ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades British Standard 546 plugs

Well, I thought I'd mentioned it on ECN before, but I've done a search on all my messages on "Australia" and "Australian," and can't find it, so maybe I didn't post on this subject.

I remember reading about the non-defined active & neutral positions in an article in "Electronics Australia" a few years ago. It was in relation to an old two-way receptacle adapter which had active & neutral the opposite way round on the two outlets.

BJ,
I'm not sure if the angles and spacings are exactly the same as the U.S. "crowfoot" outlet, but as far as I can tell the blades on a normal Australia/New Zealand plug are the same size as those on an American 15 or 20A plug (but without the holes).

Bjarney,

I take it you are talking about a NEMA 10/20 - 125/250V:20A.

I recently saw a set of these plugs and extension cord recepticles at an out-of-town hardware store - it's an area dominated by trailer homes, is this a coincidence? I'm going to take an Australian plug down there to see if it fits and will let you know.

What you say regarding grounding though confuses me. Are you saying that for old (NEC <= 1993) 30A and 50A 125/250V circuits it was OK to bond the frame of the appliance to the grounded wire (neutral) wire but not with a 20A 125/250V (Crows-foot) circuit?

[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 09-07-2002).]

Hutch — Yes. The newer 4-wire versions are NEMA 14-30 [typically for electric clothes dryers] and 14-50 [typically for electric cooking ranges.]

Some US travel trailers have a 125V, 30-ampere "sort-of-crowfoot" plug and cap that is not a NEMA standard. I don't know its evolution. They also use {sometimes multiple} NEMA 14-50 plugs for larger power demands for travel trailers.

Marine applications typically use one or multiple locking 125/250V 50-ampere 4-wire devices [NEMA L14-50] for shore power.




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 09-08-2002).]

I managed to compare the OZ/NZ plug above with a NEMA 10-20. Shape, relative pin size and angles are almost identical however the antipodean equipment is about 85% of the US size

Time to revive an old thread

I have one of these adapters, made by Kopp.



Four of these plugs are simple enough to figure out: British 13A and 5A combination, Australian, American 15A (unpolarized) and European (Swiss).

The fifth is a bit odd. It is supposed to be British. It has two 16 mm long round pins (5 mm dia) on 16 mm centres. I suspect that this is an old ungrounded 2A plug (BS 372???) but I cannot for my life figure out why they would put something so obscure on a travel adapter. Could anyone help me out?

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 10-27-2002).]

C-H
Re your Kopp adaptor.
I could be wrong, but I think that is the same size as you would find on UK shavers & electric toothbrush adaptors, but with part insulated pins.
The only place you would find such a socket in a modern UK installation is the isolated shaver socket used in bathrooms. But bathroom shaver sockets take international plugs.
Could be some other countries (old British colonies) still use that type of socket.


[This message has been edited by David UK (edited 10-27-2002).]

Yes, that will be the old British 5A type of plug, judging by its size relative to the others.

The U.K. 5A plug differs from the Continental 2-prong plug in that the prongs are slightly shorter, slightly thicker, and set slightly closer together. (C-H, the old British 2A plug is considerably smaller than this one).

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find it still installed as standard in some African countries.

As David said, modern shaver outlets are generally designed to accept British, European, American, and Australian plugs for the benfit of travelers (many also provide both 120 and 240V via the built-in isolation xfmr).

There are some outlets still in use in older properties which were designed only for the British 5A plug though. European plugs will go in though with force, especially if the plug has the softer type of molded plastic which allows the pins some movement.

Compare this with my photo at the top of this thread -- The plug at the bottom right is a 2-pin 5A type.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 10-27-2002).]

If you can get the European plug into the same socket as this plug, either the socket has very big holes or you have a very flexible Euro-plug. It doesn't really show in the photo, but the pins are much closer together than the Euro-plug.


Do you have this plug? Could you measure the distance between the pins? (Sorry if I'm troublesome...)

The package lists some British ex-colonies for this adaptor, can't rember which though.