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#123450 03/29/06 07:12 AM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
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pauluk Offline OP
Member
Prompted by the French LeGrand Mosaic receptacles thread.

Thanks to new ECN member BRAINonGROUND from Germany for the following:

Quote
In Germany the Sockets (230V, 50Hz) are a bit deeper and have a funny groundconnector (SchuKo) - I just made a few fotos of them to complete the topic with other European standarts. The installation is nearly similar to the french ones, but the space between each socket is a bit larger and normed - so you can easily exchange old ones. The ground - cramp gets connectet to the plug first, so the safety is enlarged. These sockets are (nearly) always on a 16A Trap and an RCD. Here we got only one system for all appliances (clock radio, washingmachine and tumbler use the same
sockets). The blue three way adapter is a pretty cheap one - but okay it works ;-) in the middle there is a SchuKo plug connected on the left and the right plugs without ground. Btw. three way adapters without extention cord
are not allowed in Germany.


[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
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Wow!,
Interesting pics BoG,
And Welcome to ECN too. [Linked Image]
One little question, in the top picture, are the sockets small, or is that plug huge?.

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 169
S
Member
nEAT PICS. a QUESTION IF i MAY. aLWAYS WANTED TO ASK THIS ONE? wHY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN us AND eUROPE WIREING aLSO THE VOLTAGES. wHEN THIS WAS FIRST INVENTED WE HAD 120 OR FOR US OLD FOLKS 110. hOW DID ALL THIS COME ABOUT.

Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 5,445
Likes: 2
Cat Servant
Member
Steve, prior to the depression, even here in the US voltage and frequency differed by area. In Chicago, there are still sky-scrapers that have only DC!

Apart from just pure chance, some places deliberately chose power different from their neighbors. Our Irish member, "djk," has expressed wonder that Ireland didn't adopt shamrock-shaped plugs, 120 volts, and 72.5hz- just to make thing harder for visiting Brits!

There was also a lack of "standard plug patterns" even here in to the '70's. Indeed, RV parks still use a "non-NEMA" plug.

Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
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Yay,
Caps Lock!. [Linked Image]

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,803
Member
Eire is a wonderful place for Brits, [or anyone else], to visit. Or live. Several Brit ex-pats from round here have upped sticks for Southern Ireland. All the advantages of France, plus they speak English, eat proper bacon and know how to make proper tea and not a cup of lukewarm gnat's flavored with sterilised milk.

Alan


Wood work but can't!
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
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We have had a few people filter through to the South Island in NZ here (those that haven't already been mugged in the North Island), in thier hired camper vans.
A call came out from a local camping ground here for me to go down and help the US folks "get powered up" for the night.
I got there and they had a Blue IEC 309 connector and a 10m flex on it and another blue connector on the other end.
But was it because the cable was 10m long, not 30ft(imperial)long that they couldn't hook it up?.
A socket on the Camper van and one in the supply box and an RCD (GFCI) fed socket.
All 16A worth of it, is 3600W too little for you folks?. [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 03-30-2006).]

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,803
Member
Brains,
How is that diecast aluminum cover grounded? I notice also those awful 'crocodile teeth' grips in the receptacle are still being used for retention. Never could understand why that complexity was introduced when a simple screw fixing is so much better- and here we appear to have both! Any chance of some sequenced assembly pics, a la Mosaic?

Alan


Wood work but can't!
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1
B
Junior Member
@ Trumpy: Well the plug is a stadart grundet Plug of an extension cord - think it looks only that huge because of the perspective. You also can see it again on the last picture. Maybe that it appears a bit huge, but inbetween it's "law" (of the BGI) that extension cables in professional use are H07RN-F cables, shockresistant, IP44 (->protectet against spraywater and foreign body) ...the germans and their safetymania ;-)

@Alan Belson: The aluminium is not groundet, because unter the aluminium of the socket the black plastic isolates all (Safety-classII (of VDE 0701/1)). The al. is only on Top for additional stability.
On the receptacle itself you also can fix it with two screws, but it isn't common here.

The "awful" crocodile teeth are very good for the installation in ferroconcrete..., it's easy to install and you don't have to drill additional holes - the also last very long. I Think ca. 90% of all sockets, switches... here are installed that way. The additional Screwholes in the framework are for additional strenght and not that usual in livingrooms ;-)

And why here 230/400V 3-Phase (L1 L2 L3 N G) Systems are common... don't know the history of this developement?

the sequenced assembly pics will follow!

Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
The style of that stuff is _strange_! The screw terminals scream late 80s or early 90s, and the frame around the individual socket elements just looks weird (mostly because of the huge mounting screws, all modular systems I know (and that's a lot) had the frames just held in place by the receptacle/switch covers.)

The plug isn't that big, only slightly bigger than an NZ plug. Of course it's bigger than a NEMA plug.

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