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Likewise in Australia plugs, sockets and switches are all rated at 250V. In many places the mains is around 250V or a bit over.
The bureaucrats decided a couple of years ago that we would join Europe and have 230V as well. This was only just on paper (why bother?) and as I've noticed of late, the rating labels on things like water heater elements and fluro light ballasts. Fortunately our mains voltage was never actually changed and remains at 240-250v. What a dumb idea that would have been to go and drop the voltage in the name of political correctness.

[This message has been edited by aussie240 (edited 08-31-2005).]

@ Aussie240
It wasn't in the name of political correctness. It was someone who figured that they would test what voltages that the appliances were actually designed for. Off they went, and the result was pretty clear: Foreign manufacturers made the good for 220-240V i.e. around 230V and labled them 240V for Australia. 240V isn't a problem, but above 250V it becomes one. Thus, some bright spark came up with the idea of changing the nominal voltage. Presumably this will be little different than in the UK: Keep 240V but fix the systems that overshoot too badly.

If you work out the permitted upper limit under the old standard (240V +/-6%) vs. the new standard (230V +10%/-6%), there's not much difference:

240V + 6% = 254.4 volts
230V +10% = 253.0 volts.

It was entirely a political exercise in juggling the figures here though, which has left us with that weird assymetric tolerance specification. (It's rumored that eventually this will be changed to 230V +/-10%).

The 250V rating on BS1363 is because it was introduced long before the standardization at 240V took place, and 250V was the highest nominal voltage then in use.

I'd agree with Dave's criticisms of BS1363. The poor contact on some fuse clips does lead to overheating. I won't use one of the cheap brand plugs on an appliance which draws a substantial current. They're fine for radios, tablelamps, etc. but when it comes to a kettle, electric heater, washing machine or something similar I'll stick to MK or some other higher-quality brand.

There's one other danger with BS1363 as anyone from the U.K. and Ireland will tell you. The plugs are darned unforgiving when you step on the upturned pins while fumbling your way out of the bedroom in semi-darkness! Ouch!




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 08-31-2005).]

yeah they have a tendency to land with their pins sticking straight up and if you stand on them hard enough they'll quite litterally puncture your foot!

Yup... nearly had that in the living room. Stopped just with my toe in front of the plug.
Story: My brother had spent a week in Exeter. Me being a good brother I had taken a BS1363 plug with a 13A fuse, a pice of 3x1,5mm2 cord and a Schuko trailing socket, making up an adaptor that was most likely a lot safer than most on the market. When he came back he dumped the contents of the suitcase on the living room floor...

I'd say almost certainly. Most of the adapters are just junk.

It took me a while before I noticed what was wrong....

....the live and neutral are connected to the wrong pins.

Definitely. Mostly unfused, flimsy, almost never grounded (and an ungrounded adaptor allowing for contour plugs turns quite easily into one for Schuko plugs if it's used with some more force... so why not build something decent when you already have the components in your junk box? Ok, the chinese BS1363 plug was probably a bit questionable... but it survived the hairdryer without any signs of overheating. Being old of course they didn't have sleeved pins, but I guess a lot of those are still around.

French plugs are specially designed to collapse into a pankake of junk if trodden on, (or, in fact, used at all.) The plastic was carefully chosen after examining the toys that fell out of Corn Flakes packets, the pins are modelled on hair grips, while the terminal screws were sourced from spectacle-hinge suppliers. The 'cord grips' (sic) are often a plastic screw you graunch into the cable insulation, and we even have one that opens up like an oyster for wiring. That can be exciting if it suddenly comes undone! It's common here to pull the plug on something and bring with it the receptacle, the box, a tangle of wires and choc-blocks and with a large chunk of plasterboard attached.
Please don't criticise our lovely UK plugs just because they are built strong enough to brain a rhino!

Alan

LOL!

Mind you, anyone who thinks BS1363 is hefty should look at the old 15A version of BS546.

C'mon now, 15 amps? Those pins look like they were designed to carry about 100 amps!

(Tell you what though -- The rounded ends of those pins don't dig it your feet as badly as BS1363.)

Another advantage to building a short adapter lead is that you're likely to be putting much less strain on the outlets. The travel adapters sometimes put me in mind of those "Christmas tree" adapter mazes where somebody has about six plugs hanging on adapters in one socket.


It's O.K. There's a 50/50 chance that the plug in the Shucko socket has corrected the polarity error!

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