Why British Plugs and Outlets are the best in the world || FOREIGN REACTS
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
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• British Plugs and Outl...
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load balancing is never a problem as we tend to buy low consumption appliances. we also leave the plugs in the sockets and use the switches, so we never tread on them.
Yeah, unless you've got a massive weed grow in your house you're not going to have any issues. And when you consider what's left sticking out of the wall our plugs actually take up less space.
Also most homes have multiple ring circuits to spread the load
Generally yes we do leave them plugged into the wall so we don't step on them but even so I have stepped on one and they bloody hurt that's why I'm more careful now about where I leave the plugs.
@@DavidDoyleOutdoors and radial for high consumption devices, like a cooker, another reason we tradiotionally tend to have all the big appliances in the kitchen, is because the kitchen is generally cable up as radial with the cooker, so can handle the washing machine etc...
A Ring circuit automatically balances itself no matter what appliances you buy, this guy is confused, it's US Radial circuits that have balancing problems because they're single ended.
Trust me.... Stepping on a plug is a lesson you only need to learn once 😂
Great reaction, and boy oh boy did he have to stretch for negatives.
In the UK when I was at school, we actually got taught how to change a plug. They don't teach it any more, but any brit over a certain age learned. Before 1987, appliances were often sold with just a cable, no plug, you had to fit and wire the plug yourself.
Also, re 230V vs 110V : as we say in the UK, it's not the volts that kill you, it's the amps. But yeah, all those safety features are great. The product of old-fashioned, serious-minded, pipe-smoking engineers.
The flaws: the size, DGAF Load-balancing, not really a problem, just don't take the piss. House wiring, that's the electrician's job. Socket switches, rarely but yeah, you have a d'oh moment once in a while. Not really an issue when you're used to the switch existing. The prongs-up foot trap, yeah, that one's for real. Doesn't happen often but hurts like a mofo if it ever does.
The wall switches have one more upside he didn't mention: the switch cuts off the live and neutral, but not the earth. So, you can have your pc plugged in but off at the wall and the power cable still acts as an earth, very handy for discharging any static you might have on you by touching the frame before working on the internals. Who needs a wrist strap lol?
On balance, definitely the best plugs and sockets there are.
When i was in school, they didn't do very much in regards to teaching how to fix things. It was more building a small wooden toy car or making a sausage roll. The basics wasn't something they taught us and i think this is an ugly issue that needs to be taught. I'm not sure if it's the same with all schools, but i feel like each generation becomes less and less independent and requires someone from a buisness to do it for you.
TBH the plug thing was kind of an exception, it was mostly the usual school stuff. Though Home Economics (sewing, cooking etc) was a thing, as was Technical (what the US folks would call shop class). Everyone did both for the first couple of years of high school, before you chose your options for the remaining 2-4 years. Not so many carried on with them.
They do teach it. I taught it a few months ago to my year 10's. They need to know the fiction of the fuse and earth wire.
@@crwhittle Very glad to hear it's still taught. Not sure I follow what you mean by 'the fiction of the fuse and earth wire' though. Expand on that please?
@@PreceptorGrant ha ha, typo, I meant function.
we dont need to take plugs out the wall, thats why they have a switch, we solved the stepping on it problem too, hahahaha.
I think we are still advised in the UK to remove plugs when there are thunderstorms about. I have anti-surge plugs on sensitive electronic equipment to stop such things, though my last ADSL router blew up after the telephone line was hit (me and a lot of other people locally that night!). Going over to fibre soon and that can't happen any more.
@@frglee No need because when is is switched off it is NOT CONNECTED TO THE CIRCUIT. Please take your Flat Earth, trans-rights, Fake moon landing opinions elsewhere!
@@frglee As an Ex-British Telecom engineer. one house I had visited after an electrical storm. the wall mounted phone exploded off the wall by the lightning strike on the telephone pole. The customer was very lucky, as they had just finished using the phone, and had walked away from the phone when the lighting strike happened.
PS.
In the same area. A lightning strike caused a TV, in a care home to exploded across the residents lounge. Hense unplug everything is the safe option, if it's safe to do so.
Although this shouldn't happen anymore with "Fibre to the Premises", I would still unplug the modem & router from the mains, in case of a power surge, And any other sensitive electrical equipment from the mains socket.
If you live in an area that has frequent mains supply power loss, get a U.P.S. power supply, or a portable solar generator, to keep the phone and broadband router working. As these will not work if there is a power outage when you switch over to FTTP, without backup power device.
When i work on devices, i unplug them and put the plug into my pant pocket. You never know if someone wants to be nice and flip the switch. I know sometimes we have to work under live wires connected but avoid it as much as possible 😂
Switching off at the socket instead of on standby will save money and save usage on the appliance.
Lol the first test of anyone and every call centre troubleshooting. "Is it turned on at the wall?"
As being German I must admit British plugs are the best, better than our central European Schuko! The long earth pin directs the 0 and the phase. The plugs are amazingly stable. You cannot get eshocked when trying to touch the pins sideways when inserting because of insulation of the pins. Outlets have a switch to shut off electricity without needing to unplug. Great. We should introduce it!
Why is it better than the German one? The schuko get set inside the socket, not on top and I think that's way better... I see the security features... But what else?
@@moranjackson7662 the direction of phase and 0, the fuse in the plug, the switch in every outlet, the cables always pointing downwards and the very stable pins.
@@martingerlitz1162 There are lots off ways that the cable has to go upwards!!So i dont see it as a advantage.
One error was he said that if an appliance has a plug with a plastic earth pin it is double grounded. The correct term is double insulated, not grounded at all. Load balancing on ring circuits is not an issue, it is one of the main reasons ring circuits are used. Also for a given load current on a 240V system is lower than on a 110V system.
The only negative he mentioned that is true, is that if you for some reason leave a plug lying around - you might step on it. Everything else is just nitpicking from bias. Load/Guaging? Not an issue in 99.4% of cases. Size? Size of the plug doesn't matter, as you mentioned, it's about how much room from the wall the plug takes up. Not knowing whether to trouble shoot the lamp or the plug? Step one of troubleshooting, check that it's turned on at the plug, simple.
while mostly agree they negitives are real. stepping on Does hurt. you cant just leave everything plugged in with so many devices, Size while not a big problem does add bulk for mobile devices, example being the steam deck carry case can not properly hold the charge cable as intended due to the size of the plug. and the switch does course small issues when others around. like turniing something on,kettle, toaster, etc while doing things come bback to realise someone had turned off the plug. not huge issue but have been cought out when living with others
The negatives are real and aren't nit picking from bias but nit picking as a review...First of all he acknowledged that these are his preferred plug and secondary he's doing a review and can't say type g are perfect because they are not... but damn close
Type G wall sockets and plugs are also used in Ireland, and, by the way, not mentioned in the video is the fact that mostly you will not find electrical sockets and wall switches in bathrooms. This is a safety issue as it is probably not a good idea to be switching on and off lights and electrical appliances in a damp and steamy bathroom. For that reason also lights in bathrooms are switched on and off by tugging on a cord suspended from the ceiling. Safety is everything!
Most countries I've worked in have bathroom light fittings outside the bathroom door in the hallway. When I built my house in Vietnam, I bought pull switches and 13-amp sockets in the UK, so my house is a mixture of UK and Australian sockets the latter being fit all plug types, these have worn and don't hold plugs as secure as the UK made ones do.
@@TheByard Yes, that would work. Visitors to the UK and Ireland are often puzzled by the lack of electrical outlets in our bathrooms, but I think it makes sense that one shouldn't be risking shock by going too close to 240 volts with wet or damp fingers.
@@76ludlow depends on the size of the bathroom, 230 volt power outlets can be installed in larger bathrooms as well as 110 volt outlets in any size of bathroom.
@@george-ev1dq Yes, but the regulation here is not due to impossibility. It is all about construction practice. It's the rule.
Type G socket on the floor?
AKA "Home security"😂
.
Anyone creeping around stepping on a plug will be heard!
For the last "negative" he gave an example of, although he is correct it would be relatively painful to step on a type G, as there is a switch on the outlet / socket itself which fully cuts power, there isn't really a reason to unplug the device in the first place. Therefore plugs aren't left laying around to walk on.
Nice one! As a UK resident, I do have to say that the reviewer really had to dig deep to get the negatives from somewhere. OK, stepping on a plug can be painful, but in reality that does not happen often. Nobody leaves power cables lying around in the middle of the room, that is just silly! :-D Regarding the size, that is also not an issue. You get used to it, and also being realistic it is as small as it can be made and still contain all the good safety features. Any smaller, and we need to throw out good features. And the last bit, where you have a switch on both the wall plug as well as the appliance, this is a bit contrived too. When changing a bulb we ensure that the source of the power is switched off before we start working, whether this is the wall plug or a circuit breaker in your consumer unit. Once replaced we check that the device works, and if it was double-switched off then it's not really an inconvenience, is just simply "safer". Is it switched on at the wall? Check. Is the device itself switched on? Check. Is it working? Yes/No. If No, troubleshoot. No big deal! 😛
Yeah Jan... He really didn't have to find fault like that... I'm almost 60 years of age... And I've lived in several properties over those 60 years... And not once have i ever had problems with electrical load balancing in any of those properties... Nor do i know of anyone else that's suffered from any load balancing issues in their homes either... This is just scare mongering... And trying to find fault in an electrical system that's far superior to any other electrical system in the entire world... Is just crazy!... And nobody in their right mind would ever unplug their appliances and leave the prongs of the plug facing upwards... Because there's no real need to do that anyway... We simply hit the sockets off switch to isolate the electrical device in question... So there's absolutely no need to remove the plug from the socket... Let alone leave the plug in the middle of the room with the plugs prongs exposed and facing upward... And like you stated Jan... The plugs size isn't an issue either... Especially considering the amount of safety features that the Type G Plug incorporates... It's without doubt one of the greatest and safest designs ever made... And by trying to find fault like he did... Was more than a little disingenuous i think.
@@rickb3645 whenn electricians design the electrics on your house, there is a table and formulae in the IEE reg book and onsite guide as to how to take load into account... callled load diversity frrom what i remembber- did my sparky exams foor 16th edition regs, but they are 19th edition now...
You're absolutely correct. Load balancing is carried out at installation. It's completely standard practice for instance, to put a kitchen on its own ring circuit so as to allow for heavier loads (without the oven of course, which again is on its own circuit). It's a great system.
When I was a student are studying for my NVQ2 and NVQ3 to become an electrician, the first day at college was the morning learning your way around the college and in the afternoon learning how to put a plug on properly (no whiskers of copper or damaged insulation). But that's all in the past as electrical students don't do that anymore. As a qualified electrician asking an apprentice to put a plug on something and getting asked "What do you mean put a plug on?" can be frustrating, firstly it's one of the most basic things, but also frustration towards the college for no longer teaching the basics.
I'm surprised he didn't slip a disc stretching so hard for those cons.
Also: "You can even plug in things like a hairdryer and an iron in -many- all cases." - Fixed it for you.
The whole point of a ring circuit is the current flows in both directions. So all the sockets get equal current. Example: Let's say the length of cable on the ring is 5 metres. There is one socket in each direction at metre and one socket exactly half way. The current to the first socket on the left is at one metre, but it also receives current from the right at 4 metres and the first socket to the right has the same, but opposite direction. The socket half way receives current from both directions at 2.5 metres. They all receive current with equal load on the cables at 5 metres.
That could also be a disadvantage!If there is shortcut there wil be to much current,because in the European plug there is only 16 amps.In the British i have seen up to 30 amps.Because off the lower voltage.We have 230 volt,you still have places with 110 volts.
Hi. I've never heard of anyone ever having a problem with load balancing - in fact, I had to Google it to see what it was! Like you, I also think that the 'negatives' were very petty - the plugs may contain more metal but this is more than compensated by the ring mains using far less metal. And why would you leave a plug trailing on the floor? You don't need to unplug it from the socket as you turn off the power at the socket. Another goood reaction - I've watched a few of yours lately so I've just subscribed. 👍
Not just hairdryers and washing machines........I charge my electric car using one of these!
Load balancing is never an issue nor is the on/off switch.
One of the simple things about having a switch on the socket is that it is extremely easy to see if it is off or on.
Most modern British sockets have a small red strip on the top of the switch which is only visible when it is switched on.
So to see if it's on you just look for red. Or if there is no red strip look at the position of the switch, top out is on, bottom out is off.
If you have a socket behind some furniture, you can use a plug with the furniture pushed right up against it. US plugs with the horizontal wire position are a much greater restriction on where you can place your furniture.
Most bedrooms in the British Isles have wall sockets placed on the wall beside where you would place a bed, so it would be behind a bedside cabinet or table. Allowing you to put a lamp or electric alarm clock/radio on the piece of furniture.
With the introduction of wall sockets that include USB sockets, they are being placed higher on the wall so the USB sockets are available to charge mobile phones, tablets or other media devices.
A lot of equipment manufacturers now produce cables with moulded plugs, for their apliance, that are not able to be opened. They have an external fuse slot like that shown in the vid.
Obviously if something goes wrong with the plug you would then need to replace the whole appliance or get an 'authorised' repair engineer to fix it. Just another way for manufacturers to get more money from consumers. I don't know anyone who wouldn't, either themselves or ask someone who is confident doing so, just cut the faulty moulded plug off and connecting a new plug.
We know when manufacturers are trying to gouge money from their customers. Claims of 'authorised' repairers needed and warranty voided are just encouraging consumers to pay for extended warranties or service agreements.
My dad showed me how to change a plug when I was about 10. Many of my school friends were shown how to, by their own parents or grandparents, around that time too.
You don't really need to be shown how to do it. Each replacement plug comes with a piece of card with plug holes in it, so it attaches to the plug. That card has a diagram of the open plug showing which wire goes to which pin, and how the wires should be placed. The wires are labeled by the colour they are likely to be. There are 2 colour systems. Modern is Live Blue, Neutral Brown, Earth Green + Yellow stripes. The old system is Live Red, Neutral Black, Earth Green.
I grew up with 13 amp plug system as we call them in the UK, now the majority of the wall sockets in a UK are not switched, it's sockets that serve multiple appliances and are plugged in and out several times a day, as in the kitchen. Another good thing about the 3-pin plug is the live wire is fused in the plug, so the fuse needs to be checked for the appliance correct fuse size. Some plugs are molded and are just for the appliance supplied with.
But having the same position for the live/positive feed means it connects to the live/positive terminal in the appliance and so the appliance switching is on the that side. 2 pin plugs can be swapped in a socket, so the live pin engages with the negative terminal.
Missed the fact that under the current regulations here in the UK the ring mains are capable of supplying 7kw but normally the biggest draw is 3kw as they are fuse/circuit breaker is rated for 32amps where as the two pin USA system is much less from a fuse/circuit breaker. Anything that requires a high power draw like an electric shower or cooker require a separate feed. And to top that the power/lighting distribution is split such that a single circuit fault does not turn off all power e.g. a faulty socket/appliance does not mean the lights go off.
No idea what load balancing is! Haven't ever given a second thought to which appliances are plugged in where.
Switches are never an issue - it's the first place to look if something is plugged in but not working!
You only ever really step on it once. Hard lessons are learnt and you just know not to do it again 😆
Great reaction - have subscribed 👍
Yeah, I was wondering about that, I live in the UK and just plug anything in and it just works, never had any issues with load balancing so either it's rare or I've been lucky.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, can't UK plugs handle 3000 watts whereas US plus are half that at 1500 watts?
You're right - UK max is 3000W. According to Google, max in USA is 1800-2400W 😊
It's not something most people need to worry about
It's only a really an issue for electricians wiring a house and thinking about where the large loads are located on rings
@@scollyb That's why we typically have a 32A ring for downstairs, a 32A ring for upstairs, a 32A ring for the kitchen and a dedicated 16-32A circuit for the cooker. Plus the 8-16A ring for lighting, which is either all lighting, or also split into upstairs and downstairs.
You don't need to, electrician will, but there are relatively easy solutions that are used in most houses, for example, kitchen on it's own ring, and utility room is about middle of another ring. Also radial circuits can be used, just often aren't.
Brit here. I’ve stood on one of those plugs, the pain is up there with a kick in the balls 😂 it really hurts!
The negative point he makes about the switch being a double edged sword - that is such a stretch! When you’ve lived with these plugs all your life like I have, the first thing you check is the switch at the socket if something is not working. On a daily basis, I plug the hoover in, switch it on and nothing happens until I switch it on at the wall socket.
Thing is, when you can switch it off at the wall, you don’t need to unplug it. Therefore you don’t stand on it! Also, if you trip on the wire in the UK, it won’t come out the wall to be stood on, whereas in the US it will. Either way, when you learn the hard way not to leave these laying around, much like lego, you just DON’T leave them lying around.
In 35 years, I’ve never had a problem with load balancing and I’m sure all other brits will tell you this. I have an extension lead plugged into one outlet, with a tv, PS5, surround sound system, my phone sometimes and also an iron plugged in - never had a problem! So that negative is simply not true.
I’ve heard in places in America, you can’t have an iron and hairdryer plugged in at the same time or the lights will flicker and it’ll trip something. We’ve never had this problem, we can have all sorts of things plugged in at once with no problem.
He says the plug is far bigger, but look again at our plug vs your plug and imagine them plugged in - when ours is plugged into the wall, the pins are no longer an issue with regards to space. Also the plug is sitting flush against the wall with the wire coming downwards, so you could plug in a lamp and then push a sofa up against the plug - the plug doesn’t stick out any further than the skirting board so if anything it actually saves space vs the us plug with the wire coming out the other way.
Interesting fact - our plug was actually invented in 1944! Appliances used to come with a bare cable until the UK mandated a plug on everything in 1992. I was 3 in 1992, so I’ve never had to wire a plug. But every guy I know in my dad’s generation could wire a plug blindfolded. They learned it in school as it was an essential skill.
Edit: maybe in large commercial offices with dozens of computers plugged in, perhaps that’s when you might get that load balance issue. It’s not something I’ve ever come across so I believe with great certainty that it’s not an issue in a domestic setting. Maybe a large office having given it some thought…
The negatives are not negatives at all. Everyone knows to check the wall switch first if an appliance doesn’t turn on. Also nobody in their right mind leaves plugs unplugged and lying in the middle of the room. First, there’s an on/off switch so there’s no need to unplug them. Second, if they are unplugged they are left by the wall socket and not tossed into the middle of the room. Stephen
You won a like for the honesty mate
I have an iPhone charger thing that is proudly made in the USA (it told me on the box. A lot), and while it will now only charge my phone instead of my watch and earbuds as well at the same time because it was made in the USA, it is infuriatingly intrusive with a rather long horizontal plug in to which a USB must then be inserted. I’d guess my bedside table needs to be six inches off the wall and we in the UK don’t have that sort of space to lose!
It’s not that anyone else’s plugs are bad, just that ours had to be over engineered for conditions including the fact that we use a 240 Volt system which might kill you if not regulated correctly.
I’d prefer ours simply for the safety features to the extent that when I plug in something abroad, I do with trepidation, in case of shock. And I am a grown man I hasten to add.
One other thing about UK plugs and sockets is that it doesn't take all day to boil a kettle, It takes a few minutes unlike other countries
he had to really REACH for the negatives. cant have anything better than the American system..
In my 60+ years I have never, ever had an issue with Load Balancing. Nor has anyone else I know.
Appliance not working? Check the socket (outlet) first then the actual appliance.
Step on a plug? We don't. Because we have switches on the sockets we just leave them plugged in.
I'm British I've seen the video with other Americans reacting and your the 1st I've heard that's thought about how crazy the negatives is, your totally right. 90% of the time the plugs are in the socket or next to the socket tucked away. I'm a little shocked how not very thought of American plugs are, there's nothing to them.
Even as a young girl I learned how to re-wire a plug. A common piece of knowledge that I think is not generally learned these days.
On many sockets the switch sits flush with the panel when off but juts out when on. Using only touch you can confirm whether the socket is on and operate it as well. Useful if it's behind a sofa.
Stepping on an upturned plug is the only negative - the other "negatives" were definitely stretches. Personally, I've NEVER heard of anyone overloading a socket! The highest consumption product in a home is the hob/oven/grill, these items have their own specific circuit by which other items cannot be added.
I'm from the UK, In most cases we just leave the plug in the wall socket, switching power off at that point if you need too, so not possible to stand on the plug, again why would you leave the plug on the floor out in the open, where you can stand on it, either hang it up or pushed up against the skirting board.
What won't be mentioned about the ring circuit in the UK which from my experience in USA is the fact that we have no and I mean no outlet sockets in the bathroom by law. Also we either turn the bathroom light on by pullcord or via a switch just outside next to the bathroom door before you enter. (this has confused many of my American friends here in the UK).
Also in the UK death by electric shock in the home have been dramatically reduce 10 fold from when I was a kid over 50 years ago.
Ive seen places with sockets for electrical shavers and they tend to be the 2-pronged connection, although this was in a hotel so....
The whole idea of a “ring main“ is to balance the load. You have Two feeds supplying each socket. Not one. I’ll give him the point on treading the plug tho!
I know others have said this in the comments but the guy featured in the video, does not know what he is talking about, when he says that the UK has 'Load Balancing issues', no we don't, as a typical house will have 5-6 ring mains covering different areas of the house. In addition, fault finding is very easy, I've watched an electrician do this in my own home and it was straight forward, despite being under some floorboards.
In the UK we only ever call them sockets. An outlet is a shop selling goods direct from the manufacturer and cutting out the retailer. Type G plugs and sockets are also used in Malta, Singapore, and parts of Africa and the Middle East.
and Cypress
@@0venchip Not forgetting Cyprus. 🙄😖
The Lego comment is stupid, we have NO reason to unplug our devises because all our sockets have switches, so the only reason to unplug them is to move them somewhere else, where we plug them back in! You will NEVER step on an un-plugged plug in England!
Or Scotland.
100% agree its very hard to be in a situation where you step on one. But you're taking common sense into the equation, and a quick Google search will give you plenty of images where common sense was not applied 😂
No these days, but go back 30 years the sockets didn’t have switches and yes, you might step on a plug, You’d only do it once though.😆
@@clivenorman2314 More like go back 50 years and some sockets might not have switches but those were only found in older properties.
I can't remember ever having a fault in an actual outlet in 50 years.
One thing that wasn't mentioned was the much faster home EV charging in the UK vs the US.
When I was a radar tech in the RAF we had one instance of a 240V/13A socket in the base of an equipment rack shorting out. I think it must have got hit by something pretty hard. It was a pain in the behind as the main fuse it tok out was Department of the Environment/Property Services Agency responsibility. The not too bright electrician didn't bother to check which one of the two possible fuses was the blown one. This was almost bad for him, as pulling a live 120A fuse is a bit spectacular sparks wise. Bad for us as it removed the other phase from our equipement, taking the radar from 50% operational to 0%. After the fuse was replaced it then took us about three hours to get the radar operational again. Well it was lots of racks full of valves, so had to be started up manually a rack at a time, in the correct order.
62 years and never stepped on a plug,
The negatives are a real stretch, the load balance thing is rarely an issue in this country these days, pretty much all UK households can run our appliances & devices without worrying about overloading the system & tripping the RCD - trouble shooting is pretty straight forward too, check the socket is switched on, if it is, try the lamp in a different plug, if it's still not working then change the bulb, if that doesn't work check the fuse, if there is a problem with the wiring that will trip the RCD, switching off the power to that part of the ring.
The stepping on the plug is easily resolved - put the plug out of the way, or just leave it plugged in as you don't have to unplug it when the socket has an ON/OFF switch.
The size of our plugs are never an issue for us, because we have had these Type-G plugs for a long time, so we're just used to them.
As a rule the first thing anyone in the UK will do when something doesn't switch on is check the socket, making sure the plug is in fully & switched on; our flat plugs mean we can have plug sockets behind furniture & not have to have that furniture 6 inches away from the wall.
Stepping on a UK plug is so painful that almost everyone in the UK will have done it once and once only (i.e. they learn very VERY quickly never to do it again) :D
Stepping on the plug Is more common than getting shocked by one
OMG someone who actually knows what hes talking about and see's thoses negatives as trivial. As others mention below if a qualified electrician has checked or wired the house then load balancing is never an issue. Plus if you haave the switch on the sockets there is less reason to take the plug out to start with. Well spotted too about the fact that it enables furniture to sit snuggly against the wall.
There are quite a few countries that use british style plugs.
I have 4 bedroom house, Dining Room, a Living Room, a Kitchen, a conservatory, a downstairs Toilet and an upstairs Full Bathroom/Shower Room, a Workshop and a Garage.
I can have the lights on in every room, the TV's on in each bedroom, kitchen and Living and Dining Room, along with computers in the bedrooms Living Room, Conservatory, and quite often did when the kids were all living here still, then we could have the washing machine, Tumble Dryer Dishwasher, Fridge, Freezer, Iron, Microwave, Toaster, Hairdryers, Welder in the workshop, all going at the same time and have never had anything trip or fuse!
On the other hand, in our Villa in Spain, if you had two TV's on and a microwave and made the mistake of pluging an iron in, the whole lot would trip in multiple junction boxes and somehow, a Zonal Junction Box downstairs would trip but the main Box upstairs would also trip! How can an iron downstairs trip a Box that is for that Zone and yet the main box upstairs, that feeds the two Zonal boxes downstairs, trip as well?
It is embarrassing when family comes to stay and you have to ask them to shout upstairs if they are putting the microwave on, so we can turn something off!
Yes, we have had electricians look at the system, one just shrugged, and said !esto es normal¡ The other two wanted a 6 month contract to pull the place apart and start again with 'No guarantee' that it would be any different afterwards!
Heavy loads normally demand their own circuit like a cooker or a hob, these might have 4mm wire compared to 2.5mm for a ring circuit and 1.25mm for a lighting circuit. Heavy loads normally would not have a plug on the end but are hard wired into the circuit. Investigate the fuse board (consumer unit) that is even more intelligent in the UK with Residual Current Device, Residual Current Overload and Mini Circuit Breakers.
My second home in Poland is wired Polish and ENGLISH 17th edition also a Caterpillar 100 KVA generator [ bought second hand ] , only 50 hours on it's clock !
compared to standard european plugs (type F like in Germany) the list shrinks down to well, one point. The switch. (the fuse and the serviceable part is no advantage to my feelings, because that also means that it can easily be manipulated and tampered, and a slightly broken cable - just throw it away and get a new one, its not that expenisive and much safer than any wannabe trying to repair it and for example forgetting to connect the neutral.)
Those 2 pin american plugs look so ugly and limp. Surely anything can knock those things out of a socket.
The 16amp radial circuit used in mainland Europe can deliver a maximum power of 3680watts per circuit, so for example if you have a 2Kw space heater and a washing machine or dishwasher at around 2.2Kw when heating (so a total load of 4.2Kw) on the same circuit, eventually the breaker in the panel will trip.
In the UK (with its ring circuit) this doesn’t happen as the ring has a 32amp breaker and so can deliver a continuous maximum power of 7360watts per circuit, the local fusing is then carried out at appliance level by the fuse in the plug (this is primarily to protect the cord when under fault conditions) and then finally by the appliances internal fuse.
On the British system the fused plug is extremely important, as without it the appliances cord could potentially see a sustained 32amp fault current. i.e. a bedside lamp with a 0.75mm2 cord (0.75mm2 is rated current at 6 amps maximum), under fault conditions the cord will melt or catch fire when used on a circuit protected just by a 32amp breaker, the local 5amp fuse in the plug prevents this from happening.
One other thing: Like Euriope, most UK appliance are fitted with a moulded plug; however the fuse is still accessible. Rewirable plugs as shown in the video are normally used as replacements for damaged plugs or to create custom lead sets.
@@alanwood9804excellent post.
Heavy power items like cookers/showers etc are put on individual radial circuits. Ring Mains can handle everything else.
Ireland uses the British type plugs, were we were a former British colony.
Of all the negatives he pointed out, only the one about accidentally stepping on one is of any actual concern, all the others are pretty much a non-issue, unless your house has really really old or shoddy wiring!
I recall when I dated an American lady I would go over and spend a couple of months over there at a time and the one time a plug had come out of the socket and I stood on it BTW great channel.
Once you step on a uk plug, you will never do it again. It will be either pluged into the wall or put away in a cupboard. Where it belongs.
we got taught how to rewire a plug at school, "blue to the left, brown to the right, what ever is left goes in the middle",.
something my grandparents always used to just to us kids, "if your not using it, turn it off at the wall" some thing i still do to this day.
or b[L] to the left, b[R]rown to the right. So it's not like there is even anything to remember - the second letter tells us whether it is left or right.
The gushing of the wire in the wall has to be a standard rating able to carry 230v
The larger plug hurts like a b when you accidentally stand on it!
Hi! Very little world, yours. Just USA and UK😂. I live where, for some aspects, Britain still rules and I miss European plugs. The UK ones are ridiculously chunky. More, even for a low wattage SBANG! The Brick😱. Just consider a phone charger. It needs to be built around the plug. In Europe you have plugs for high wattage with neutral, and the ones for low wattage are much smaller. And people don't get electrocuted for that. Also, the chunky plugs need chunky sockets. I think the design of type G derives from the more flammable house building materials used in UK (at least years ago when the type G was created). Then, some are fused some are not, but shape is "dangerously" the same. BTW, yes the USA plugs are strange. When I have been explained the reason of the holes on the metallic blades, I couldn't believe it. Not sure, but something has changed about those little holes, recently. Thanks.
I've stood on one of those damn plugs before and it is not to be dismissed...f*****g painful.
Modern plugs now are a sealed unit so not as simple as undoing a screw and re-wire.
Safety point he never mentioned is wiring 240v plugs for dummies (trust me I am a member of this exclusive club) BL(ue) wire - Blue Left and BR(own) - Brown Right.
Blue to the left,
Brown to the right
If you don't you'll get a fright - max bygraves
Most homes have several ring circuits, for example one for each floor for receptacles, one for lighting, high power devices such as electric showers and electric stoves will have their own circuit. So load balancing is not an issue. I’ve only stood on a plug once in my 50 years, we don’t really unplug as we have switches
the only ring circuits you will have would be for general power. maybe one on the ground floor one on the first floor and one for the kitchen... everything else in the house will be radials.... all the lighting, the cooker and the shower.
@@nickreed3923 I’m no expert but I’m making the assumption that each fuse in the fuse box (connected to where the mains comes in) is a separate circuit, for example mine has 30a upstairs sockets, 30a downstairs sockets, 30a kitchen sockets, 30a cocker, 30a shower, 15a water heater, 5a downstairs lights and 5a upstairs lights
@@DavidDoyleOutdoors you are correct. my house is 40 years old so although i am an electrician i still have the original fuse box i have literally lighting upstairs lighting downstairs power upstairs power downstairs cooker and shower. for a 4 bedroom house. That's 6 breakers. in a modern studio flat you would have about 9 circuits.
@@DavidDoyleOutdoors if you were to open your distribution board (not saying you should) you would find that everything that supply's your general sockets up stairs down stairs and kitchen will have 2 brown/red cables going into the breaker where the rest will just have 1. (all this is assuming you are from the UK)
@@nickreed3923 ah I see, yes I’m UK based. my logic on my theory that it would take more wiring going back and forth to the fuse box from a single ring circuit than having multiple separate fuses ring circuits. Anyway I’ll do a bit of googling to learn more
The British plugs have more metal and probably cost more but they also last for years decades even because they are more robust and they can be maintained so I'm guessing they are better financially in the long run. I can't ever remember a time I had to buy a new plug for an appliance because of it breaking or wearing out British plugs really do last.
Im living in thailand and they have the same USA plugs but at 220V. The swearing I have when the outlet get lose after just few months or a year max. Its outrage and frustrating !! Im italian and in Italy I have plugs or outlet from the 60s still operate proprelly. ( italy have how EU plugs standars not UK) .
Before uk went to this plug there was 13 different types of plug and where made from Bakelight plastic “eek”
In the only dimension that matters the US plug is much bigger than the UK one. That is how far it sticks out from the wall. The UK plug is much smaller and neater.
Malta uses the same system.
We don't have just "RING MAIN" wiring, we also use "RADIAL" as we know the ring main version can lead to fault finding issues, mainly more time consuming due to difficulty in precise location of the faulty device.
Switching off at the plug is useful for the many devices that don't have a switch on off button or keep using electricity regardless of being 'switched off' (my monitor on off button is essentially a standby mode). The UK plug may be bigger but the US one seems like it will stand out from the wall more given the UK mains cable points upwards when plugged in
I am from the UK and recently our washing machine stopped working. we had an engineer out to fix it and it turned out to be a faulty socket. luckily our engineer was part of a service package so didn't cost us anything but could have been pricey if we didn't have that package.
British gas?
@@yedead1 no. we rent our machine. its part of the package
In new homes you would wire to specification, a general ring and a kitchen ring for example. Then for higher load appliances you would run a radial for that specific item, say a cooker hood or an electric shower. In these cases instead of using 2.5mm or 4mm cable (general ring) we would use 6mm or 10mm cable for the specific radial. It is really not as complicated as he made it sound. Here if something is too powerful to be plugged into a general ring circuit it will not come with a plug on it as standard forcing you to use a fused spur unit or at least evaluate how much load it will take.
The load balancing issue isn't a common problem. Through necessity I have a load of things plugged into one part of the room in a place built in the 70s and though that's not ideal I've not had any problem in twenty four years. It's bordering on academic unless something else is also wrong. Anyone who grew up with this system would automatically check the wall switch was on if a light didn't work and would probably remember if they'd turned it off anyway. He's right about stepping on a plug though. It's hardly likely to happen, but once is enough. As for HOW it would happen, I upset a glass of water on my bedside table onto the multiple socket block my lamp and clock were plugged into, so I switched that off at the wall and unplugged them. Then went to sleep and stepped on a plug when I got up.
The stomping issue can happen, IF, you finish hoovering and unplug but don't retract the cable. Then when walking to the bathroom you first trip on the cable, which pulls the plug away from the wall and then, "AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGHH."
Personal experience. I was ill at the time, and was a little lazy, but the hoovering still needed to be done.
"it's not that severe" -- step on a few or better still jump off your bed and land on one as a kid and say not that severe 🤣
Thankfully we tend to have more sockets in rooms these days, so less plugs left waiting for an unplaced heel or to be plugged in later
they are so British so safe in so many ways and hurt like hell if you step on them with bare feet you cant just stick thing in them so little kids and some big ones don't get shocked we also have covers you plug into the socket that are flat to discourage kids sticking thing in to hols in the socket cool a
I believe that those covers are discouraged as the sockets already have shutters, and if the plastic pin that goes into the earth breaks off when you're removing it, you've just defeated one of the safety measures!
I would like,to say he's got some things wrong 1 the Square within a square does not mean double grounded it's means it's dubble Insulated. In a uk home with an upstairs we have 2 rings Circuits 1 for up and 1 for down plus we have a radial circuit for the kitchen so load Balancing is not a problem. Cable size coming in we have 6mm to the Consumer unit then for the plugs we have 2.5mm running on 32 amp fuse fir the ring circuit a 20 amp for radial circuit then we have 1.5mm for the lights on 6amp
The design of the UK plugs and sockets is very well thought out. I believe Australia also has their own design that is also very good with many similar features (I remember seeing a video showing them). There are other countries that use the type-G (in places but maybe not universally).
I dont know why he mentions load balacing it isnt anything ive heard anyone mention like ever. We dont need to unplug we just turn it off at the wall, and the lamp problem he would have to be an idiot not to be able to check wethernit is turned on at the wall.
American's like and want everything big...
American doesn't like big plug. Yet that big plug has more benefits than the american one. It might be big in width and height, but it's certainly shorter in length which is more better and easier to put beds, chairs and other things in front of it without damaging the cable (or yanking it out when you clip the cable).
The wall switch can actually help when it comes to bills. You might forget about the switch if you're not used to it. But if you remember about the switches and all, it becomes second hand nature to you. When you cut the power from the wall, it cuts the power to everything connected to it that still would normally drain power when on sleep mode (Xbox and so on).
6:30 - He's wrong. The plug he's holding can be serviceable but that's not the case with all the plugs that come in household appliances. I lost count of how many vulcanised type G plugs I had to cut from appliances that my customers brought from the UK, to install type F plugs so that they didn't have to use adaptors all over their homes. Moreover, the size of the adaptors made it impossible to connect type G plugs side by side, so they needed to have a 5 or 6 outlet extension just to connect 3 of their plugs.
That's not a criticism of the design of the plugs and sockets in the UK though. The design allows them to be user serviceable and they used to be universally so. Over time manufacturers started to supply electrical products with a non-serviceable type G plug. That's something to criticize about those manufacturers, not the design of the plugs and sockets.
Most people don't bother unplugging them because they just switch them off
The downsides he mentions are no issues at all. Our ring circuits have circuit breakers that are surge protectors. Nobody is dumb to leave a plug lying around to stand on.
It could have been worse. When I was a little kid I sprayed water into the back of the TV set to see what would happen. It breaks, basically.
If you come to Malaysia. You will find exactly this. Even the colour code is the same
I also verify that standing on one of our UK plugs is like standing on Lego times 100 😂
Well we don`t need to unplug to make it a danger to step on, just turn it off at the socket!
You will find them elsewhere in the world. For example Kenya (and perhaps other parts of Africa).
The ring main in the UK is rated at 32 Amps hence the need for a fuse in each plug. Unfortunately most equipment manufacturers supply their products with a 13 Amp fuse when a 5 Amp is sufficient. Another problem with the ring is if it is broken you now have two 32 Amp radials which can lead to all sorts of problems.
Plugs now come fitted and should be fused with the correct fuse for the appliance. Back in the day hardware shops would ask if you wanted a smaller amp fuse and give you one. As the plug would come fitted with the 13 amp ones.
A comparison with 2 examples is probably not entirely representative, in any case the British plug is superior to the American one.
You always have to look at the entire system... the cold device plugs (Schuko, with grounding) can be rotated by 180 degrees. You can also replace the plug or add a switch...
We use these in Hong Kong, still.
Sadly as with many things in Hong Kong, probably still only for the time being.
I do agree that stepping on an upturned plug hurts like a mother!
The UK & Republic of Ireland have the same electronic systems...
Malta uses them as well ,!
Load balancing has never ever been an issue, and i dont know anyone else who has had issues with it.
I am 43 and this is the only person in my life I've heard mention load balancing.... Man's clutching at straws on that one
As a British person a lot of his negatives were redundant. If a British person tries to turn on a device and it's not working the FIRST thing they do is check it's on at the socket. If you are stupid and lazy enough to leave a plug on the floor where it can be stepped on then that's on you it's not on the design of the system. As for the size it's actually a benifit in able to get a plug into a socket that's not easy to reach for example behind a couch
99% of people in the UK don't know anything about load balancing... it's just not an issue for anyone.
I'd rather step on a plug than chance, having 240v coursing through my body 😂
Trust me….You really wouldn’t, and yes I have had an electric shock.😆😂
Lower voltage? Twice the current to do the same job. Thicker and more expensive cables.