What is the best Power Outlet, and why?
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As someone who lived in the UK, the British one is far too chunky, especially in an age where most devices don’t use the mandatory earth pin (which is mechanically necessary to open the shutters in the socket). The one place it has an advantage over Europlug is in aeroplane seat sockets and such, where it stays in more firmly.
Having said that, the Swiss and Brazilian ones manage to get earthed connections into a slender footprint (the Swiss is compatible with unearthed Europlug, not sure about the Brazilian though it may be smaller). Apparently the Brazilian socket was proposed as an international standard by the IEC, though only Brazil adopted it.
Type N socket accepts type C plugs. And is clearly the superior choice. The IEC doesn't fuck around.
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South Africa used to use a Mixture of M and C, and still mostly do.
But since 2018 building regulations require new houses to have at least one Type N plug installed.
Adoption is slow, but N being compatible with C will hopefully speed things along.Brazil just set a date limit after which no electrical equipment was allowed to be sold with non standard plugs. Eventually it all worked itself out.
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https://worldofsockets.comThe British plug has a lot of features that are supposed to make it very, very safe. It'd be interesting to see if there's a study out there that tries to make apples-to-apples comparisons of electrical accidents in different countries. Do those features actually work out in practice?
The US plug is bad, but does that actually translate into more accidents? Hard to say. If you can do the study above, then you can start making the argument for switching to something else.
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Ground is a bit overrated, which is why the Japanese don't use it. They use GFCI instead.
Without a ground the only way to trip a GFCI is through your body. GFCI is great, but not infallible. I'll keep my grounds.
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Type N might not be the best but it was like a gift from heavens here in Brazil. We had no standard before it so most outlets would take one or two unsafe options; most houses would not ground their outlets, people would yank out the ground pin from plugs to make them fit; washing machines would often come with a completely different plug that some houses would just have a different outlet for, while others would use adapters. And so many other issues.
Nowadays you don't even need to see what you're doing because you can just stick your hand into outlets to feel where it is and insert the plug blindly without any risk.
It is the best but for one fault: both 120V and 240V versions are compatible.
Otherwise, it's got every single technical advantage of F (Schuko), while being cheaper to manufacture and install.
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The British plug has a lot of features that are supposed to make it very, very safe. It'd be interesting to see if there's a study out there that tries to make apples-to-apples comparisons of electrical accidents in different countries. Do those features actually work out in practice?
The US plug is bad, but does that actually translate into more accidents? Hard to say. If you can do the study above, then you can start making the argument for switching to something else.
I'm sure most plugs have identical features.
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I'm sure most plugs have identical features.
No, not even close.
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https://worldofsockets.comType K cause it looks like a happy face.
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Doesn't matter because you leave it plugged in and flip the switch to fully disconnect it. I don't know how you savages live without that feature.
Why would I ever want to turn it off?
Under my desk I have like 15 things plugged in. None of them ever get unplugged. Turning off the outlet is of literally zero value to me.
Making those plugs into a giant fucking black hole mass that takes up half the desk is not something I want. -
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https://worldofsockets.comI really like the power outlets in the EU. You don't have to fart around with different sized prongs and the voltage is higher which makes things like tea kettles far more efficient.
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I really think we should give japan more shit for this. Type A is terrible on it's own merits, they don't even polarize it. But then they have the gall to use two different frequencies with the divide in the middle of Honshu (the big island with the major cities). And unlike reasonable people they don't do a "50 hz gets this plug, but 60 gets a non compatible one". No, both use the plug that North America phased out over safety concerns.
But to answer the question, type B is nice and homey, but types I and N feel a fun mix of weird and foreign but close enough to be interesting. Most of the rest just feel like various "yeah it's a circle with two circular prongs all right"
What a mess.
Fortunately, the frequency thing is less of an issue with modern power supplies, like my laptop charger is rated for 100-240V 50-60 Hz, so it Just Works. But I imagine that was more of a pain before these were widespread. -
And for kettles and washing machines we still have earth connections. Doesn't make sense to make it mandatory so a 5W charger has to be bigger than the phone.
Just use a usb charger
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Fair point, thing is there just exists a better way of doing small ungrounded plugs like phone chargers, I honestly haven't used a British phone charger but from what I saw they seem pretty bulky compared to what I have
Most public places including buses have USB ports. And my mains phone charger folds the earth pin in anyway, so it's not too bulky.
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A useful source:
https://worldofsockets.comThere was two different ways you could have ordered this alphabetically, and you failed to do either.
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Just use a usb charger
That was my complaint...
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https://worldofsockets.comType B, H, or I. They look unpleasantly surprised by what I'm shoving in their mouths. Definitely not K, because he looks like he likes it.
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The British one. It has a switch and a fuse, and later versions have age-verification so your kids can no longer plug in your adult toys.
I'm actually kinda surprised that more don't have switches, but I suppose if you have radial rather than ring circuits you don't have to play 'hunt the appliance that tripped all your switches' quite so hard
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A useful source:
https://worldofsockets.comwrote last edited by [email protected]Brazilian Type N looks like it's not a big deal, but the shape and depth are actually extremely good - you get a fantastic connection that never wobbles but also comes out when you need it without having weird pins or moving locks that always end up failing in some other designs. It's also compact and stacks nicely.
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B or N. They’re simple and effective, grounded but optionally, but most importantly you can fit two in a small space.
I can’t tell if N is polarized though, so B is the boss
N is polarized - but it assumes the device will retain the grounding middle pin, which forces a specific orientation. If the device uses two pins, or the user cuts out the middle pin, there's no physical size difference to prevent inverting the polarity.
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There was two different ways you could have ordered this alphabetically, and you failed to do either.
Isn't it beautiful
