When I lived in the States for five years this quandary came up often and I posted questions on this board to ascertain the legalities of it all. A 240V NEMA 6-15 was the preferred option in the kitchen to power my 3 kW kettle. No RCD was required as it was not a 120V socket and as long as the socket was meant to power something greater than 1500 W? it could go anywhere reasonably required. According to those who inspect installations – this should pass inspection.
As for using a socket other than NEMA, particularly in my garage/workshop I deliberately avoided BS 1363 as the plugs are fused only on one pole and I felt this could present a safety issue on fuse failure with the other pole still live. I did however use the South African sockets (old BS546?) as the plugs were not fused – and coming from there, I had lots of them!
