ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Denmark to go French ?

A rewireable replacement would also be nice....for when the existing molded-on plugs fail. As they sometimes do (wires and insulation going to the plug sometimes break if it's been abused or accidentally yanked).

I'm waiting for the day one of them says we must all have a common language!

We do when it come down to industrial plugs(BSEN 60309) and sockets but the big problem is the when it comes to the domestic scenario where each country has its own standard.

By Euro plug we commonly refer to the flat, 2.5A rated household connector which fits all European sockets except for BS 1363.

Well, one large country (UK), and a few small ones (Ireland 4.2 million), Cyprus (small), Malta (small!) isn't really going to sway the balance in favour of changing the entire EU over to BS1363. Let's face it none of them are ideal standards.
BS1363 is enormous and has limited contact areas due to the use of sleeves on the pins.
Schuko's not polarised and inadvertently able to mate with various non-grounded or differently grounded outlets..

they could have killed two birds with one stone and come up with something sensible to replace both of them!

Personally, I think it's an opportunity missed though. They could have standardised to a modern, non-bulky alternative to BS1363, Schuko and the various other systems back in about 1972 when small appliances were less common and people didn't carry things around as much. When they were harmonising the flexible cable colours, they could have also mandated a new plug. The UK couldn't have really complained given at that stage it had a cludge of BS546 (umpteen variations) and Bs1363 and shipped almost all appliances without a plug !!! Same for Ireland.

It'd be an absolute nightmare to change now.

Alternatively, they could just ship EVERYTHING with a keyed (by cable rating) IEC connector, that way you could fit your own cable. IT equipment does it, so why not just do everything that way ?!

I think the problem is going to take care of itself over time... some countries do an official changeover, others change gradually like Italy... I guess in the end that'll leave the UK and Ireland the only countries without CEE 7/7 plugs. Countries worrying about polarization adopt the Frnch style, the others Schuko, plugs are designed for both sockets and everybody is happy.

The Schuko plug was deliberately designed to plug into ungrounded sockets - the idea being, reducing a Class I appliance to a class 0 in a class 0 environment does not pose any increased danger while using a class 0 appliance in an environment with grounded metal surfaces present does.

The only real problem were the old Danish receptacles that accepted Schuko plugs but did not ground them and they're being phased out right now.

Stop dreaming of getting the entire EU or even the world to standardize on one plug by force... I'd be glad already if we ended up with all 110/120V countries using NEMA patterns and all 220/230V countries using either CEE 7/ or AS/NZ plugs.