - generally have a circuit breaker.

One of the reason plug-in adaptors are dangerous is that the weight of the cords (and often more adaptors) can pull them part-way out of the wall socket, exposing the hot metal parts. In the US, common extesnion cords are less likely to be pulled out because they just lie there. Outlet strips usually have an much stronger and larger plug with all three contacts (common extensions cords can be had with two or three wires) and can actually be somewhat difficult to pull out.

When comparing the relative danger of exposed contacts and other things, it should be noted that our voltage is half of yours. For wequal loads, our cords and adaptors have to carry twice the current, and so may be at least a little heavier.

[Jack Campin - bogus address]

I've never seen an unfused socket adapter since the days of round- pin plugs - the ones I've used have all been fused, with a BS number and kitemark, and nearly always British-made. They feel a lot more solid than the cheap Chinese trailing adapters most commonly used these days.

: When comparing the relative danger of exposed contacts and other : things, it should be noted that [US] voltage is half of yours. : For equal loads, our cords and adaptors have to carry twice the : current, and so may be at least a little heavier.

They *should* be heavier but in practice they're much lighter - a UK-standard plug is very firmly fixed. I have only once seen a problem with exposed contacts in a UK loose plug - it couldn't happen with modern plugs, where the bases of the live and neutral prong are plastic-sleeved. (Sick statistic of the day: the commonest cause of fatal domestic fires in the US is faulty wiring, the commonest cause in the UK is smoking in bed. We kill ourselves by individual stupidity and you guys do it by collective stupidity).

The childproofing inserts are a good idea. But meanwhile all my trailing sockets are well off the floor or in places the kittens can't get to.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel [phone] for CD-ROMs and free | fax [phone] stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob [phone]

[John Rumm]

The only ones that are no longer suitable for sale are the unfused type. You can still use multiway adaptors that have internal fusing.

(it would be less of an issue in the US since circuits tend to be radials and protected at much lower ratings than our 7.2kW ring circuits)

Multiway adaptors need overcurrent protection to prevent total loads exceeding the design load of the socket, or placing too large a point load on a circuit which is designed for diverse supply of sockets over a big area, rather than feeding large single loads.

[David Hansen]

On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:40:04 +0100 someone who may be Jack Campin - bogus address wrote this:-

They are unnecessary with shuttered contacts, which all new UK domestic sockets have had for a ***very*** long time. At best they provide a marginal increase in resistance to water ingress. That doesn't stop people selling them to the gullible though.

FWIW a member of my family did once stick a (metal) knitting needle into an unshuttered socket when he was a child, out of curiosity, fortunately he lived and learnt from the experience. I also have unshuttered sockets in my dwelling, but that is not typical.

[Bob Eager]

Get the plug-in safety covers (readily available, Mothercare at a pinch). Or just rely on the shutters.

Answer: mechanical overload. Sheer weight of plugs and/or wall warts (horror!) or increased likelihood of downward strain from cable that are hanging a lot further from the wall. Treading on such a cable may damage the socket.

[Adrian A]

I have a couple of unfused 2 way adaptors, they are still readily available. For example.

?sku=AR70611

[Newshound]

well the first eight times, anyway

[T i m]

Then they make use of that life by using my back garden as a toilet. :-(

I hope they soon require all cat owners to have their cat's DNA logged so when someone's 'pet' defecates in my private garden I can trace the owner and they can pay the same fine a dog owner would pay if they failed to clean up after their pet in a public (let alone someone else 'private') place (or if they allowed it to be 'out of control').

Is there such a thing as a 'Cat Hawk' and how could I attract some to nest in my garden? ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

p.s. Much as though I have no interest in 'cats' they normally end up on my lap ... :-(

[Dave Liquorice]

All cats are "out of control", the cat keeps the owner not as most people think the other way round.

You don't speak "cat". You probably spend a lot of time watching the cat, as you don't like 'em and want to know what the blasted thing is up to. The cat interprets this as you saying "I love you" so it comes over to make friends. Ignore the cat and it'll ignore you.

Note this gentle watching is no the same as a hard stare, that is confrontational. Becomes still and lock unblinking eyes with a cat for long enough and it'll turn tail and leave. This stare down can take quite a few tens of seconds depending on how dominant and confident the cat is.

[T i m]

Bizarre .. (the point being)?

I think I do (I speak most other animal languages and have been known to 'handle' animals other had considered unmanageable etc).

Nope, I care less what they do and don't 'not like 'em' per-se. I just don't see the point in (supposedly) 'owning' something if you let it wander the neighborhood unchecked. Keep it indoors AND take it out AND maintain control of it that's fine. I wonder how the driver of the car that hit the one currently flattened near some local lights felt afterwards. Assuming they hadn't killed themselves swerving to avoid it of course. At least you don't have to waste any further time reporting the event.

I believe we can 'emit' these signals so eye contact isn't always necessary?

Not in my experience Dave. Ignore it and it will jump up on your lap and pretend to go to sleep, then for no apparent reason perforate your leg. This is probably practice for the damage they then do to your valuable ornaments, computer add-ons, furniture and local wildlife.

Ah that will be the one I give them when I find more of 'their' mess in 'my' garden then? Like I said, DNA testing then I can put it back through the owners letterbox. If they aren't 'owned' in the traditional sense they must be 'wild' and as they don't serve me any purpose are therefore vermin?

My Lurcher didn't normally wait that long before he demonstrated whose garden it was. Some light exercise followed by a snack .. result! ;-)

As noted elsewhere, why do the brains of normally logical / sensible citizens often turn to mush when they get a cat .. they are Aliens I tell ye!

All the best ..

T i m

[Huge]

I'd be interested in this, too, for my M-I-L, who has recently had most of her garden gravelled over. She hates cats, and despite my advice to the contrary, has now had a nice cat toilet constructed. Personally, I'd shoot them but I think she's not as hard-hearted as me.

[dennis]

google for lilies and cat poison. Some lilies are very dangerous to cats.. I haven't had any cats in my garden since they started to bloom.