ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades A world standard plug system???

Ouch! Just reading that makes me think of the times it's happened to me, particularly as I tend to go around the house without shoes on.

I can't say that I'm over-impressed with the 16A IEC-type sockets. When used in high-current applications (e.g. kettle), many types seem to end up with burned and overheated contacts in a comparatively short time.

Hutch:





[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 12-01-2005).]

Remember the old british standard kettle connector?

Huge round black thing with 1 flat earth pin and 2 round for live and neutral ? Is that still used?

Ah yes... Now that was a hefty connector that would probably have quite safely carried much more than its 15A rating. Some of them were almost a two-man operation to remove!

Wonder if a picture of it exsists anywhere?

All the old BS stuff was very conservatively rated.

The 5amp BS 546 plugs seem like they could have easily carried 15/16 amps they're very like schuko type pins.

As for the 15Amp totally over specified!

I've often noticed the similar sizing of BS546 5A pins and Schuko 16A pins.

I don't recall seeing any images of the old BS kettle connector online. I may well still have one in one of my many "junk" boxes. If I come across one, I'll take a snap.

I don't think the stated ratings on those plugs has anything to do with their load carring capacity. They were designed to be physically incompatable with eachother to differenciate low power and high power circuits. They seem to be all identical in all aspects just miniturised in the case of the 2 amp and over sized in the case of the 15 amp.

My guess is that they just picked nominal ampages and assigned a particular size of plug to each with a good margin of safety rather than actually designing the the neatest possible plug to carry a X amps.

I'd say if they were actually rated for real load carring capability the 5amp BS 546 could safely carry 16 amps and the 2amp would be more like the modern europlug while the 15 amp would probabally safely carry a lot more than 15/16 amps given the enormous size and contact area on its pins. They're bigger than a lot of modern industrial connectors and it makes a pretty good connection considering that you can hardly get the damn things out again !

The Schuko wasn't always 16A. Old ones have a 10A rating and really old ungrounded plugs could carry a meagre 6A. I suppose the rating was increased as demand increased. Brazil has a 20A plug with the same pins...

What do modern-day British-market electric kettles use?

American coffee percolators, rice cookers and kettles use this funky "iron plug" which is two round pins for the inlet (and two round sleeves for the outlet at the end of the cordset) - probably a little closer together than a standard Europlug.

There's also one that's twice as wide. It all depends on the device - there are like three or four different varieties of these here. There's even one with a thermostat...for electric frying pans, I think.

Also, the appliance and cordset manufacturers here are wiseguys. They rivet the two halves of the bakelite shell together instead of using a screw and nut.

That way, if you have to replace the flex, you can't just reattach the plug to a new hank of bulk flex cut off a spool at the hardware store.

You have to buy a whole new cordset at many times the price!!! F&%$ing crooks!!!!

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 03-04-2003).]

They use a high temp IEC connector (like a PC but with a groove making it impossible to connect a non-temp resistant PC type one) that handles up to 15/16amps @ 250 V

You could however plug a kettle lead into a PC the cable would be a bit over rated and the plug is a bit bulkier.