That wasn’t the bottom line at all. Ring mains might be a bad idea, but mandatory switched receptacles are among the most obviously good ideas there are. US Type A electrical plugs and sockets are possibly the worst-designed objects in common use (Type B is slightly better). I think part of the misunderstanding is the belief that having a socket switch is only useful because it saves power. On the contrary, the most useful aspect of the switch is that the plug doesn’t begin drawing current as soon as you plug it in. Anyone who’s plugged a North American TV into a socket that’s hidden behind some furniture has probably been shocked at some point, because the plug and socket are live as soon as the pins go in. Generally not fatal with 120V mains, but pretty fucking unpleasant.
Wikipedia is most forthcoming on the subject. The UK standard was created by a committee formed for the purpose and headed by a remarkable woman electrical engineer who was very concerned about electrical safety in the home but very aware of liberating effect on the lives of women of electrically powered appliances in the home.
There is surely a movie script there?
The standard was devised during a time in the UK when everything was centrally planned for the war effort. I guess in the US the standards were arrived at as a result of patent wars.
Did the UK end up with a better standard because of this?
I think so. The UK plug is remarkably safe and solid design. No sparky accidental disconnections.
BTW, that doesn’t seem to correlate with plug type and voltages:
Netherlands - 230V, C/F type plugs. Uzbekistan is 220V, C/F plugs. Most of Europe, in fact, uses C and F type:
I think the major factor is probably public education concerning safe use of electrical devices, not the connector type. Actually, I like the F type plug from the standpoint of convenience - it’s not polarized, so you don’t have fumble around figuring out which way it goes into the socket, but it’s still a grounded plug design.
Mildly funny story:
I was in 7th grade Electronics class using the oscilloscope at my desk when it was time to put everything away. I tried to unplug it but the outlet was really tight and it only came about half way out. I thought to myself “man, I need a better grip on that thing” and proceeded to wrap my hand around it with my fingers touching the prongs.
After I let go due to the shock, I had a little laugh that I made that mistake in Electronics class.
I think we’re going to need some cite for this ‘rule’ which only you seem to think exists
The only thing I can think of is that cost and historic preservation sometimes outweigh safety - such as when a listed building doesn’t get a fire escape because it would require modifying the fabric of the building. That’s hardly a UK-specific thing, though (see - every building in Italy).
At one time there existed a considerable number of two-pin 2A, three-pin 3A and 5A (and indeed 15A, though that was usually only found on electric stoves) sockets in houses, many of which were built before electricity was common in the home.
As a result manufacturers could never tell what kind of plug an appliance would require, and so left it with bare wires. You would get the retailer to fit a plug, or the more proficient could do it themselves (we always did).
My house, built in 1951, came with 5A sockets all on separate spurs going back to the fusebox. All except for one, which was tried into the ground floor lighting circuit, because some electrician couldn’t be bothered to do his job properly. Later my father added a ring main with BS1336 13A sockets, which we thought was a great advance and much safer.
You can still get the old sockets, if you know where to look, and I’ve even seen a recently refurbished house where new ones have been fitted. Though I can’t think why they used them.
You sometimes get a lighting circuit installed with small round-pin plugs so you can control table and floor standing lamps from a wall socket. They use a different plug to discourage you plugging in high-power appliances which would trip the breaker.
Typo. Officially its 230v
But your citation supports the “misconception”. Cheaper and more efficient due to using a lower quantity of expensive materials to get the desired effect.
We have switched sockets in Aus, but actually my TV is plugged into a power board behind the TV. I’ve never been shocked by it.
We don’t use sockets for lighting in Aus, as we did in Arizona in the 60’s, so in Melbourne we’ve never had sockets controlled by a separate wall switch as we did in Phoenix.
@ Really not at all that bright -
I have no disagreement about the plug design, but I struggle with the individually switched wall receptacles being a “good” idea. When I was last in the UK, I was told unanimously that they were there to save electricity. When I posted this question previously I was informed they were actually for safety, so that one could switch the receptacle off if the appliance caught fire (although it seems to me that is very rare). Now you’re saying that they’re used for safety when you put in / out plugs? But I thought the plug design was the safest in the world - why then is this redundancy needed?
If this is such a “good” safety feature why doesn’t anyone know about it? It seems to me the ignorance of it’s purpose defeats the purpose.
BTW - I have never once been shocked by an appliance while using my “world worst design” North American style plug - every house I’ve lived in for the last 25 years has GFCI receptacles which prevent that. Do they not have these mandated in the UK? If so, are the plugs, switches and GFCI now triple super, hyper, mega safety redundancies?
Regarding “what’s the harm”: in talking with a couple of electricians I know, they said they cost of the receptacle would be significantly higher but the cost of wiring every receptacle in a house so each could be individually switched would also be dramatically higher. (Can any Doper electricians confirm or deny this?)
I’d suggest the driver behind these so-called “worlds best safety measures” is a very powerful electricians guild lobby group who have a vested self-interest over-engineering safety features. They make a lot of money (and suck that money out of the public’s pockets and the UK economy) by promoting fear.
Other than the size drawback, UK outlets do seem superior to the US.
What about light switches? Many, most, all? of the kitchens and bathrooms (loos?) use pull cords to turn the lights on and off, instead of a standard wall mounted light switch. I think there is still some fear of electricity going on with that, though I’m happy to have it explained how a non-conductive pull cord from a ceiling mounted switch is an important safety feature around water.
I imported a UK kettle to the US specifically to remove the UK plug and install a NEMA 6-20P on it. Then I could plug it into a 240V 20amp outlet intended for a window AC in my old condo. If I ever redo the kitchen in my house I’ll add a 240 outlet. It worked fantastic and boils water in about a third the time of a regular US 120v kettle. It’s a difference of about 2800 watts in the UK to 1500 watts in the US, which is a big deal when you want a cuppa.
The switch is built into the receptacle itself. It’s not a separate component requiring additional labor to wire in.
By U.S. prices, a light switch is about $1, and a basic electrical outlet is also about a dollar. So it would be $2 for a combo switched outlet. You also need a slightly larger box so maybe another buck in materials there.
Even with slightly higher prices in Britain, and accounting for even higher prices before the 2000s with Chinese mass manufacturing, it wouldn’t have made much difference.
The UK shutter socket design has migrated over to the US and is code for new construction in my area. they don’t add that much to construction cost.
The plug is a great idea but having consumers install them made no sense at all. Not even a little.
what I would like to see, and I think it’s British thing, are junction boxes with built in busses. Instead of pig-tailing wire with wire nuts you just connect them to a bus. Really cleans up the real estate behind sockets and switches. The closest I’ve found are wago lever nuts. I’d like them built into the box.
Those wago nuts are great.
An even simpler solution might be to just get some small subpanel bus bars and install those in a junction box. Dunno if it would meet code tho.
One big advantage of having a switch on a power socket is that you can turn the power to an appliance off without pulling the plug out. It is generally recognised that one of the most painful things around is to step on an upturned plug top with bare feet:)
These things evolve over time: When I was a young man in the 50s/60s plugs had round pins and sockets and no switches. Getting a shock by touching a live pin was not uncommon. Most light switches were metal and not earthed, so shocks from badly wired light switches were common too. Stragely, now that they are all earthed, shocks from static are common; not so lethal though.
Typically, a house would be wired with one light in the middle of the ceiling and one single power socket. Of course, as appliances became more available, people just made ‘Christmas trees’ of adaptors to run the new TV, the old wireless (radio), a 3Kw electric fire, a floor lamp, and on wash days, an electric iron. When I lived in ‘digs’ the power socket was on a meter that I had to feed with coins, so I did my ironing and even heated the room, by plugging everything into the light socket.
With all this, and remember that everyone had to fit their own plugs, you can see the potential for shocks and fires - it’s no wonder that the rules were tightened up and dire warnings given out on public media.
I remember plug wiring being a mandatory class during one of our physics lessons in my girl’s school in the mid 80s.
Even though we now have plugs fitted as standard, it’s amazing how often this useful skill comes into its own, such as fitting a plug to a vintage shop sign the other week.
I would expect to have switches on all sockets, unless they were things that are ‘always on’. There’s no upside to not having one.
Wiring a plug correctly is one of the life skills everyone should possess.
I too, can remember ‘digs’ where there was just a single gas ring to cook on, and no electrical socket at all in the room, just one out on the landing. The place hadn’t been updated since the 1940s, right in the centre of town, too. This was in the 1980s.
Actually it’s officially 230V, nowadays. Before 2003 it was nominally 240V in the UK and 220V in mainland Europe, but now it’s 230V in both. However there is a 10% wiggle room either side so in effect nothing changed. Cite.