Hi, I was wondering if you can help me.
My Wife bought a set of curling irons in the US on holiday. They are multi voltage (110-240). However, they have a US two pin plug (one pin slightly larger than the other).
Can I just put a UK plug on the cable? Obviously there will be no earth as there is only 2 pins.
Which pin is the positive (bigger or smaller of the two pins)?
Thanks
TS
The narrower of the 2 prongs is the Live/Phase, the wide being the neutral.
You should find the neutral is also the 'identified conductor'
[assuming figure 8 style cord, the one with a ridge or series of ridges on it]US power cords are generally rated at 300 volt, but are only single insulated, but for a curling iron I wouldn't think that was a major safety issue because of the short usage time. Just keep an eye on it for damage to the cord:-)
Our mains goes upto over 300v 100 times a second, but if the appliance is 240v rated it should be ok on 240v.
NT
YES
AC mains, positive? what means that? If there is no earth it doesn't matter, i.e. its equally dangerous either way round. Dunno how the US elec saftey standards relate to EU ones but is it worth a few quid?
AIUI for domestic supplies American local distribution transformers had the earth connected to the centre tap rather than the 'neutral' arrangement here. This was considered a safer arrangement as the maximum potential the consumer could be exposed to was about 60 volts. Is this still the case or have things moved on?
For three phase supplies we are used here to seeing the star point connected to earth. What is the arrangemnt in America?
Roger
Roger
Sorry, that was a typo and should have said 180º.
They are inverted, or 180º out of phase. This is created in the transformer by having two windings connected the opposite way round, more commonly thought of as a centre-tapped winding. I deliberately did not use the term 2-phase, as although it is in a phasor diagram, this term has a specific meaning in the US supply industry refering to a different supply arrangement (two phases 90º apart on a 4-wire system) and supply engineers all start getting horribly confused if you refer to the 120-0-120V US system as 2-phase.
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