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

Entry: How to Fit a British Electrical Plug - A310276
Author: Archangel Dr Justin, BSc (Hons), BF, Patron Saint of Paper-Cuts, Ace, Artist, Scout, Sub {1+0-8+40+9=42}, Harrasser of Italics - U108409

I realised recently that there was no entry about fitting plugs... So here is one!

Um, it is a legal requirement for all electrical appliances sold in the UK to come with a plug already attached. Which news rather b*ggers up your fine opening paragraph.

You're right, it does. When was that made a requirement? Do you have a link that I can get any more info from?

I think that it was as long ago as 1992. But I have no concrete references. Sorry.

'Sok, I'll do a bit of research tomorrow...

I'll have a detailed look at this later, but I can see one problem already: fairy lights are not low voltage. People are killed because they mess with the Christmas Tree lights, thinking they are low voltage.

Thanks Gnomon. Thinking about it a little, the bulbs are low voltage aren't they? But because they're wired in series, the whole set is normal 240v...

Two other things:

When buying a plug, you should always buy one with insulated Live and Neutral Pins. These 2 pins which go into the socket should have plastic shanks, with only the end of the pin made of metal. This type of plug is far safer than the ones in which the pin is entirely metal, because it is very difficult to touch the live part of the pin when inserting or removing the plug.

The official voltage in the UK is 230V and has been for the last few years. This is the same as the official voltage in the rest of Europe. The situation is complicated by the fact that the power companies are allowed operate within a certain tolerance range, and they choose to continue supplying at the old voltage of 240V, even though it is "nominally" 230V.

So presumably you should still use the upper value (240v) when working out the amperage?

At some stage, they will reduce the actual voltage from 240 to 230, but I don't know when this is scheduled to happen. The difference between 240 and 230 is only 4%, so it is not going to make a big difference to the calculation. It's probably best to leave it as it is.

I've made a few changes, so it should have all the above info included now...

A friend of my cousin bought an electric guitar. It was provided with a lead with a 6mm jack plug (for connection to the amplifier). She didn't know anything about amplifiers, so she cut off the jack plug and fitted a standard mains plug and plugged it in. Luckily she was not holding the guitar when it melted.

That was a bit of a lucky escape!

In this age of litigation, there should probably be a warning or disclaimer of some sort saying that there is the chance you could electrocute yourself if you don't do this properly.

A picture of a British electricak plug with the pins identified would add to the entry, too.

Share and Enjoy!

Nice entry!

...and here come my ...

- When abbreviating Volts, the symbol is a capital 'V', not a lowercase 'v'

- "to continue supply" should be "to continue to supply"

- In the calculation "2,200 ÷ 240 = 9.167", the answer is quoted to too many significant figures. Just 9.2A would be better, as "2200" and "240" are both to two significant figures


RhoMuNuQ

It may be pointed out that we moving to the european voltage instead everyone in europe moved to the new standard voltage of 230V, mainland europe was running at 220V before.

It may also be worth mentioning that we run at 50hz rather than the american standard of 60Hz

I used to work for a UK office of an American corporate and it always used to worry me when they came over that they would typically bring a laptop with multi-voltage power supply and a plug adapter that in itself didn't worry me, but the dodgy looking single insullated non-earthed cables American laptops come with that they where suddenly pumping double the voltage down certanly did! It was a few years ago so things hopefully have changed now.

Yes, in the past Europe (excluding the UK) ran on 220 while the UK ran on 240. Now everybody is supposed to be on 230V, but the actual voltage in UK is often still 240V, so safer to assume it is as high as that.

*bumping alert* Dr Justin...?

RhoMuNuQ

Yeah, yeah, I'll get onto it!

I've been a little busier than usual for the last day or two...

RhoMuNuQ