ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Outback GPO!!!

Paul,
I have just had an email from Graham,
he said that the place where the outlet came from, is pretty isolated.
Apparently, a Chinese guy made the socket when he was living in the house and when he sold the house, the new owner wondered why it would'nt work!?.
The guy also used old cable I think, that's 2.5mm Solid core w/ stranded Earth.
djk,
You're right, it would be easier to just buy a socket and in this case, safer.
Judging by the size of the P-N slots, this is the 25A model.

Reminds me of this picture of an old Edison lampholder


from this thread:
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000018.html

Graham, did you happen to find any of those lampholders in that house by any chance?

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 08-26-2003).]

The person who made up that outlet must have been a real gambling man!

Looks like he wasted a staple (to the left of the red conductor).

The extra staple may have been a replacement part, like when they leave an extra lamp in a torch!

Dapo,
Is solid core 2.5mm still used in Aus?.
That photo shows it used and also with a grey sheathing.
I've seen 1.5 2C+E sold in DSE catalouges over the years, but 2.5?.

Yes solid core cables are still available.
Both in 2.5mm and 1mm.
The grey sheathed cable hasn't been available for quite a while now.

By contrast, British 2.5 "Twin & Earth" is available only in solid core! WE can still get it with either white or gray sheaths.

Single cables intended for conduit use are available in both solid and stranded in the 2.5 size.

In Austria anything up to 6mm2 is usually solid, 10mm2 and up is stranded.
Smaller stranded wire is only used for flexes. 6mm2 solid is already quite nasty to work with, but for hooking up stranded wire to Diazed fuse elements special crimp connectors are required (you can't wrap a 10mm2 stranded wire around a terminal screw, impossible) so if you don't have the crimp tool solid is your choice. There you just need solid pliers!

Ranger,
The only cable size that is still solid here is 1mm2, but only in TPS fixed wiring grade cable.
I've only ever seen solid core as a Line Mechanic in old Mains wires, so it was used over here at some stage.
Solid Core 16mm2 and 25mm2 was used here under the 1969 Regs, but mainly all of these wires have been removed.
It's really only way out in the sticks, that you come upon this sort of wiring!.
BTW, What is this Ragnar?, I'm not looking to hassle anyone for mispelling the username of Texas-Ranger, but I feel that this name has stuck!.
How do you feel about this,mate?.

I wouldn't want to try fitting that into some of the switch boxes used for our electric showers. They can be a tight squeeze even with 6mm stranded!