What is the best Power Outlet, and why?
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How does the type-A (Japan) ground?
It doesn't, Japanese homes don't have that by default. Sometimes there are special options for grounding specific items.
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How does the type-A (Japan) ground?
wrote last edited by [email protected]IIRC most of the world relies on ground fault protection to protect against failure which is why we use ground pins, in Japan they detect short circuits which is roughly equivalent in safety.
I'm not sure why or how, but I remember from when I looked it up when I was out there last year that was the explanation I found
Edit: I'd love to be corrected by whoever downvoted
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How does the type-A (Japan) ground?
Japan uses weaker voltage and many things don't require a ground or can rely on an alternative method. That said, they'll have a good ol' three prong for appliances and newer buildings will have a few three prongs in select locations.
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Why would you step on them?
You can just turn them off at the socket. And if you need extra sockets, just buy an extension.
Literally zero reason to leave a plug lying on the ground.
Do you not live in a world where sometimes non-zero time elapses between realizing you need a thing and procuring that thing?
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Fuses mean protection is localised. If the socket is good for 13A, but the cable is only safe to 5A, you can fuse at 3A or 5A, and know it's safe.
This is partially useful for extension leads. We don't have to worry about overloading a multiway extension. If we do, it will pop a 10p fuse, rather than cause a house fire.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Or you could just use thicker wires like everyone else, or drop the use of ring mains, which is the actual reason why fuses in plugs were introduced. The reason why this was done was post-WW2 copper shortage. In other countries you'll see more likely star type circuit
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Ehhh that depends entirely on the manner of the shock. Both are more than capable of stopping your heart or going in to afib if the path gets too near your heart.
These shocks are almost always to a single finger.
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USB. Most things don’t need AC power. We can get rid of wall warts and create a universal standard by including USB C ports on AC plugs.
Yeah it's not like USB standard changes every few years or anything.
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All of them work as they should, or they would have been replaced a long time ago.
But there definitely are differences, and one is better than the rest.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I don't think that's a real argument. There are plenty of things that suck and the reason they don't change is because of inertia, not because it works well. See Qwerty, Azerty, Qwertz.
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For safety, the BS1363 (UK, type G) is by far the best.
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It's fused. (Seriously why the hell aren't all plugs fused!)
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Live and neutral can't be reversed.
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Holes are gated (so no kids sticking spoons in).
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High capacity, 240V at 13A gives 3kW of power.
It's only real downside is its size.
Type E/F carries 16A/230V, and nowadays there are shutters included which only allow two pins to be inserted at once, not one but not the other. There's no standard as of which pin should be L1 and neutral anyway, nor it should matter, and fuses in british plugs are to accommodate ring circuits, which were introduced as a result of copper shortages (ie decades of tech debt)
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Australia's plug isn't bad, in fact, it's one of the best.
- The angled blade pins ensure polarity will always be the same.
- The ground pin is longer than the live pins, meaning it'll always make contact first, and last when you pull it out.
- The Earth pin is located on the bottom, meaning when you pull down on it, or if something drops on the plug, it'll pull away the live pins first.
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I have seen some debate amongst electricians about the orientation of this style of grounded outlet. There are pros and cons to argue for both orientations of this and other tri-pin style outlets.
your fourth point is demonstrably the best in this thread.
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Australia's plug isn't bad, in fact, it's one of the best.
- The angled blade pins ensure polarity will always be the same.
- The ground pin is longer than the live pins, meaning it'll always make contact first, and last when you pull it out.
- The Earth pin is located on the bottom, meaning when you pull down on it, or if something drops on the plug, it'll pull away the live pins first.
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Ahh I meant all other plugs not Australian/chinese plugs are inferior
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A useful source:
https://worldofsockets.comAs 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.
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does type A just have no ground?
In the USA, there's a ground in that the neutral wire is connected to ground. Devices that take advantage of this have a slightly broader neutral pin that won't fit into the hot pin.
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For safety, the BS1363 (UK, type G) is by far the best.
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It's fused. (Seriously why the hell aren't all plugs fused!)
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Live and neutral can't be reversed.
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Holes are gated (so no kids sticking spoons in).
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High capacity, 240V at 13A gives 3kW of power.
It's only real downside is its size.
Fusing plugs is completely unnecessary. The only reason this is done in the UK is because of old janky circuits only used in the UK.
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I see the left side of just slightly bigger than the right, so I expect one of those sides to be the ground
In North America, neutral is connected to ground. It's the larger pin on a polarized plug. Some devices don't use it; these usually don't have a conductive outer surface.
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A useful source:
https://worldofsockets.comType J is superior in every aspect.
- compact, you can fit 3 plugs into an outlet while Type F only fits one for example.
- robust.
- cannot reverse polarity.
- no fuse required as the law requires proper fuses in every electric installation with law enforced periodical checks.
- round pins that cannot puncture your skin if you step on them. It's hard to face the pins upwards anyway.
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It's bi-directional
That's bad.
Every device produced in the past few decades doesn't care which wire is live.
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The actual electrical device can be designed such that it depends on exactly which direction is live and which is neutral.
Imagine a circuit loop that, as you follow along the circuit, has an AC power source, then a switch, and then the electrical appliance, leading back to the AC source it started from.
If you design the circuit so that you know for sure that the live wire goes to the switch first before the actual load, then your design ensures that if there is a fault or a short somewhere in the appliance, it won't let the live power leak anywhere (because the whole device is only connected to the neutral line, not the hot live voltage that alternates between positive and negative voltage). It's safer, and is less likely to damage the internals of a device. Especially if someone is going to reach inside and forgets to unplug it or cut power at the circuit breaker.
wrote last edited by [email protected]it's a bad practice to design appliance in such a way to assume that neutral will have low voltage, because in case of neutral failure in three-phase circuit you can get full voltage there, and there can be a couple of volts difference (sometimes more) between neutral and ground even in normal circumstances
it's better to cut off both live and neutral at the same time anyway, especially if there's no standard which is which. also, as device designer you don't know if it'll be used on a circuit that has neutral and phase where you think it'll go or not. (ie british appliance used on unpolarized circuit, like type F. adapters exist)
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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.
South Africa is also slowly adopting Type-N.
Europe was supposed to, but abandoned the idea
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For safety, the BS1363 (UK, type G) is by far the best.
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It's fused. (Seriously why the hell aren't all plugs fused!)
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Live and neutral can't be reversed.
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Holes are gated (so no kids sticking spoons in).
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High capacity, 240V at 13A gives 3kW of power.
It's only real downside is its size.
It's not inset meaning that an improperly plugged in plug becomes a hazard.
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