It’s been an interesting year in the Hutch family what with a move from Bill’s land to Paul’s land and yet another change in standards. A little project this weekend saw 120V available in the workshop on a more permanent basis.


That’s America on the left, UK in the middle and South Africa on the right

I got around that USA up/down debate by mounting the pair of NEMA 5-15s sideways
Finally settling down at last ! …

{Message edited to add pic to ECN server}

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-18-2006).]

Gidday there Ian,
Long time no hear/see!.
Tell me, where is the 120V supply derived from?.
Is this from a 240/120V step-down transformer that is out of the picture?.
Also, I take it that the loads that you are looking to feed via the US sockets would be rather light, considering the size of cable (1.0mm2?)used to feed that receptacle?.
Finally, what does a South African outlet look like front on?.
It's hard to see the actual pin configuration from so far away.
Could you please send me a pic of this to post?.
I hope you and your family are all in good health and enjoying the English Summer.

Had to bring up C-Hs site again... http://www.global-electron.com/plugs/d.htm
shows a BS546 plug with drawings (used in India and South Africa).

Wow Hutch! Long time no see!!!!

That's gotta get tiring, every time you move you have to change all the plugs on everything.

Mike,

Power is supplied by a UK 240-110V site transformer with a centre tapped earth. Output voltage is nominally 110V but measures 120V with no load dropping to just above 115V under load. Transformer is behind wall feeding into another NEMA socket box protected by a pair of in-line 15A fuses. The wire is a 1 metre length of Romex AWG#14 with a cross-sectional area of 2.1mm2 and an ampacity of 15A. The socket is rated at 15A.

The RSA sockets. I think this one has been seen before – no scale I’m afraid but it fits a 2”x 4” box.



In this picture the socket is mounted on my step-up transformer that I made for going to the States. When I came here I changed it back-to-front and it’s now got a pair of NEMA 5-15s (fits the same hole) and of course a BS1363 plug on the other end. Transformer is only 250VA and so it is only driving the HiFi and DVD – not powerful enough for the workshop.

Welcome back Ian!


Nevermind. We can still debate whether the "hot" side of the receptacle should be up or down!

Speaking of which, did you move the earth to one end of the secondary on the site xfmr, or did you leave it on the center tap so that both sides are at 55-60 volts?

Up of course, so in case of a flood the hot gets immersed later... (I honestly got that argument from some electrician, as if that would make any real difference...)

Thanks Paul. I've left the site transformer well alone. Everything works just great - my main concern was that they were nominally 110V but would drop below that under load. I reckon that if they've reduced electrocutions on British job sites to near zero, they're good enough for my workshop as is!

It does make the sideways way-around issue a moot point here as there's 60V on each leg. Nevertheless, in the States - if it needed to be sideways - I would have mounted the socket 'grounded' side up as I have in the workshop here.

Ground on top has always seemed the most natural to me - it makes for a natural triangle like mountains or pine trees. I have just got back from a visit to Outer Mongolia - ECN report in prep. - where they use my proposed international socket configuration. Remember that from long ago?! Like Oz but earth pin up - Mongolia leads the world!

Sven, I worked out that my camcorder charger is now on its fourth plug. It was born with a 2-pin Europlug but when I purchased it new in South Africa I replaced it with a standard South African round 3-pin. It received a NEMA 1-15 plug in the USA and now sports a BS 1363. What next I wonder?

[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 06-20-2006).]

Sure I remember. Funny that nobody thought about looking in Outer Mongolia first! I mean, where else do you look for innovation?