Hello from the U.K.

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Re: Hello from the U.K.

#132753 08/11/01 06:38 PM

Joined: Aug 2001

Posts: 7,520

Norfolk, England

P

pauluk

OP

Member

Hi Sparky,

There are so many differences between U.K. and U.S. practice that they could easily fill a book. Here are a few to start you thinking!

You may well know this already, but our standard residential service is 2-wire at 240V, 50 Hz, so all our domestic appliances run on 240V, not a mix of 120 and 240. The neutral is grounded ("earthed" in British terminology) so the hot wire ("live") is a full 240V with respect to ground.

We have completely different types of plugs and sockets, and as you might expect, different standard mounting box sizes etc. Our color code is different, and as anyone who has visited the U.K. will have soon realized, our light switches are up for off, down for on.

There are far more fundamental differences in circuit arrangements. For example, in British homes it's usual for lights to be wired on separate circuits to sockets (receptacles), partly for historical reasons and partly because of the system used to distribute power to wall outlets.

As there are two questions here relating to the latter, I'll try to answer them in a separate post.

Fire away with your 200 follow-up questions.....

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Entire Thread
Subject	Posted By	Posted
Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/11/01 10:09 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	sparky	08/11/01 10:28 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Bill Addiss	08/11/01 12:41 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	electure	08/11/01 05:00 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/11/01 10:38 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/11/01 11:26 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Anonymous	08/14/01 08:40 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/14/01 09:22 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	sparky	08/14/01 10:06 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Anonymous	08/14/01 10:33 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Nick	08/15/01 04:07 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/15/01 10:24 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/15/01 10:37 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Bill Addiss	08/15/01 10:47 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Nick	08/16/01 12:08 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	electure	08/16/01 03:19 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Dallas	08/16/01 03:42 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/16/01 03:21 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/16/01 03:37 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	kent	08/16/01 04:29 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Anonymous	08/16/01 06:25 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Anonymous	08/16/01 06:33 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Bill Addiss	08/16/01 09:22 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Nick	08/17/01 01:12 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	spkjpr	08/17/01 02:40 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	electure	08/17/01 11:33 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	kent	08/17/01 05:19 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Bill Addiss	08/17/01 06:34 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/17/01 07:08 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	kent	08/18/01 05:44 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	kent	08/18/01 06:07 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Bill Addiss	08/18/01 06:12 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/18/01 07:09 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/18/01 07:18 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	kent	08/19/01 08:39 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/19/01 11:48 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Anonymous	08/20/01 08:08 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/20/01 09:41 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Bill Addiss	08/21/01 01:48 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	Anonymous	08/21/01 02:55 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	sparky	08/21/01 10:08 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/21/01 04:03 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	sparky	08/22/01 12:22 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/22/01 10:31 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	sparky	08/22/01 11:05 AM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	08/23/01 05:51 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	granam	12/01/01 08:20 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	12/01/01 08:51 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	granam	12/02/01 11:10 PM
Re: Hello from the U.K.	pauluk	12/03/01 12:45 AM