Hackadays Fun With International Mains Plugs And Sockets. When we recently covered the topic of high voltage safety with respect to mains powered equipment, we attracted a huge number of your comments but left out a key piece of the puzzle. We take our mains plugs and sockets for granted as part of the everyday background of our lives, but have we ever considered them in detail Their various features, and their astonishing and sometimes baffling diversity across the world. When you announce that you are going to talk in detail about global mains connectors, it is difficult not to have an air of Sheldon Coopers Fun With Flags about you. But jokes and the lack of a co starring Mayim Bialik aside, there is a tale to be told about their history and diversity, and there are also lessons to be taken on board about their safety. British Standard Bs 1363 Firefox EsrA GEC lampholder plug from 1. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. In the earliest days of domestic electricity, by far its most common use was in lighting. Just as they are today, lighting circuits were hard wired to receptacles designed for incandescent bulbs. When the first portable domestic appliances appeared they thus only had access to power through lighting sockets, and some of the earliest mains plugs simply replicated the base of an incandescent bulb. As appliances proliferated a variety of plug and socket standards were created to satisfy the need for both electrical safety and convenient access to a mains supply. Throughout the twentieth century these early sockets were refined, improved, and in some cases superseded by new designs. National standards for voltage and AC frequency were adopted and standardised by the electrical safety bodies of individual countries, and further safety refinements such as earth contacts, partially insulated pins, or shuttered socket receptacles were incorporated into updated versions of each standard. If you are a global traveller or you are selling mains powered equipment internationally youd probably be tempted to describe the resulting proliferation as something of a mess. Thats the Great Thing About StandardsA CEE 7 plug designed to be compatible with the earthing arrangements of both French and German variants. Chamaeleon PD, via Wikimedia Commons. Trying to make sense of the worlds mains standards is not for the faint hearted. You can group them into broadly similar populations, but there are always edge cases. Consider the 2. 30. V ish world. Most countries for example have sockets with an almost compatible circular form and live and neutral pins, but multiple variants of the earthing arrangements and socket keying mean that you will see plugs bearing the features of multiple standards in an effort to ensure compatibility. Meanwhile the UK and Ireland have their own 3 pin fused plug, the Italians have a three pin inline socket and the Swiss socket has three slightly offset pins. And weve not yet traveled into Africa and Asia, wherein lie a plethora of other sockets, some versions of current and older European or American standards and others home grown. Against that background the 1. V ish parts of the world with their mostly standard NEMA sockets look rather fortunate. A Plug in Full The BS1. Bewilderment at the variety of sockets aside, its worth looking at the features of a modern mains plug and socket, examining their purpose, and taking a look at their wiring. An article on how to wire a plug might seem a little basic for Hackaday, but since its the first line of defence in mains appliance safety its vital that you ensure every piece of equipment that crosses your bench has a properly wired connection so its an important area to study. Ask any grey haired electrician for their horror story tales of badly wired plugs they will have encountered over their career, and maybe then youll understand. So well now consider a mains plug in detail. British Standard Bs 1363 Firefox For Mac' title='British Standard Bs 1363 Firefox For Mac' />Because this is being written in the UK well illustrate it with a British 1. A 2. 40. V BS1. 36. The BS1. 36. 3 has all the features you would expect of a modern high voltage mains connector, so consider them equivalent when shown here to the corresponding features on your local plugs. As an aside, is it a matter of national pride that people consider their own national standards to be better than those of their neighbours For Brits that feeling probably ends abruptly when they first step on an upturned BS1. Lets just say if the pins on your plugs dont protrude at 9. Side view of a typical BS1. The BS1. 36. 3 socket has three rectangular receptacles for pins. At the top is the earth, below left the neutral, and below right the live. There is always a shutter covering the live and neutral pins, opened by the insertion of the earth pin. This is a safety feature missing from earlier British sockets, which were open to whatever could be inserted by a curious but foolhardy child. The British electrical standards. UKs BS 1363 standard for plug. UTF8tbmshopcid. Ham Radio Trips Circuit Breakers. BS 1363 wasnt the only standard at one point. It came from the British Standard 546 once upon a time. British Standard Electrical Wiring. In. used in the UK for currents up to 13 A is defined in BS 13632 and normally. Google Chrome and Mozila Firefox. Redditwide rules. All redditwide. rFirefox rChrome rPhotoshop. Its exactly the maximum amount you can draw from a standard 13 amp 240V bs 1363 British. The plug has the corresponding three rectangular pins, with the earth pin significantly longer than the other two. Our second safety feature, this ensures both that the earth connection is the first to be made and last to be broken, and that the shutter is opened only as the live and neutral pins are entering their receptacles. The live and neutral pins are partially insulated, with only the section towards their tips exposed. This is another safety feature that ensures that you cant accidentally contact live pins when unplugging. The earliest BS1. A BS1. 36. 3 plug with its cover removed. At the top earth, bottom left neutral, on the right 1. A fuse and live. Removing the cover of the plug, on the right is the BS1. This is a safety feature not to protect the user from shock or the appliance from damage, but to protect the cable from fire in the event of a short circuit. The value of the fuse should thus be chosen to match the current rating of the cable, though sadly the majority of BS1. A fuse whatever the cable. At the bottom of a BS1. This safety feature secures the cord and takes the strain to ensure that the conductors can not easily be pulled out. The instruction card supplied with a BS1. The final safety feature of a properly installed plug comes through the work of the person who attaches it to a cable. If you imagine that the cord grip fails and the wires can be pulled from their terminals, you might understand that the first conductor to be disconnected would need to be the live, followed by the neutral, and finally the earth. Bs 1363 Adapter' title='Bs 1363 Adapter' />Standard ISO 31661 alpha2 code. Mortal Kombat 9 Komplete Edition Pc Game Full Version. Firefox and Mediawiki may. C 495. 81079,1416. C 426. 78379,1386. British Standard Bs 1363 Firefox' title='British Standard Bs 1363 Firefox' />Thus the installer should carefully cut the conductors to length to ensure that the live wire brown in UK appliances is shortest, followed by the blue neutral wire and finally by the green and yellow earth wire which should be the longest. Your plug should come with instructions with the appropriate lengths for each wire. In a world moving towards moulded cables and plug top power supplies its true to say that familiarity with the internals of your mains connectors is a less universal skill than it might once have been. But while the Average Joe might have to wire a plug a little less often than they used to its likely that you as a Hackaday reader will still find yourself with a mains lead or two to fix. Its thus been worth taking a little time to consider the humble mains plug, and we hope youll go away and look afresh at your own connectors. We know youll all have your own favourites and bugbears from the worldwide selection of plugs and sockets, so make your case in the comments. Banner image source United States Patent 7. May 2. 01. 4 Wenoli Technologies. In England and Wales, the Building Regulations Approved Document Part P require domestic electrical installations to be designed and installed safely according to the fundamental principles given in British Standard BS 7. Chapter 1. 3. These are very similar to the fundamental principles defined in international standard. IEC 6. 03. 64 1 and equivalent national standards in other countries. Accepted ways for fulfilling this legal requirement include the rules of the IEE IET wiring regulations BS 7. British Standard BS 7671. BS 13632 socket rated at 13 A is attached to the ring. Google Chrome and Mozila Firefox browsers. Career Pathway Program. British Standard Bs 1363 Firefox ExtensionsBS 7. Edition. the rules of an equivalent standard approved by a member of the EEA e. DINVDE 0. 10. 0 guidance given in installation manuals that are consistent with BS 7. IET On Site Guide and IET Guidance Notes Nos 1 to 8. In Scotland the Building Scotland Regulations 2. Installations in commercial and industrial premises must satisfy various safety legislation, such as the Electricity at Work Regulations 1. Again, recognised standards and practices, such as BS 7. Wiring Regulations, are used to help meet the legislative requirements. Wiring colours. The standard wiring colours in the UK are as of 2. Europe, Australia, and New Zealand and follow international standard IEC 6. This colour scheme had already been introduced for appliance flexes in the UK in the early 1. IEE for fixed wiring was permitted until 2. As a result, the international standard bluebrown scheme is as of 2. In fixed wiring, the bluebrown scheme is only found in very new post 2. IEE blackred scheme is likely to be encountered in existing installations for many more decades. The standard colours in fixed wiring were harmonized in 2. European countries and the international IEC 6. For a transitional period April 2. March 2. 00. 6 either set of colours were allowed but not both, provided that any changes in the colour scheme are clearly labelled. From April 2. 00. The UK changed colour codes three decades after most other European countries, as the change in standard was not considered safe. Blue, previously used as a phase colour, is now the colour for neutral. Black, which was previously used for neutral, now indicates a phase. Windows 7 All Games Full Version. Household wiring does not usually use three phase supplies and the clash only occurs in three phase systems. Wiring to the old standard can be detected by use of a red wire. The new standard colour code does not use red. Where new wiring is mixed with old, cables must be clearly marked to prevent interchange of phase and neutral. Circuit design. UK electrical circuits are normally described as either radial or ring. A radial circuit is one where power is transmitted from point to point by a single length of cable linking each point to the next. It starts at the distribution board and simply terminates at the last connected device. It may branch at a connection point. Lighting circuits are normally wired in this way, but it may also be used for low power socket circuits. In a ring circuit, a cable starts at the distribution board and goes to each device in the same way as a radial circuit, but the last device is connected back to the supply so that the whole circuit forms a continuous ring. This means that there are two independent paths from the supply to every device. Ideally, the ring acts like two radial circuits proceeding in opposite directions around the ring, the dividing point between them dependent on the distribution of load in the ring. If the load is evenly split across the two directions, the current in each direction is half of the total, allowing the use of wire with half the current carrying capacity. In practice, the load does not always split evenly, so thicker wire is used. This practice was adopted in Britain to save on copper during the shortages after World War II. It is unknown in other national wiring codes. Cables are most commonly a single outer sheath containing separately insulated line and neutral wires, and a non insulated protective earth to which sleeving is added when exposed. Standard sizes have a conductor cross sectional area of 1, 1. Sizes of 1 or 1. 5 mm. The protective earth conductor in older cables was normally one standard size smaller than the main conductors but is now specified to be the same size. The earthing conductor is uninsulated since it is not intended to have any voltage difference to surrounding earthed articles. Additionally, if the insulation of a line or neutral wire becomes damaged, then the wire is more likely to earth itself on the bare earth conductor and in doing so either trip the RCD or burn the fuse out by drawing too much current. Earthing. Earthing refers to connecting the exposed conductive part of electrical equipment and also the extraneous conductive parts of earthed bodies like water pipe to the general mass of the earth to carry away safely any fault current that may arise due to ground faults. This is done to minimize the danger of electric shock due to human contact with live parts which could result from bad insulation and insulation failures. In domestic wiring earthing of equipment is done by bonding together the earth points and metallic parts of the appliances and earthed bodies using GreenYellow wire coming from the consumer main earthing terminal. The earth terminal is in turn connected to either consumers earth electrode TT system or to the earth point given by the supplier TN system. Regulations. All new electrical work in England and Wales within a domestic setting must comply with Part P of the Building Regulations first introduced on 1 January 2. One way of achieving this is to apply British Standard BS7. Wiring Regulations, including carrying out adequate inspection and testing to this standard of the completed works. British Standard BS 7. Wiring Regulations is not statutory, thus someone doing electrical work is allowed to deviate from the wiring regulations to some degree, but it is generally accepted that it is best to follow the wiring regulations to the highest standard possible. Electrical work does not have to be compliant with BS7. BS7. 67. 1 andor other appropriate standards. Some of the restrictions first introduced with the 2. Part P were highly controversial, especially the rules surrounding work carried out by unregistered electricians, builders and DIYers. Under the new regulations, commencement of any work other than simple changes became notifiable to the local building control authority other than simple in this context meant any work in a kitchen or bathroom other than like for like replacement, work in other areas more than just adding extra lights or sockets to an existing circuit or meeting certain other criteria, such as outdoor wiring. To coincide with the new regulations, the Government approved several professional bodies to award competent persons status to enterprises which meet the minimum agreed criteria for Scheme entry The minimum criteria for Scheme entry is set by the EAS Committee, on which all of the commercial enterprises running Competent Persons Schemes are actively represented. Scheme membership allows an enterprise to self certify work that they carry out without the requirement to have undergone any formal installation training or to hold relevant qualifications in electrical installation practices since practical competence can be assessment based only.