Metropol

Gavin Scott wrote:You just can't get the staff these days.

you don't think it's because you pay your staff mouldy crisps then?

Hymagumba wrote:

Gavin Scott wrote:You just can't get the staff these days.

you don't think it's because you pay your staff mouldy crisps then?

Well what else is that scrawny baby going to eat?

Honestly, Pete. Have a heart.

Gavin Scott wrote:Well what else is that scrawny baby going to eat?

well if your maid cleaned properly then she'd have plenty food to give it

How come that Britain is the only country that uses these stupid plugs? Every other country uses the 2-prong ones which are much better IMO.

I'd hate to see any changes to our plug system. It is precisely because we DON'T have 2 pin plugs that we have the safest system in the world. All 3 pin plugs means all 3 pin sockets and all 3 pin extension leads, so that all sockets are earthed, so that all appliances which need an earth will have one.

Going the way of other countries and only putting in the 3rd pin on devices which only actually need an earth, along with manufacturing 2 pin extension leads and 2 pin sockets will only lead to idiots electrocuting themselves when appliances needing an earth don't get one and the devices malfunction.

Aswell as that, having internal fuses in every plug (which many countries do not) makes for a much safer system than relying on a master fuse/circuit breaker protecting the socket itself. The only flaw with the system is that all plug-top fuses are the same size, causing countless idiots to use 13 amp fuses without a second thought when the appliance in question needs the protection of a 3 or 5 amp fuse (I also never understood why the 1 amp plug top fuse was discontinued - these days most 'mains operated' devices actually just use the mains to power a low voltage DC transformer drawing far less than the 200 watts that a 1 amp mains fuse can protect).

Just had to make sure, didn't want to blow anything up! All working fine, thanks Gav.

Gavin Scott wrote:Oh I don't know anything about that.

I have a Filipino maid.

I'm so jealous - my maid is Polish, and she just refuses to die every time I push her down the stairs. They build these Eastern Europeans too well these days.

Gavin Scott wrote:Actually Britain's internally fused plugtops are far superior to continental versions.

But you forget that on the mainland, circuit breakers are the norm, which trip far faster than a wire fuse burns out, so therefore pose less danger.

Cwathen wrote:Going the way of other countries and only putting in the 3rd pin on devices which only actually need an earth, along with manufacturing 2 pin extension leads and 2 pin sockets will only lead to idiots electrocuting themselves when appliances needing an earth don't get one and the devices malfunction.

I have just tried inserting a three pin type plug (actually it is a two pin plug with a hole for the third earth pin which projects from the wall socket (France/Belgium) or side contacts (Germany/Leutzebuerg) into a two pin extension lead and it is not physically possible.

As the man said at Siblelgaz (now Sibelga) said
'We take electrical safety seriously" [at the time implying that in the UK of GB & NI they do not].

An interesting fact is that there is no standard voltage in Brazil. It's usually 110v, but in some parts of the country it's 220v.

[/eugene]

But you forget that on the mainland, circuit breakers are the norm, which trip far faster than a wire fuse burns out, so therefore pose less danger.

Circuit breakers have become the norm here too, indeed AFAIK it's against current building regulations not to install a consumer unit with circuit breakers, and such a unit is a requirement in business premises. Wire fuses are only supported for the benefit of older installations, which by rights should now only be found in domestic houses.

Further to that, a fuse protecting the socket must be able to tolerate the maximum load of the socket and appliances which do not draw this amount of current and so would be safer with a lower amperage fuse cannot enjoy that protection. With individually fused plugtops however, you are able to protect the device with a fuse matched to the appliance itself.

Aswell as the added safety, it's also more economical to do things this way - because in the UK we have a system of a fuse in every plug, it's possible to wire all the sockets in a house on a single ring main ultimately protected by a single 30 amp fuse/circuit breaker. In the case of non-fused plugs however, it is necessary for each and every socket to have it's own dedicated cable leading back to it's own dedicated fuse.

I have just tried inserting a three pin type plug (actually it is a two pin plug with a hole for the third earth pin which projects from the wall socket (France/Belgium) or side contacts (Germany/Leutzebuerg) into a two pin extension lead and it is not physically possible.

Picking up on the French plug design incorporating a prototruding earth pin, is this really safe? In the event of an earth fault, the current will travel down the earth wire. Every other earth wire which connects back to that earth point will become live too. Every 3 pin French socket therefore carries a protruding rod which can become live at any time, without warning of any kind, and ultimately could kill.

How is that design safer than the UK's?

cwathen wrote:With individually fused plugtops however, you are able to protect the device with a fuse matched to the appliance itself.

Electrical devices which are that sensitive, have their own internal very low current (less than 0,5 A) fuses.

Cwathen wrote:Every 3 pin French socket therefore carries a protruding rod which can become live at any time, without warning of any kind, and ultimately could kill.

By your fallacy the exposed metal tips of the UK of GB & NI earth pin sprockets would have the same problem. And consider that the earthing point for most domestic systems in the UK of GB & NI is the cold water pipes, this would mean that the whole of the cold water plumbing system could become live without any warning and ultimately kill unspecting users of the water faucet.

What you forget is that current flows along the path of least resistance, so the path to earth is where the current flows, which is why it is absolutely essential to have a proper earth connection.

See pictures of plugs and receptacles at

<http://users.pandora.BE/worldstandards/ ... .htm#plugs>