Reinventing the Great British Plug?
- Thread starter RandomTom
- Start date
Nice folding system, very dubious of it's electrical safety. For a start, the fuse comes after the folding mechanism, any connection before the fuse really needs to be 100% trustworthy and that mechanical part doesn't look like it is. In fact, the L and N contacts look to be almost touching in the exploded view, due to the use of the rotating contact system. They can't be obviously, but I doubt they have the required clearance and creepage distance between them and being moving parts it's all too likely those live unfused connectors with come into contact at some point. That's a massive fire risk, considering this type of plug will be used for low current devices exclusively and could in some cases be limited only by a 20A ring breaker.
The design is also clearly more fragile. It's entirely likely someone will pull on the cable or walk into the part sticking out and with this design, the levering forces can crack the moulding leaving live connections exposed. The plug may also fail due to wear of the folding mechanism or the not insignificant insert/removal forces.
I don't see it getting approval honestly. The currently sold folding design is about as far as you can go with this safely. When it comes to the mains it really has to be idiot proof as virtually everyone uses it and very few have any idea what it can really do!
The design is also clearly more fragile. It's entirely likely someone will pull on the cable or walk into the part sticking out and with this design, the levering forces can crack the moulding leaving live connections exposed. The plug may also fail due to wear of the folding mechanism or the not insignificant insert/removal forces.
I don't see it getting approval honestly. The currently sold folding design is about as far as you can go with this safely. When it comes to the mains it really has to be idiot proof as virtually everyone uses it and very few have any idea what it can really do!
Genuine LOL from me.
While it is an awesome design, and kudos to the designer - I have a feeling our plugs are like they are for a reason. I can't understand why some Americans say our plug design is bad. On the flip side I think US plugs are a poor design, at least ours don't wobble in the socket!
Think of concept cars that make it to market. They look nothing like the ones everyone wowed over at the shows. This is because legislation and safety play their part and things have to change. If that plug does make to to market with a CE mark, it will be probably as big as our current one - just foldable.
Anyhow it is redendent because the AC-DC adapters we have to convert 240v into something lower will still be fatter than a Mac Book Air.
Maybe Apple should make fat laptops?
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Stops the house burning down.
it will never take off because to put it simply ''whats the point''
they have pretty much invented a problem so they can make the solution.
no one needs a small plug. who has honestly ever thought ''my plug is too big'' ?
and then if they have then why havent people moaned at manufacturers about it. theres much small 3pin plugs around and ive never ever seen anyone praise them
also if the smallness and clean look is what people like then someone could design a much cleaner looking method of hot to plug a cable into a socket
they have pretty much invented a problem so they can make the solution.
no one needs a small plug. who has honestly ever thought ''my plug is too big'' ?
and then if they have then why havent people moaned at manufacturers about it. theres much small 3pin plugs around and ive never ever seen anyone praise them
also if the smallness and clean look is what people like then someone could design a much cleaner looking method of hot to plug a cable into a socket
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Odd that we don't have this problem in Australia, then. Oh wait - that must be because we have circuit breakers and RCDs. Like you do. And yet, you continue to use fuses even though you don't actually need them anymore.
Odd that we don't have this problem in Australia, then. Oh wait - that must be because we have circuit breakers and RCDs. Like you do. And yet, you continue to use fuses even though you don't actually need them anymore.
If a 3A device draws 12A due to a short the breaker won't trip because it's within the 13A limit and the device could set on fire. Having a fuse also stops the circuit breaker tripping and power being cut to all the sockets on the same circuit.
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Australian plugs look relatively normal. South Africa has massive plugs. They are similar to the UK design but twice as big with round pins. It might be the same as the ones you see for lighting equipment in theatres.
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Odd that we don't have this problem in Australia, then. Oh wait - that must be because we have circuit breakers and RCDs. Like you do. And yet, you continue to use fuses even though you don't actually need them anymore.
The benefit of this is that when an appliance is drawing too much power (usually indicative of a fault) you know exactly which one needs attention, and it doesn't throw the whole circuit so you can go fix it with the lights still on
The benefit of this is that when an appliance is drawing too much power (usually indicative of a fault) you know exactly which one needs attention, and it doesn't throw the whole circuit so you can go fix it with the lights still on
Although if your wiring is within normal spec even if the breaker trips on the sockets you'll still have lighting...
Anyway as you say, the reason for fuses in plugs is to isolate the fault locally, which is potentially quite important when the wiring on low power devices is often not rated to the same level as the wiring on the mains circuit, and will overheat well before the breaker trips.
I've never found a device which suffered a short without tripping a breaker or RCD. I know that our power sockets are rated for 10 amps; don't know about our circuit breakers and RCDs, but it all seems to work rather nicely.
The benefit of this is that when an appliance is drawing too much power (usually indicative of a fault) you know exactly which one needs attention, and it doesn't throw the whole circuit so you can go fix it with the lights still on
In Australia we usually have separate power circuits for lights and mains. It is also common to have a separate RCD for each circuit. I can switch off all the lights from the switchboard without affecting appliances, and if the kettle trips the mains RCD, my lights will remain on.
Isolating the fault is the only real benefit I can see in the traditional fuse method.
RCD's don't trip for circuit overloads, they protect against electrocution by shutting off power when current flows to ground. Only the other week when the fuse blew did I discover that the tv wires had melted, if the fuse hadn't been in there I dread to think what could have happened. I even had a cheapo router/switch which caught fire even with a fuse!
Fuse's are in plugs to protect the cable it feeds.
It makes it impossible for the device to draw more current the the CSA of the cable can carry safely. Without the fuse a device could draw more current and basically turn the cable into a red hot set your house on fire heating element!
/ electrician
P.S) Thats not how an RCD works at all!! That's one of the ways MCB's work (Perspective fault current, Earth fault loop impedance ...etc ...etc)
RCD's detect the current in both the Phase and Neutral and are activated as soon as they detect an imbalance
It makes it impossible for the device to draw more current the the CSA of the cable can carry safely. Without the fuse a device could draw more current and basically turn the cable into a red hot set your house on fire heating element!
/ electrician
P.S) Thats not how an RCD works at all!! That's one of the ways MCB's work (Perspective fault current, Earth fault loop impedance ...etc ...etc)
RCD's detect the current in both the Phase and Neutral and are activated as soon as they detect an imbalance
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Good idea, but I have to ask myself, for me, is there any real advantage of using that over a standard plug? The answer is no, and I bet the general population will feel the same way, especially if the price of this plug is a lot more expensive than the standard counterpart.
Innovations are great, but if you take something that's only remotely beneficial to a small minority of people, and then slap a larger price tag on it, it isn't going to get very far.
Innovations are great, but if you take something that's only remotely beneficial to a small minority of people, and then slap a larger price tag on it, it isn't going to get very far.