Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!diablo1.usenet.blueworldhosting.com!nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Edward Rawde" Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Subject: Re: British (european?) kitchen counter electric outlets Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2024 14:37:26 -0400 Organization: BWH Usenet Archive (https://usenet.blueworldhosting.com) Lines: 51 Message-ID: References: Injection-Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2024 18:37:29 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com; logging-data="5426"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@blueworldhosting.com" Cancel-Lock: sha1:I+nKdlOo723WF/9tdDaPygneKkQ= sha256:Is34cPznP029UQd07rFo5vf/EbAbEoHtE79ddnSJztE= sha1:botUcmOBOJgXZsvlInxzNqrsokc= sha256:qfmVxxJbvF3HLYVEEXi+nvGv86E2slHN3HL3oac0ewk= X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5931 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Response X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.6157 Bytes: 4086 "Martin Brown" <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote in message news:v4m1bn$3ub3e$1@dont-email.me... > On 16/06/2024 03:23, Edward Rawde wrote: >> "bud--" wrote in message news:lBrbO.17569$iz_6.16993@fx14.iad... >>> On 6/11/2024 9:26 PM, Grant Taylor wrote: >>>> On 6/10/24 23:45, bud-- wrote: >>>>> As I expect you figured out, Christmas lights have tiny wire and need protection. >>>> >>>> Christmas lights are just the only example that came to mind in the U.S.A. >>>> >>>> I would personally prefer to have a 13A fuse on an extension cord plugged into a 15A outlet so that the fuse would blow close >>>> to >>>> where I'm using the cord instead of having to traipse through a building to the breaker panel. >>>> >>>>> Probably somewhere in this thread, the UK you have 30-32A ring circuits and current about half here with correspondingly small >>>>> cord wire so you need fuses in plugs. One fuse? >>>> >>>> I would think that you'd want to open the (both) hot(s). Much like how you want a double poll breaker to open both hots on a >>>> 240 >>>> V domestic load in the U.S.A. >>>> >>>> Blowing / opening one hot would still leave live power via the other hot in a dual hot cord. >>>> >>> >>> I think UK is 230V hot-neutral? >> >> When I was growing up it was 240V live-neutral. >> And changing to 230V would have been unthinkable due to the number of "why has my TV picture width shrunk" complaints which would >> have occurred. >> I may have heard the word "hot" in other contexts but not for AC power. >> Also, some wiring installations still existed with live (hot) in red, neutral in black and earth (ground) in green. > > They still exist in older buildings. New wiring with that old code is not allowed. >> >> It may be the case that 240V has now been reduced to 230V in line with the rest of Europe. >> And these days most, perhaps all, electronics won't care about the difference. > > No we have a nominal 230vac which in practice varies between 220vac and 255vac depending on where you are and local loading. Ok. Most of the all country power adapters I have are labeled 100-240V 50-60 Hz so I hope they were designed for up to 255V. > Our mains was sometimes high enough to blow filament light bulbs. In cities such wide variations are much less common but single > line rural feeds are higher near the transformer so that the folk at the far end get the volts. > >> In the UK I remember being asked to wire a plug for a 230V piece of equipment which had arrived from the US. >> Fortunately by then I knew that black wasn't neutral in the US. > > -- > Martin Brown >