This popped up on the home repair newsgroup and it looked interesting.
http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm

I have seen that list before too, very handy.
Thanks for providing the link again.
Regards, Raymond

Unfortunately www.global-electron.com, compiled by our fellow member C-H does not seem to be around any more. It was much more accurate and detailed.

See this: http://www.global-electron.com/electricity.asp

Interesting to see type "I" sockets spreading beyond their previous domain of the South Pacific...but used on 120V? I find that hard to believe. There's a list around claiming Fiji uses 220V at 60c/s...they make interesting reading but not always accurate.

NEMA 1-15 or 5-15 with 220 or 230V isn't much better and for example done in Thailand... I own a Super Nintendo power supply and a Sony compact stereo system, both of which are 220V 50Hz and have a molded NEMA 1-15 plug (the power supply is a 220V/9V Ac wall wart).

Regarding accuracy: no, they aren't, not even Global Electron, but IIRC C-H actually tried to contact the relevant authorities in each country to confirm his list. This did not work in all cases, but the list is a lot more reliable than the others. BEsides, it has more information.

I haven't updated the website in several years. Other things simply take too much time. But I still take the occasional photo of wiring I find interesting.

The past couple of days I've been staying in the workers dorm in a Soviet-era factory in Lithuania. Type C sockets most of the time, but also a Australian type socket marked with CCCP! I have a photo somewhere. The typical cable in walls was white zip-cord with solid conductors, possibly aluminium.

I opened the cover of a panel to see what the fuses looked like. It actually contained circuit breakers which looked to be original, probably from the 80's.

I should not forget a special feature: When you pulled a plug, most sockets followed... Handy when your cord is just a little too short or when you feel the urge for an energizing jolt.

I wonder if the Australian type sockets were actually Chinese .... it would make more sense in the old Soviet days of the USSR.

Perhaps they were used as non-standard outlets to prevent accidental plugging-in of vacuum cleaners etc into some protected / switched circuit ?

We commonly use either keyed BS1363 plugs/sockets (standard) or BS546 for that purpose.

Dave,
Could you please quantify/justify that comment?

The current configuration used in Australia, New Zealand, quite a few island nations of these two countries and also Argentina (that uses the same configuration, but it is inverted), was actually designed in Australia.

There is an Australian Standard that mandates the manufacture of this plug configuration (which escapes me at this point in time).

Well, the USSR would have had a lot more trade connections with Communist China in the 1980s than it would have had with Australia or NZ.

I'd say it's more likely that a Chinese standard slipped into the Russian standards book as an alternative to their version of CEE 7 than an Aus/NZ plug.

China's been using a version of the Australian plug for quite some time. It's not absolutely identical, the pins on the Chinese version are slightly longer and the sockets are usually installed in the UK/IRL type configuration i.e. ground up.

Chinese:


Aus/NZ:


The Chinese sockets also have the same layout as BS1363

Earth
Neutral Live

Giving them opposite polarity to Australia/NZ