h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

These make for safer contact. Here in Germany, any professional is taught/required to fit them whenever using flex wires.

Okay,

For those like me who don't know what a ferrulle is, a google says that a wire end ferrule (also known as wire ferrules and cord end terminals) is a small metal tube that goes over the end of the exposed wire and is crimped into place.

I have never seen them used in a british 13 or 15 amp plug however there is a more obscure route inside a british plug between terminals then threre is in mainland european plugs so neatness is not needed as much (though we do tend to be very neat) it is also worth noted that when things did used to come without a plug on the ends would usually have been tined which will end the same effect as using a ferrulle.

Another thing people forget about is cold flow.

Copper in particular is good at this, and given sufficient time, say five or more years, what was a tight connection in a three-pin plug becomes a not-so-tight connection, leading to any number of interesting problems down the road.

It's therefore a good idea to blitz your house every few years making sure all screw terminal electrical connections are securely wired. In most cases this means the wires to the back of electrical sockets too. Obviously, the sensible person will do this with the power off.

Even professional electricians get it wrong from time to time. One fascinating example I discovered recently is the wiring for our air-conditioning system in the shop I work at. The aircon is wired through a 24-hour rotary timer switch. The clock slowly creeps around, once every twenty four hours, switching the aircon on and off at the appropriate times. However, the nitwit who wired it connected the power supply for the timer switch to the switched side of the circuit, so when it turns itself off, the clock stops turning, and it never switches itself back on. This means us poor staff have to futz around inside a box marked 'Danger 450V' to turn the thing back on. Truly brilliant. While I could fix it, I don't have the appropriate liability insurance to do it the 'official' way, and the company don't seem to think it's enough of a problem to fix. Rock => Me => Hard place.

Ferrules could be used, but generally seem like an unnecessary step in UK plugs.

Also, who wired a timer to the switched side? They should be hanged...

Ferrules seem like a useful idea in other kinds of wiring though. But I've never seen them in a UK electical supplier. So where would I find them?

Ask for boot lace ends, they should know what you mean.