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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, December 12 2012 @ 08:19 AM EST |
You know, I wonder where all the smart British engineers went, since after
designing some of the best standards in the world*, we now use MS.
*Driving on the left, 999-emergancy back with rotary telephones, and the 3-pin
plug system are the ones that spring instantly to mind.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Winter on Wednesday, December 12 2012 @ 08:27 AM EST |
"The UK 13 amp plug system is by far the safest anywhere in
the world, and if the EU was working correctly, it would become the standard,
but that would require lots of additional work because in certain parts of the
EU, live and neutral are not well-defined and the ground point of the supply
system, if any, is somewhat arbitrary."
But safe only because the ring wires must be able to carry up to 30 (60?) AMPS.
That is triple the current in continental Europe (9 times the power).
The euro connectors are pretty safe as they will always be behind 10A fuses. As
there is also an earth leak switch on the fuse board, the exact grounding is
largely irrelevant. A simple screwdriver with led can tell you which wire is
life.
From the top of my head, I can think of sunken UK wall connectors with an inset
13 AMP UK converter to standard Euro plugs. Easy to apply over time.
However, the real bone of contention was that continental Europe had already
largely standardized on German plugs.
As the odd-one-out, the UK refused to convert on anything the others already
had. I clearly remember the UK delegation made it a make or break point that any
agreed standard should be equally inconvenient for all members. The rest already
had their standard and just went on without the UK.
As a result, UK consumers bear the cost of this incompatibility.
---
Some say the sun rises in the east, some say it rises in the west; the truth
lies probably somewhere in between.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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