BS 1363 British Plugs and Sockets

1. There is little size difference between your choices and BS1363 plugs/sockets. They are large, I concede, but that is in pursuit of the many safety features of the plug.

2. Better have it than not. Plus, it makes for a single uniform plug design and specification that is straightforwardly adhered to.

3. IMO this is a good thing as it allows furniture to be set up considerably closer to the walls.

Funny you mention hotels, because I was in one in France not two weeks ago and it had the worst sockets I've ever seen. My phones took forever to charge, half the sockets didn't even seem to have power, and they all had this unintuitive setup where there was a spring loaded panel in the socket that needed to be twisted to get the plug in.

Now, I've seen some odd BS1363 setups, but never one this strange.

My only issue with the plug is 3. sort of. I prefer the cable being perpendicular to the plug (prevents accidental removal), but I wish there was a standard dictating which way it should leave relative to the earth pin. Drives me mad when plugging in items to an extension lead and they all come off in different directions.

Agreed. If anything it's an icon of overengineering. The main advantage imo is that you dont need to worry about a kid sticking a fork into the wall socket. I grew up with it so i never really thought it strange that the plugs are 2 or 3 times bigger then necessary. It's an event every time you connect to the National Grid as the plug slots into the wall with a satisfying clunk, so there's that i guess.

Ironically the older BS546† had smaller plugs for lower powered appliances. But each different size of plug needed a different socket, because the fuse was in the socket. This system is still used in India, but I'm not sure how widespread it is.

† https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/OldBritish1.html

If a device doesn't require grounding the third pin is often just made of plastic so it opens the shutters.

There are newer design with foldable pins. Other than size I dont see anything you mentioned as downsides. Especially Earth Pin.

You're completely right. People love the British plug because it has lots of features but they're mostly obsolete features or required by the equally obsolete ring wiring. So in the end, it's just a pile of useless inconveniences. Don't Britons have RCDs?

4. Hurts when you step on it.

I found that there's a surprising difference in quality for what feels like it should be a commodity item. All the outlets in my newish build were tamper-resistant, and pretty much as you described -- at best they were unpleasantly stiff and awkward to use, and some specific outlets would require a worrying amount of force and wiggling to plug anything in.

After a couple of high-usage outlets got jammed to the point that nothing could be plugged in, I replaced them with ones from the hardware store, and they are a big improvement. The existing outlets are unbranded, and I guess were from a bulk box of the cheapest that the electrician could source.

In my experience, Leviton are OK (much better than what was originally fitted), but Eaton are great -- they require slightly more force than non-TR outlets, but they're consistent, reliable, and I've never had to try more than once to plug anything in.

> the shutter just works with minimal resistance

11 years living in the UK. I don't think even once I thought of it as _minimal resistance_. At best it requires a firm push. At worst, a couple of hammerings with the side of the fist.

Note that I don't mind the ground pin or having things grounded by default. Even if it wasn't more or less essential due to the mind blowing lack of safety of the ring circuit, it's still a nice and cheap enough extra bit of protection.

Yeah mate, lost count the of number of times I've burnt my house down using these plugs over the past 30 odd years.

Can you explain how an added safety feature of a fuse increases the risk of a house burning down?

A fuse? The plug accepts fuses rated from 1A to 13A. It can be tailored to the requirements of the appliance

Ovens in the UK are usually wired in. Plugs go up to 13A, suitable only for small (e.g. tabletop) ovens.

You usually do not plug an oven into a standard 230V socket in Germany. They are connected to 3 phase outlets with 400V and up to 16A, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Having lived in both countries for a while, I find the Swiss plugs nowhere near as satisfying, and the flat (non-recessed) wall outlets are also prone to plugs becoming loosened due to weight, similar to the US/CAN/JP plug.

I do quite like the compactness and aesthetic of the three-prong plug with three plugs in a typical wall fixture, and the compatibility with the two-prong Europlug is convenient. However, using even one adapter with a foreign plug often obstructs the other two plugs in a three-plug fixture, particularly as the adapter usually isn’t reversible if grounded, which is quite annoying if that’s the only socket in a room.

I guess the UK plug being large enough to subsume most foreign plug adapters is one silver lining of its size.

Neither one of this are issues. Devices need to be manufactured so that you cannot touch potentially live connections if they are connected to sockets.

Irrelevant. If neutral gets disconnected, your hypotetical device will have hot case anyway. That is why devices without grounding have to be double insulated

It’s better to just assume neither conductor can be touched.

There is no use case touching neutral conductors or neutral connected metal cases. No functionality is lost by having devices be double insulated, and in practice most if not all devices on the UK market are made to also be marketable in countries with non-polar connectors.

The shutter prevents someone (including children) shoving something metal into the live/hot. I have never heard of it failing. Newer US outlets (TR/tamper resistant) are way more finicky because of the optional ground pin. Sticking the little plastic covers over the outlet is a workaround.

The reason for a fuse is because of the high current capacity of ring circuits vs branch/radial. The fuse protects the power cable of appliances catching fire as they can’t handle the current available on the circuit .

Ring circuits are a thing due to minimizing copper usage when rebuilding after ww2.

Not only do they fall out, they also like to slide out part way, exposing the hot part of the plug while still being hot. In EU and these British ones, once it slides out a bit, it will lose contact before you can touch the metal.

I can't imagine any 2 pin plug being as mechanically stable as a 3 pin. Certainly here in Asia I am regularly being driven bonkers by 2 pin plugs dropping out of sockets the moment a butterfly shakes its wings on the other side of the planet.

One common complaint I get from my newly arrived expat colleagues is that their PC gives them slight electric shocks when they use it. IANAE (I am not an electrician), but I assume that this is because of some capacitor voodoo in the PC's power supply. The problem is cured by grounding the assembly.

The British plug/socket embodies the British ethos: nanny state, 'cannot be too careful' etc. In British parlance it is 'belt and braces'. But yes I agree it may be overkill.

Yes, the schuko seems to be a nice in-between of the compactness of the US plug and the mechanical robustness of the British plug and the bonus is that it can still take the Europlug. They definitely could have made it a bit smaller but it's good enough.

Have you actually ever stepped on one?

If you have, then why was it unplugged? A plug should be plugged in (in which case it is safe) or it is superfluous.

I've managed to struggle through to the age of 54 without treading on one of our thrusting tri-pronged plugs. It is surprisingly easy to avoid stepping on them.

I never understood this. Just don't ever unplug a device. That's why BS1363 sockets come with switches.

Yeah, those are the same standard - they're still legal. The large ones were used in theatre lighting until recently (wiring is radial and you don't want a fuse to blow 5m above the stage in any case).

I think India still uses them, too.

It's a theoretical benefit even with radial wiring, I think, for some smaller devices. A lamp that's designed to draw an amp will have a small, low-current flex which will fail before the main circuit breaker trips (while a 3A fuse would have protected it).

In reality I don't think it matters, and even on a ring main the MCBs often trip before the device fuses blow these days.

In the UK (and some former colonies) houses were wired differently to save on copper making fuses in plus necessary.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_circuit

It was for the odd ring topology they have. The fuse in type F was sarcasm, as this is unnecessary. Although some plugs in China, used for boilers and aircos, do come with one or a resetable fuse.

I did not know switches weren't compulsory!

"A variety of designs and colors" I only see a very few actually available, even via the internet (when I've looked). But you're probably right. I lived in the U.S. for a while, where variety in receptacles is easily obtainable.

That and because UK uses a ring circuit, which was seen as a solve for a copper shortage at the time.

Ring circuits generally way higher in power - and a lot more than a single appliance needs or could handle. Hence the need for a fused plug.

The upside is each socket can take a 13A plug (circa 3kW), whereas a standard US socket maxes out closer to 1.8kW.

Maybe true, but BS 1363 dates to the late 40s and the Schuko illustration below is from the early 30s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SCHUKO-Patent.svg

Rather, I think the British decided to iterate (for better and for worse) on their earlier design that looks a lot like BS 1363.

Personally, having lived for an extensive amount of time in places with Schuko ("Europe"), NEMA ("US"), and BS 1363 ("British") plugs/sockets, I will take Schuko any day over the other two. Schuko stays in place, is grounded when it needs to be, is flexible when it comes to how it leads the cord out of the plug/socket, and so on. For all the touting of safety, "no sparks", etc. that we hear about BS 1363, I have never seen it out of a Schuko (NEMAs on the other hand...). Yes, BS 1363 improves upon NEMA, but that is a very low bar.

If only American mains power were 230V...

To be fair, pages like the one you link only talk about the official standards, which mean very, very little in most of the world.

I wouldn't assume anything about voltage in much of South America / Africa / Asia. You're going to get a frankenstein NEMA-Schuko-Chinese power outlet that will give you some amount of power for some amount of hours in the day, for a definition of 'some' that no one will be able to specify for you with any great precision and that will vary from town to town.

In my first aid class in a 230V country we were taught: Someone who got an electric shock always needs to visit the emergency room, even if they seem to be fine. Reason: fibrillation has to be ruled out or stopped.

So 230V stops it does not sound right. Whether there is any difference in probability I have no clue.

This is the first time I hear this and I doubt it’s true.

Typically the distinction is made between 50 and 60 Hertz, where 60Hz is typically considered safer(though I’m not sure if this is even true).

I am an electrician hence why I am curious.

"Its the Volts that Jolts and the Mills (milliamps) that kills"

For a 1kw appliance, with 220v it should be 48 ohms, but for 110v it needs to be only 12 ohms. So if you have a bad wire or connector, which has say 5ohms resistance, more of the voltage will drop across it. At 220v it will have 21v across it and be heated by 88W but at 110 it will actually have 32v across it and be heated at 204W. That could easily be the difference between a fire starting and not.

Americans have to worry about chaining power strips, or overloading them with the Christmas lights.

That's much less of a concern in 230V countries.

> Fire is not caused by electric current. Fire requires a source of ignition and that's not EMF.

All electrical cable/wire is rated for so many amps and a certain temperature: if you mismatch the breaker and the cable ratings then you could allow too much current through, and because of I^2 resistance, a fire could happen.

Do a search for "Ampacity Chart".

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampacity

If you're claiming the UK uses 110V, then you must also include that it uses 415V.

Both of these are only used outside domestic settings. (Until recently, 415V for a car charger is becoming more common)