ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Petition to force 230V nominal

A harmonised voltage was pretty vital for economies of scale for manufacturers and in the long term in the UK's interest as it means that there will be more 'stuff' available that actually works reliably there i.e. the entire 230V market is available to them.

Harmonising the plugs would be a nice idea but it's unlikely to happen. I reckon one way of doing it would be to have rated connectors, a lot like the IEC connectors found on devices today that could be locked in with a tool. It would be impossible to fit the wrong one with the wrong rating due to keying and it would be safe as they'd be locked into position on many appliances. The countries with schuko look-a-likes that are dangerously compatable with CEE 7/7 plugs should simply move to CEE 7/7, but I can't see BS1363 and the Aussi plug going anywhere soon.

You'd reduce manufacturing costs and mess generally yet avoid having to change plugs in the UK, Australia, NZ, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus etc.

Can't really see why it can't be done.

The IEC connector and the German originated figure-of-eight (telefunken) connector have become the absolute standards for AV and computer equipment. I can't see why they can't be adapted to everything else too.

The three pin plug used in Australia is also used in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa and other countries throughout the South Pacific (East Timor also has some Australian outlets due to the rebuilding work done in 1999-2007 during peacekeeping work). No point in changing in what is essentially a good socket pattern in this part of the world with the ability to plug a 10 amp plug into a 10, 15 or 20 amp outlet with no problems.

The volume of equipment sold is here in this part of the world with the AS/NZS 3112 pattern plugs easily would outweigh the inconvenience of changing to a "world pattern" plug.

To change to a "world pattern" plug brings to light another problem: what size do you make the new outlets? Most outlets here are on 115x73 mm plates with 84mm mounting centres, some are 115x115 mm in older installations. British outlets are different sizes for singles or doubles so which outlet plate size would be the accepted version?

Servas Kollege!
Where in Austria are you located?
Here in the outskirts of Vienna I usually get 231-234 pretty much regardless of the time of the day, at School we usually had 217-219 even though the transformer was in the basement directly below. That's a bit weird, because for all I know the medium voltage side was raised by the PoCo, so all systems on private transformers should be 230V now too.

Undervoltage problems sound pretty familiar from holidays in Italy. Rural farms occasionally dipped down to something like 190V in 220/380V days... my dad's Sony tape recorder was first painfully slow and then refused to work at all. The Italians seem to love long 230/400V spurs...

Edit because I overlooked a page of posts...

I think Europe is mostly going to settle on CEE 7/7 anyway except for BS1363 countries. Danmark should already have done the switch, Italy has accepted Schuko as type P30 and is quite happily selling Schuko receptacles as well as combi devices, most imported appliances already have Schuko plugs.
Switzerland still clings to their own plugs, but might change too in the end.

I am in the 20th District near the Spittelau district heating plant.
I checked the voltage now: 242V in my living room at the Schuko.





Why not the IEC 60906-1?
All Advantages of all the different plugs in one System.

Large areas that have used the same plug since day one; eg. North America and the South Pacific shouldn't be disadvantaged by having some "world plug" foisted upon them when they are already using a proven system.
Just imagine all the adaptors required to use the "world plug" in existing GPO's. Seems to defeat the purpose really; it's not as if GPO's are replaced every couple of years.
One can envisage the situation where adaptors or change of plug are required to use new appliances on old GPO's and vice versa.
As for this idea of standardising on voltages just so the robots churning out all the Chinese junk don't have to make as many variants, the approvals for each country are still going to be different (unless we're going to standardise that too), hence different versions still need to be manufactured.
Realistically, a not insignifigant amount of 220V equipment has been sold and used in Australia for more years than anyone can remember and problems have been very few. It's rather amusing to see the 240V rating on so many fridges but with 220V stamped into the actual compressor units...just a formality really.
The idea of standardising plugs and voltages is really like digital television; create something new for beauracracy and big business to feed itself on despite no interest from consumers.

That's weird, because in the TGM (not that far away) we had a constant low. When we got 355V between phases it was a faulty meter though
My own measurements were carried out in the 18th, still in the more urban area inside the Vorortelinie.

Why not the infamous IEC plug? Because then every country would have to change. Cee 7/7 is already an established plug across most of Europe, so if a handful of countries decide to gradually switch to Schuko or French style receptacles the economic impact will be fairly low. If you try to get all European countries to switch to a completely new system there would be an uproar.

Besides I don't trust that system - it's pretty similar to the Swiss system and I've heard of frequent meltdowns even though the Swiss don't have sleeved pins.

NEMA 1-15, 5-15 and other plug patterns are most definitely not the safest design in international comparison - we already read stories of half-dislodged plugs almost causing electrocutions and similar incidents that couldn't have happened with sleeved pins. Furthermore, the prongs are fairly thin and subject to mechanical damage - in this respect the AS/NZ plug with similar sized blades seem to fare a lot better. So I guess we can find a number of reasons to replace the US plugs, but I don't think that's what we're talking about here - it would already be a vast achievement if all European countries peacefully settled on compatible plugs systems.

Aussie, I don't get what you mean by fabricating different devices for different approvals - if one given plug fulfills all national requirements, it can be sold in all countries! For example. Prior to the harmonization of approvals in the EU Schuko plugs carried about a dozen different listings and could be sold all over Europe.