TIS 166-2549(2006) Plugs and socket-outlets for household and similar purposes : plugs and socket-outlets with rated voltage not exceeding 250 V
Effective Date : March 3, 2008(revoke from being madatory standard September 20, 2008) PDF: thai/ unofficial ENG

Interesting. Last time I was in Thailand the standard outlet was a universal 2 pin like UK shaver sockets and would accept UK 2 pin 5A plugs, 2 pin CEE 7/16, and US 2pin (but not the ones with one wider pin). Occasionally a US 3 pin socket was used and more recently schuko.
Creating a new standard seems silly especially considering the amount of imported equipment there.

Looks like what is used in India

It looks rather like a BS546 plug, but with the line and neutral pins closer to CEE 7/7 layout. It looks a bit like BS546 5Amp, or the Danish 'smiley face' plug system : http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2170/2176018145_1789632d24.jpg?v=0

I don't know why Thailand wouldn't have just adopted CEE 7/7, using the French socket if polarisation was a concern. It's the de facto standard for 230V 50Hz.

I'm not a fan of having umpteen different pin layouts co-existing with multi-standard socket outlets. It invariably ends up with weird adapters.

All this will achieve is CEE 7/7 (schuko) plugs plugged in to outlets without the grounding system making contact with anything. Similar to Denmark's current situation.

Also, 110V plugs i.e. NEMA 1-15 & 5-15 etc shouldn't really be used with anything other than 110V appliances as there's always a risk that someone will accidentally connect a North American or Japanese specified appliance to a 230V circuit and end up with smoke and fireworks. I have never understood why they are used by certain countries in the Far East, including China with 220-230V gear.

The standard socket looks like this:

The TIS 166-2549 plug is created by combining CEE7's "4.8mm" & nema 5-15's "ground"

It looks very much like a UK shaver socket with a ground pin.

I have never understood why the UK standards still include that strange shaver socket outlet. Surely the obsolete BS 2-pin plug with the short-fat pins should be dropped in favour of CEE 7/16 Europlugs at this stage. I can see absolutely no advantage to requiring toothbrush and shaver manufacturers to continue fitting the old British version. It is just an absolute pain when you travel abroad and it won't fit any European outlets without a cumbersome adaptor.

Also, I do not really understand why shaver sockets, even in domestic residences, still have a 110V outlet. Seems like a complete waste of time fitting one. I'd rather have 2 x 230V outlets so that I could charge two toothbrushes simultaniously.

How many people are going to be using a 110V shaver/toothbrush !? I can understand the logic in hotels, but not in homes.

This seems to imply shavers sold in the UK don't come with the usual 3 square pin 13A fused plug like other appliances. Is this true? This would be a unique situation as everywhere else I'm aware of seems to provide a standard power point in the bathroom with whatever pin configuration is used in that country.

The only type of socket normally installed in an Irish or British bathroom is a special shaver socket, which is protected by an isolating transformer.



Shavers and toothbrushes are supplied with a plug that looks physically very similar to a 7/16 "Europlug" but with slightly shorter, slightly fatter pins that are spaced slightly closer together.

Our shaver sockets, will however, quite happily accept CEE 7/16, NEMA (2pin) and Aussi (2pin) plugs.

To use a shaver or toothbrush with a normal socket, you need an adaptor like this (2A fuse protected)



The shaver plug's been around since at least the 1930s:



It now has sleved pins, like the Europlug CEE 7/16

I've seen the UK type of isolated shaver outlet in Australia in a hotel.

Regarding the 110v outlet on them, the transformers in these outlets have poor regulation and though they give 110v or 240v with a typical shaver load on a low load they are nearer 130v or 280v. I had a rechargeable shaver rated at 220/240v overheat and crack its case due to this. Now I always switch rechargeable devices to 110/130v and use the 110v outlet.

That's about the only place you'll see them here, but even then in older rural hotels they're few and far between (not expecting many U.S tourists I guess).
The local version made by Clipsal can be seen here:
http://updates.clipsal.com/ClipsalO...mp;first=10&skip=3&contentId=567
Not sure why they bother with the earth pin on the shaver socket when the only earthed plug that will fit it is the Australasian kind...anyone with such a shaver will just plug it into the normal 240V non isolated socket.
Interesting comment re transformer regulation. I find this with many 120V stepdown transformers, as I collect U.S vintage electronic gear. 10 extra volts into a 120V appliance is a worry whereas I'd ignore it on 240V.

Surely in this day and age we should be able to replace the isolation transformer approach with a 10mA RCD protected socket.

Perhaps it could even have BS1363 and shaver socket configuration.

Dave,
They aren't only in hotels over here, you were required to have an isolating transformer type socket in your house before the advent of the RCD, a LOT of houses here built in the 60's and 70's still have them.

I remember taking one out during a renovation job, because "it was never used", the guy in the house used disposable razors.

Anyhow, I unscrewed the plate from the wall and out fell the transformer, it was hot enough to make a decent burn in the carpet next to the vanity.
This is what is in a a lot of peoples walls, live all the time (the switch on the front, isolates the secondary side, not the primary).
Just hope that birds can't get into your bathroom walls.
I took the thing outside and measured it with a multimeter temperature, I got 218C.

I'm not keen on RCD's, but anything has to be better than a fire hazard in your walls.

I had no idea it was Kiwi practice to do this. Evidently, things were different prior to merging of the wiring rules.
I guess a non isolated/non RCD protected 240V 10A power point in the bathroom must horrify those who haven't grown up with them.
How does one use a hairdryer or portable heater where there is only 20VA shaver outlet?

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the British 2-pin 5-amp plug (on the left) and the European equivalent (on the right). These are both older examples from the 1960s:

Both of the above have now got sleeved pins.

As you can see they're deceptively similar to a Europlug :



It's a total pain in the ... when you go to the continent and discover that it will not fit any known socket!

Quite a lot of British and Irish tourists are baffled as to why their 2-pin shaver plug won't fit a French 2-pin socket as they look like they should fit and our shaver plugs look almost identical to CEE 7/16 2.5amp plugs used on almost every small appliance in Europe (Except here!)

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As for using a hairdryer or portable heater in a bathroom here - you don't. It's as simple as that.
In most bathrooms the light switches / fan switches etc are also located outside the door in the hallway. Or, sometimes on the ceiling (operated by a non-conductive pull-cord)

While they might be well meaning regulations, they are very outdated. A 10mA RCD protected socket would be far more sensible.

Just dug out this old thread as I remembered what might happen with old shaver sockets...

They have been used in Austria and Germany too as outlets in bathrooms were banned here too until I guess the 1970s. The Austrian version used boxes similar to US boxes with screws at the top and bottom, large enough to fit a modern double Schuko socket. Of course as the shaver sockets were classified "protected by isolation transformer" no ground wire was run to the socket. Now guess what happens if someone decides to replace the shaver socket with Schuko... found this at a friend's place.

My grandmother's place (bathroom rewired around 1980) was even weirder - it had a shaver socket and regular Schuko sitting side by side... kinda defying the point of the shaver socket I guess. On the other hand, the whole place was wired by complete morons, so why wonder? Missing grounds throughout, scorch marks in about any junction boxes, wires all colors of the rainbow strewn around at random... like the pipe with a red ground wire and the red phase... (the old black/grey/red system allowed red to be used for both purposes, but not simultaneously of course).