Californian Reacts | British Plugs and Outlets Are On Another Level
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- čas přidán 9. 06. 2024
- The electric plugs and outlets are absolutely different, and much better! Safety top tier as well compared to US plugs. Time to find out ALL of the major differences between these two plugs.
Original video: • British Plugs and Outl...
See you next video and enjoy!
I knew British plugs and outlets were different, but I didn't realize HOW different and in such big ways. Who would have thought that they were created to be extremely safe?! (sarcasm from how the US plugs are). 💡
Another excellent British invention!
Please put the Union Flag the right way up in the thumbnail??????
For historical notes.
Type A plug was the first plugs for mass production, invented and patented as BRITISH.
Type B plug was the first plug for mass production with an earth pin, invented and patented as US.
As both types became the standard worldwide, with the UK and US plug systems other nations just bought the popular types. British Empire used the Type A and Type B for a long time, before certain colonies wanted independence. Australia and Canada left the Empire and later on the Type G was invented in the UK. Some ex colonies switched to Type G as soon as they could, because of the safety it had. So this weird Type G is recognized today as the best system.
The US could change over, but the cost to each house and business would be costly. This is why your stuck with crap plugs.
The British flag has been flipped. Think of it as a propeller, it should rotate anti-clockwise, with the thinnest white diagonal bands being the 'front' of the propeller.
Just need to learn the correct way to put the British flag ;)
They are safe until you step on one, then they are worse than Lego....
I'm British and can assure you that so called "Load Balancing" has NEVER been an issue here in all my 60+ years.
And as for trouble shooting an appliance that does not work, well ... the first thing you do is to check the switch on the socket (outlet). It's really not difficult.
Was just typing the same thing, we have major appliances usually on there own breakers, like the shower, oven etc.
Me neither, ever. I run an 8-way extension from one single socket for my PC.
It is an issue but if you're not an electrician you're probably not aware of it.
Er, no - the first thing you do is check the fuse in the plug.
@@ed_ward_1430
Er, no. If it is portable, like a lamp for example, the next thing you do is try it in another socket (outlet). If it still doesn't work THEN you check the fuse.
That's worked for me for 60+ years.
His 'issues' at the end are pretty much non issues really.
Exactly. If a lamp didn't work the first thing I'd check is if it was turned on at the wall-socket. Also since we can turn appliances off at the wall why would we pull a plug out and leave it on the floor? These problems he mentioned are just nitpicking
Apart from the stepping on a plug, I’ve definitely taken issue with whomever left it laying on the floor!
Yeah wrong video
The balance issue is not an issue because even my small 3-bedroom house has a loop equal in amount to each room of the house and each floor has separate lighting loops and our electric cooker is on its own loop.
Funnily enough the review of the outlet socket gets muddled in with circuit design. Although ring mains are by far the most popular, radial circuits are allowed.
The servicable plugs are quite rare now. Most are molded, but you can still get servicable plugs.
Also with bottom cable outlet you can push furnature right up to a plugged in appliance, with US, the plug can start to rotate and fall out the socket.
Oh and stepping on a plug gives us the British stiff upper lip training 😂.
Load balancing has never been an issue in my experience. If you have a heavy load like an induction cook top say then it has its own circuit. Even plugging in an electric heater is usually no more than 2KW and is way inside a ring mains capability
Yup.
We just ran a new 50 amp feed direct from the fuse box to the kitchen when we changed from a gas cooker to Induction.
To explain. MOST UK homes already have a hefty circuit socket to the kitchen for electric cookers but the previous owners used gas so repurposed the feed for the shower !
We've lived here over 25 years and never noticed it (as we used a gas cooker) until we bought the fancy new Induction about 6 months ago.
Fortunately my big Bro is a sparky so a quick trip to Toolstation for a reel of 50 amp wire and a lot of aggro lifting floorboards etc and Bobs yer muvvers bruvver !
same. i have a 12000btu air con and a 1200w psu in my pc on at the same time in the same room without any issues
My dad was an electrician, he retired and moved to France where he renevated an old farmhouse in Normandy. He rewired the place himself, up to British standards, with British sockets and plugs which, as you can see, are very well designed. Then he had his home inspection, and the French inspector did not pass the electrics because they were not the typical French ones. So he removed all the sockets, put in French ones, got the home through the inspection and then put all the British sockets back in!
Typical of the French.
The French just love getting one over. Probably because Britaina Ruled the waves lol
@@johnc4224 And if foreigners start importing their own sockets etc and intalling them here? You abide by the code of the country you're in, not the one you come from. I lived in France for 20 years and saw this many times. This problem is avoidable, just a little respect is required
Your dad should know better.
Bravo your dad??
For me the biggest advantage of the UK system is that a single socket/plug can provide 3 kilowatts of power, while in the US the maximum is 1.5 kilowatts. In other words, it would take twice as long for my kettle to come to the boil and I need my tea as soon as possible!
Probably was the key design goal for the whole system to be honest.
The even crazier thing is tht no one in America uses electric kettles 🤯
You Shoukd see yanks reaction videos when they find one in a hotel lol
That is an issue only for the British. If it was an issue for the Americans they would make 240 V kettles and sockets for them.
I'm 53 and have never heard of anyone having an issue with load balancing in the UK. Given sockets have switches and plugs are secure in the socket, there's no good reason to have a plug out of a socket for you to tread on. I haven't done this since the 1970s when switches on sockets became standard having been introduced in 1967.
Load balancing can be an issue if you make modifications to a circuit. It's why spurs are only allowed one socket / why you can't put a junction box on a spur. It's quite surprising how large the difference in current can be along the 2 legs which may heat the wire above recommended temps.
@@drcl7429 Indeed with modifications there can be problems, but you can have issues making modifications to a US circuit also.
@@sangfroidian5451 Of course but US circuits are far simpler being all radials. Of course you can do radials here too if you like.
@@drcl7429 Wrong, when we added extensions to our property all we did was add another circuit to our main junction box, you don't have to extend from existing circuits, our updated junction box has spare circuits as well.
@@RushfanUK I am not wrong. What you did is the best way to do it. Not everyone does that. When adding an extension it is normal to do it that way but you could also have extended the main and light rings depending on the expected load as there are not fixed numbers for sockets and lights in the regs. At work (college) we have a 32amp ring running dados with 40 or more sockets on it but they aren't ever all in use - it's simply to make it easier when the things are moved around or portable devices are temporarily used, mostly desktop PCs and laptops. The dado sockets are wired to ensure they are balanced by "interleaving". czcams.com/video/uSDi1jDdLPA/video.html this video explains it well.
Anyway... what I was pointing out is, people who decide to add extra sockets to existing rooms by using a spur from one socket to feed multiple sockets in the same room or nearby. This has the potential to pull a lot of current because each socket can theoretically be 13amps. They might even use 6mm cable on the spur itself because they think that will protect the spur portion -which it will - however the original ring might be severely unbalanced depending on whether the spur is in the middle of the ring or near one of the ends.
He's clutching at straws with the downsides, tbh. None of them is an issue. Not the load balancing, nor the wiring, nor the dastardly little plugs lying upside down waiting to ambush you in the middle of the living room 😅 I mean. Come onn. 😂
Yup. And if you don't know whether the socket or lamp is bad. We just try another socket. Easy.
And standing on one is rare because we don't have to unplug them; just turn them off at the socket.
The bulk is no longer an issue because of the pin fold and hide enhancement. The UK G system design is 76 years old and it still works.
@@martinsmith3354 Even if you unplug them the plug is next to the wall where the socket is, so the chances of stepping on one are slim to none.
@@davesilkstone6912 And most commercial items come with a plastic cover for the plug. Granted most people throw them away usually, but I like to keep them for when I unplug stuff if I'm using a lot of things in one small area. I'll tell you, it's a lot less painful to accidently step on a plug with a plastic cover than it is the sharp metal alone. Granted it still hurts, but you don't feel the need to swear the house down when you do.
One other advantage (that someone on another channel pointed out) is that the cable coming out of the bottom of the plug means you can push furniture up against the plug more closely and without damaging the cable.
As for serviceability of the plugs, increasingly these days appliances come with solid plastic plugs which cannot be opened. You could still cut the end off and fit a new one though.
Natasha and Debbie mentioned this
I wonder if that is useful as I understand that average houses here in the UK are only 40% of the size of average US houses so walls are required for furniture here.
Over the past 30+ years when an electrical item has packed up I have removed the plug. Useful when needing to replace one and in the past I bought two items on the Internet which said had UK plugs but had US ones with an adapter for UK sockets. One had a bent pin which bent back ok but it got hot when used and the other melted the adapter. I was able to cut off the US plugs and replace with my recycled plugs and the items worked fine.
I know you could stand on a plug, but I find my plugs stay plugged sometimes behind furniture or if unplugged they stay close to the wall. As getting older do wonder if having sockets waist high ( If that is normal in US and not just on the Simpsons) might be easier?
Good point, and I'll note I got a new tumble-dryer recently... and was super impressed to find a very slimline-plug attached to it as standard. It's moulded plastic but the thing is basically just 9mm out from the wall. Even with the fuse!
I just said that too, you must have watched The Natasha and Debbie show😉
You can do that, but the reason the moulded plug came into force was if removed it negates the appliance guarantee! So watch out for that.
Mostly, in the UK, circuits are a mixture of radial and ring. So you'll have a breaker on the junction box marked 'kitchen plugs' and another 'ground floor lights'.
Each of those feeds its own ring. This is to get load balancing right.
Also, if the washing machine goes ape and blows its breaker, the lights stay on
I'm from the UK - baby shops actually sell the plastic covers to plug into the socket to prevent things being put into the plug, but what they actually do is just override the already in-built protections already there that prevents things being put into the socket. We never used them when our kids were young as there was no point in paying out for them when the socket has the protection already there. That, and they look ridiculous and hard to pull out of the socket.
We were the same, never saw the point. There's actually a campaign to get those plug covers banned as they can make the socket dangerous, if they're broken off with the earth pin in place. Also, the only stories I ever heard of kids poking things into plug sockets were told by parents who used the plastic covers at home but visited relatives who didn't use them..
These covers are banned from all NHS premises because they are more dangerous than leaving the socket alone. There is a campaign to have the covers banned in the UK - Google it - it makes for interesting reading. (EDIT: having just read the other reply to this, I see I have repeated their point, but it never hurts to repeat things)
We had them in a one sockets when I was little, but then parents got a plug which was a light, as the plug. They put that in instead. The plug was on the landing upstairs so they thought it was the most easily accessible plug for anyone to play with, and the light would be useful at night
I learned to wire a plug at school. The lessons also included general electrical safety, which is never a bad thing.
Same here. Physics classes early 80's.
That was important back in the day when UK appliances were sold without plugs. It was up to the user to fit a plug appropriate to the area. Nowadays, UK appliances come with type G plugs already fitted.
@@loafersheffield physics classes of the early 2010s too
Plugs have been moulded and sealed aboutc 30 years.
Load balancing does not exist in the UK, and we use both ring and radial circuits for our sockets (but mainly radial nowadays).
The wire used in the circuit has to be able to sustain a current rating greater than the breaker.
So you can put as much on a circuit as you want but the breaker will eventually trip.
The only limit is that you can only have 13amp at 230v (2990w) from one socket. But that's the limitation of the socket and not the circuit.
Load balancing? Never heard of anyone having a problem with it, it's not a problem. I've never stepped on one and I don't know anyone who has. They're not massive to us, they're just the size a plug is. If your lamp doesn't work, the first thing you do is make sure it's switched on at the socket, simples.
Generally to experience the stepped on a plug nightmare you have to be older, because from the 1970s onwards all new sockets fitted generally had switches. Before then we used to unplug them and they'd be on the floor until appliance used again - I once stepped on a plug when I was about 10, I had a bruised imprint of the plug on my sole for weeks, I never did it again. As someone else has said elsewhere, stepping on a Lego is nothing compared to standing on our plugs!
@@adamskyj69 Well I was born in 1949 and I don't remember stepping on a plug being an issue but I do sympathise with your experience, you wouldn't forget that in a hurry.
I love how clever our plugs are. Not many have stepped on a plug because they aren't usually removed from the wall, but if you do boy it's bad, usually if kids have left one out lying around,lol
try stepping on an aussie plug they are similar to UK plugs but to work with the Aussie mantra in life they made everything more lethal as the Aussie prongs are not blunt
@@jonsouth1545 They look like they'd land on it's side like the US plugs do
Your phone charger is always in the wall?
@@sconosciuto Why not, given you can turn off the outlet with the switch?
@@sconosciuto odd question, but yes we have switches here so things can stay plugged in, unless i need to take it somewhere
These plugs and sockets were introduced in 1947. At that time the sockets didn't have switches and there was no black insulation on the plug prongs. Otherwise they were pretty much like as now.
Although we still use ring mains, major appliances like cookers(stoves), immersion heaters, central heating, electric showers etc all have their own radial circuit. I've never heard of anyone in the UK having problems with load sharing.
Yep, the circuit changed in new homes because of the shortage of copper after the war. So it was easier and cheaper to change the design of the plugs.
@@gavingiant6900 and saved having lots of fuses in the fusebox, instead moving them to the plug..
@@andygozzo72 Yep the circuit breakers for the mains power can trip if too much of a load goes through them, but can be reset with a flick of a few switchs on the breakers and then main (depending) if you sorted out the problem. And yes there is usually in every plug a 13A fuse, depending on the device used (but is bog standard for a 13A).
@@gavingiant6900 UK plugs MUST be fused, otherwise your device could be pulling 30+ Amps through hair-thin cable, instantly turning it into an electric fire.
@@sarkybugger5009 yep, thats the main reason for plug fuses, you may have a table lamp with 3amp or less cable , so a 13amp in the plug , or just a 30 amp breaker/main fuse isnt gonna stop that cable burning up with overload but not dead short!
The only negative is stepping on the plug. It’s only ever happened to me once but my God does it hurt 😂
yup😀😀😀
more common and more dangerous than getting anything through the mains!!
totally feel that!
the UK plugs always end up with the pins pointing upwards!!!!, not an issue you have in the usa!
it's kinda that cartoon character stepping on a rake feeling!,all of a sudden the bottom of your foot just goes "thwack!!!!",and you're crippled in agony,with dents in your feet that last days!
They used to teach us how to wire and change these plugs in primary school. The Ring main was designed FOR load balancing so at no time was there too much load being passed down part of a single run. It doubled up the capacity of the wiring model. The plugs have a maximum 13A (fused) load capacity. A single spur was allowed a 16A fuse in the fuse panel. The cable between them was rated at 26A so at no time would in-wall cablework get hot and overheat leding to a fire. The original ring main also had the same twin&earth cable and, provided it was connected in a ring and the ring had not been parted, would support a spread load of 52A on which up to 8 double outlets and a 16A fuse or circuit-breaker could be placed. More recently, probably due to the EU getting involved, the same circuits have been allowed a 32A breaker, but more worryingly, so has the spur that supports only 26A on the cable.
You would normally have a special outlet for things like an electric cooker, or water heater. That is not on the ring main. Where the lead would be permanently wired directly into the outlet. The maximum the plugs are rated for are 13 amps. I have a small cooker, that comes in two versions. My one with a 13 amp plug attached only lets you use the rings, or the oven separately. The version that lets you use both together, would be hard wired into a 45 amp cooker outlet.
I agree with Tim below so long as a fully qualified electrian has wired your house load balancing is never an issue. Two features he failed to mention are 1. as the wire come down and not horizontaly out if a socket is behind a sofa or chair. The furniture can go nearer the wall. 2. the two live wires are coloured so you remember which side they go. So bRown = R = right, bLue = L = left.
To be honest ... the end negatives ... were nothing. I have no issues with the size. I leave them in and switch off the socket itself so I have never had a "LEGO" incident, had the occasional safety trip go on the main board when my actual appliance went wrong and I use an extension lead with their individual switches to give extra plug space. Our plugs are basically fab! 😊
The size is really a non issue, oddly our plugs will use less space than American plugs, ours are flat to the wall whereas yours stick out much further you can put furniture right up to the plug and not have to worry about bending the flex, i can't tell begin to tell you how good our plugs and sockets are.
The size is an issue when one wants to carry a phone charger on the pocket. Sure there are tricks to make thr UK plug smaller like folding prongs.
@@okaro6595 USB bro, no one carries a phone charger in the UK
Some plugs for US sockets are flat to the wall. That is not an inherent part of the plug design, but can be chosen to suit the situation.
For me, two massive benefits are that I can easily (i.e. no soldering) make my own power leads for my equipment which are the perfect length, and the way the leads plug into the wall mean that I can have furniture pushed up against them.
Stepping on a plug is almost never a issue as most things stay plugged in & never had a load balancing issue & don’t know anyone that has. ❤️🇬🇧
All us ageing Brits learned how to wire a plug with the correct fuse for different appliances . My dad was an electrician so taught us .
We did because global manufacturers supplied products with bare wires and we had to attach the plugs ourselves until fitted plugs became mandatory. It's a nearly flawless system that has been around for 76 years and it came about because of a post-war copper shortage.
Load balancing on a ring main is automatic as the wires from the fuse box give a full 2 way circuit so wherever the socket is on the ring it has a short and a long leg of the ring feeding it. Also most houses use 2 power ring circuits, left and right or front and back as well as 2 lighting rings for upstairs and downstairs. This layout means that wherever you are in the house at least 1 circuit is available for lower power use (tools etc) when you have to isolate the other circuit in the room for repairs. High power loads like water heaters, stoves etc are fed from their own dedicated circuits within the fuse box. Also allowed are single spurs from the ring main sockets. Easy to identify as a socket with 2 wires is part of the ring, a socket with 3 wires is already feeding a spur and a socket with 1 wire is a spur. Code only allows 1 spur from each socket so they are easy to identify unless a cowboy has been breaking the rules.
Everyone in the UK gets taught how the plugs work and how to repair them at school as part of the basic curriculum. With the ring circuit in the house there's actually multiple, in most cases there's a separate ring for mains power on each floor and for lights on each floor, sometimes with separate rings for your outdoor lighting/garages or utility rooms etc. For the last 20 years or so, the wiring in the wall has to be a higher gauge now, and each mains outlet also has to be connected to a separate wall fuse with a switch as well, so you have your fuse box, wall fuse and plug fuse.
Useful courses during school which is fantastic. Would be great to have these kinds of courses here in the US to learn about every day things such as this.
Eh..? Where did you get that from..? Wall fuse..?? Can't see anything about that in my copy of BS7671.
Lots of people pointing out the 'balancing' thing is nonsense, but here's why:
Every ring has its own breaker at the consumer unit. All cabling is rated to the current of the breaker. You can install as many outlets as you like on a ring, but if the total load exceeds the rating of the ring, the breaker will trip.
There is no need for 'balancing', because the entire length of the ring main must be capable of carrying the current for the breaker chosen.
Also, it is usual to install more than one ring; one for each floor level, sometimes two to serve either side of a hallway, a separate ring for the kitchen, etc.
And large appliances, like electric cookers, hot water tanks, heat-pumps get their own cable and breaker.
The ring main is genius! You can put six double-outlets around each of three rooms on a loop of cable beginning and ending at a single 30A breaker. Why bring eighteen separate cables back for a radial installation?
Another reason (and originally the main one) for having switches on the outlet is that you can plug/unplug with the switch in the off position, reducing arcing, thereby extending the life of the socket. Downsides - as others have said, load balancing rarely is an issue - most modern houses have two main ring circuits (upstairs and downstairs), and often a third one just for the kitchen; and YES, upturned plugs on the floor are painful, BUT, if you are sensible about where you put plugs when removing them (and leave them plugged-in but switched-off if they are usually in one place), it doesn't happen that often, about twice so far in my 57 years.
In the UK we also have radial circuits with multiple sockets on. For 'Load Balancing' there is no such thing. At any point (socket or attached appliance on the ring) the impedance of the cables connecting them to the cunsumber unit is very low. Fractions of an ohm, the diference in current between sides of the rings is trivial. Also on commisioning these circuits we have very stringent testing requirements which includes, the impedance of the wires, the earth path impedance and the resistance of the insulation.
I'm not sure if others have already said, but that's quite a large example of the UK plug. Most appliances use a streamlined version about 2/3 the size. The downside is that they can't be easily re-wired, although they do have the pop-out fuses shown in the video. If they fail, which is very rare, they can easily be replaced with a plug like the one used in the demonstration.
Thesedays most (if not all) appliances come with a plug fitted, the newer type having the feature which allows easy replacement of the fuse without taking the plug apart. Much more convenient!
@@marcelwiszowaty1751 Watch out for the Cheap Chinese Crap ones though that use very thin wires in the flex that aren't what's marked on the cable and sometimes don't even have a fuse 😵💫
In my almost 60 years I have never heard of let alone experienced load balancing and the other negatives apart from standing on the plug, which I have only done once to date and that was enough I feel he was sort of scraping the barrel a bit. We used to have to learn how to wire a plug to an appliance, now most things already come with a plug attached which is helpful.
There's also the satisfying and reassuring click when the plug is pushed fully into the wall socket.
Just had all my sockets changed for British Standard USB slots integrated. Even the extension cords have USB ports with power surge protection. Never ever had a issue with our sockets overloaded and the only danger you have of British plugs is standing on one in the dark while going for a wee wee late at night and screaming blue murder. 😁
bad idea, what if the usb part fails? you have to change the socket! much quicker, easier and cheaper to plug in a usb charger, and change that if it pops, plus the usb circuitry is continuously powered, another bad idea
Watch surge "protectors" they actually only do it once, once its had one... it will not protect from one again. At least that's what i was told.
@@moodswinggaming2972 Thank you. Been using them for years and not once have I ever had a surge. But the wife thinks they all look pretty and modern otherwise I would still be using my 30 yr old Woolworth extension leads covered in electrical repair tape 😁.
@@moodswinggaming2972 yes, they can permanently fail open if the surge is high enough to pop them
@@andygozzo72 I was just going to say that. The problem is you don't get chargers with a lot of stuff these days.
Load Balancing has never been an issue, you can plug anything in anywhere in the UK. You can even plug your single electric oven into an outlet socket as long as it has a separate double-pole isolation switch.
Plus, you can fit the correctly rated fuse in each individual plug for every different appliance. Typically, heat generating or motor driven appliances use a 13 amp fuse, table/floor lamps use a 3 amp fuse, and 5 amp fuses are for anything in between.
In the UK they are only ever called sockets. An outlet is a shop selling goods direct from the manufacturer and cutting out the retailer.
American sockets are often fitted upside down in workshops so that the earth pin is uppermost just in case anything drops onto the plug. If an american socket is fitted the right way up and something falls onto the plug then the live pins are the first in line. We simply dont have that problem in the uk, our plugs fit securly into their sockets and the vertical cable means they are not prone to being easily dislodged.
Load balancing is not an issue and never has been. Our plugs fit flush to the wall and don't stick out so take up less space.
Just FYI - in the UK you can still buy plugs that come apart and you can wire yourself, but most power cords that come with appliances have molded plugs (IE plugs that don't come apart) My son (aged 30) has no idea how to wire a plug - a basic skill for my generation, but in the days of molded plugs, no longer a big thing.
I'm in more danger from the Stanley knife I use when rewiring plugs than the actual plug itself :D
I think you can buy plugs everywhere. Not that I needed. When I was a kid it was banned to change them in Finland.
He should have done it at school - it's still in the syllabus even today.with GCSE Combined Science or separate Physics. I'm 27 and I did (not that I didn't already know!). Not to mention any new plug usually comes with a wiring diagram on it...
Also, I never had a problem with load balancing. That's why it's called a ring power has to paths
I can vouch for the quality and safety of British electrical items period. My mom sends a lot of stuff to us and they are strong.
I have 2 deep fryers, that were bought in London and i just had to change the fuse when I had a problem
Load balancing and standing on plugs just aren't issues. I'm 50, never stood on a plug, nor do I know anyone that has, and we don't have to be careful where we plug things in to balance the load, I've never even heard of it 😂
Load balancing on a ring main is never an issue. Being able to switch everything off at the socket is a real plus. Also you never have a mains electric socket in a bathroom. The UK code is that any mains (230volt) switch or outlet must be out of reach to a person in contact with water or is wet. Thus there are no cases of electrocution to any person in or about a bathroom in the UK. Even the light switches are on a pull cord with no possibility of water contamination through to an electricity source. It is also very rare to step on a loose plug - as you do not need to remove it to isolate it why bother to take it out and leave it on the floor - just switch it off at the outlet - simple.
On the size issue I would say once it's plugged in to the outlet socket it actually seems smaller because the cable comes out the bottom allowing you to push items right up to it like sofa's or desks. Where as with your plugs the cable gets in the way. I can imagine a lot of the U.S cables get damaged from bending because of this
You’re not the only one disappointed that Australia doesn’t use type G plugs. I mean I love Australia and I feel lucky to have been able to move here but I do miss British plugs, especially when I’ve accidentally pulled the cable out of the wall. The only thing they copied was individual switches on all sockets and the same 220-240 voltage.
And you’re right, most of the problems he mentions really aren’t problems in practice though. If an appliance isn’t working it takes like 15 seconds to flick the switch and rule that in or out, and in my 50 plus years I’ve never once met anyone who’s ever stood on a loose plug because they never come out of the socket by accident and when you unplug stuff on purpose it’s usually something you’re going to put away, like a vacuum cleaner or a power tool. Everything else you tend to leave plugged in because the system is so safe and for anything you want unpowered you just use the switch and leave the plug alone.
You could always swap out your Australian sockets and plugs for British ones...
@@ukeleleEric Then you'd run foul of the strict Australian regulations about doing your own electrical work. One thing I hate about all the Aussie sockets and switches I've seen is that they're all this little tiny rocker things, I prefer the ones we have here in the UK (especially the MK brand).
I remember a time when you used to be able to get an adapter that you plugged into your ceiling rose, it had a light fitting built and a spare fitting so you could plug your Iron into it and your Christmas lights. Oh I am that old and live in the city where I was born in the UK. Obviously can't do it now as everything is on a different circuit, plus if there was a fire you wouldn't be insured. With regards to loading, that would have been an issue 60 or 50 years ago, caused by plugging your Iron or Christmas lights into the lighting ring. However due to the number of house fires caused by this practice, the legislation and British Standards changed.
Load balancing on a UK ring circuit is honestly never an issue and which he quickly admitted himself seconds later. The other "issue" about the extra outlet switch is just plain silly and really stretching. He is right about possibly standing on a plug in the middle of the night however. Ouch.
never had a load balancing issue lol and never had an issue where something wouldn't switch off with either the switch on the wall or its own switch. But standing on a plug in the UK makes Standing on Lego feel like a walk in the park.
It wasn't until I noticed how many people react to our plugs🇬🇧 on You Tube that I even bothered to ask the question as to when we switched to using 3 pin plugs only to discover that goes back to something like 1928! That's like just such a long time ago most of us here have only ever encountered two pin type's on our hols abroad.
Have to admit I'm a little bemused that it's not the norm (particularly in The States) Daft question perhaps? 🤷♂️
Up until the early 90s in UK our products didn't even include a plug,you had to wire them yourselves,we had lessons in school!
It was mandated in 1992. It was optional before that. In Finland we were prohibited from wiring plugs until the mid 80s. Shows how different safety standards can be.
It’s electricity, of course there are positives and negatives 😂 joking aside, I don’t know anyone that’s had load balancing issues, yes the plugs are bigger, but also neater because the cable hangs downwards, it also allows you to push furniture back more without the cable bending. However, I have stood on one of those plugs, but you’ll only do it once 😂
Having a switch on the socket is very convenient, for example, when I go on vacation, I just turn all the switches off on items that don’t need to be on, saves me having to pull the plug out of the socket
I echo what some other Brits have said here. Load balancing is NEVER an issue. Any heavy-use appliance e.g. oven, hob, electric shower etc, has its own circuit, usually up to 30Amps which is home-run to the fuse box (we call it a consumer unit), which when coupled with 240V = 7KW, so no problem. It was amusing that the risk of standing on a UK plug was the biggest risk he could find. To be fair, he was very complimentary of our design and I will take it any day over the U.S. or European designs. I do love America and most Americans, but your plugs are truly awful. Sorry. 😬
As a Brit, I would add, as with everything in America, COST is number one, not safety.
His negatives were like “What?!” 😂
The attention to safety has a lot to do with when these plugs were invented. The US type A goes all the way back to 1912, US type B and Australian type I are from 1925, and the UK type G is from 1947. N. America does have big plugs, too. They're reserved for special purposes. Just look at the plug behind any electric stove. Also, we now have tamper resistant receptacles, with shutters that only open when both the line and neutral prongs are inserted together. These are required by many jurisdictions for locations where children might have access to the receptacle (living room, bedroom, etc.). By the way, Australian plugs and socket (invented in America) also have insulated prongs, switches, and in some cases, safety shutters. These are used in Australia, New Zealand, and now China.
If the only drawbacks are: you are dense enough to stand on a 3 pin plug or you are unsure of what is on or off if your lamp doesn’t work, I would say these are trivial. Ring Finals are very good at balancing their load that’s why they are designed to be so, slap in a rcbo and you have a very safe useful circuit.
Great reaction to some great stuff. This vid always has me chuckling. Partly because half the problems he mentions no longer exist outside of small, fairly isolated island communities (load balancing). I am 42 & had to ask my electrician brother what that was. He just laughed. I live in a listed building & in my kitchen have 2 fridges, 2 microwaves, a washer & a dryer plugged in. Never had even a slight problem. & as to testing a ring circulate. You plug in 1 device & it tests it there now. Simple as that. Another one of the "problems" is also used as a positive. The size of the plug contains all those safety features. So they are a bad now because...? But things like the on/off switches getting messed up & confusing you. Easy. Always leave them off until something is plugged in. Then always use the items switch. But stepping on a plug IS something you do. But only once. After that you either always leave a plug in, or you put it underneath or on top of something as soon as you unplug it.
Used to be an electrician in the UK, and the cons were all wrong. Load balancing in a ring is far better than in a radial as we use alternating current, i.e. back and forth so the load is automatically balanced at 50htz. Now living in North America i see the lights dim every time i use an outlet, light and sockets are different circuits in the UK, lights are radial sockets are ring. high load kitchen sockets are seperate ring always. socket cables go straight down, US go straight out. 12 gauge wire in US is so close to the 2.5mm wire in the UK these little to no difference. UK AC is wired with the same colours as DC so RED and BLACK for LIVE and NEUTRAL, US use BLACK for LIVE/HOT and WHITE for NEUTRAL, and RED for Positive DC and BLACK for Negative DC. Watch out UK Electricians, the US are out to get yout (FYI 60Htz 110V tickles a bit, take you a couple of hits before you realise the power is on LOL) .
Another point which isn't mentioned is that because there is a switch at the socket a device can be left plugged in and switched off and still be earthed. Since 1994 all electrical devices come with a molded plug (with the access panel for the fuse). It is only older devices and those which need a replacement plug that have the kind of plug shown throughout most of the video
Literally no one in Britain ever leaves a plug in the middle of the floor unplugged from the wall, no one.
Load balancing on a domestic ring main? I don't even know what thats supposed to mean. I'm an industrial maintenance electrician and load balancing is something we are mindful of in 3 phase 415v industrial equipment. Unless he's talking about stupidly long ring mains, with diy spurs off of spurs, which would fail testing on earth loop impedance and other factors anyway
I am happy with my Type F plugs alone the horror of stepping barefoot on one of these footkillers would keep me up at night. And ok you can undervalue safety like in the US. But electricity doesn't jump out of the plug and attacks you if you are 1 m away from it. So keep on testing your OCP's monthly and you should stay safe. And remember to switch of your current if you do some wiring work.
Load balancing isn’t an issue as our regulation takes in to account heavy load appliances and they would have their own circuit. Plus the regulation over compensates for general use anyway. We don’t detach plugs from the wall as we can turn them off with the wall switch, and as for their size, their not that big. Bigger certainly, but not unwieldy.
I have spent a lot of time in the UK. What I know for sure is that the bulky and crappy British plugs suck so bad you can even near the sound in Canada.
Every British person can relate to that ending, standing on a plug in the night is just one of life’s major challenges here across the pond.
Never even heard of 'load balancing' in our circuits until I watched this. I'm 65 and never had any issue with this in any of the houses I've lived in. About standing on the plugs LOL. Oh it hurts like hell for sure, but the thing is, if a plug is on the floor then it's going to be by a wall and not in the middle of the room.
I can't say I can remember ever having stood on a plug in almost 60 years. With the opportunity to just throw the switch on the outlet to off I think the British tend to leave plugs in the sockets and not on the floor unplugged and only taking them out when they need to.
3;23 because the plug top is at an angle and the guy can put his fingers against the Live and Neutral pins he would not get a shock because the plug has to go all the way in before it makes contact . The reason that the Live and Neutral pins are insulated is because in 1973 when UK went decimal and we got new coins , school boys found out that the new 1p coin fitted into the space between all 3 pins , and when Teachers switched on Electrical equipment it caused a short circuit , and that is why the Live and Neutral pins are insulated . Before anyone askes i was an Electrician for over 40 years so i know what i;m talking about
I like how the guy had to come up with some negatives just for balance sake, and all he could think of were really nitpicky things that don't matter, cos the plugs are just that good.
I just wanna add that it's not just the appliance itself that has a fuse in the plug, there are a number of different types of fuses built into every ring circuit and the system as a whole, insuring that no matter where the problem occurs, most of the circuit remains in working condition, and also that human safety takes priority.
And his last point about putting a strain on the system at certain points never really happens, he's talking about places that are high maintenance like commercial buildings, and even then they'll usually have specific wiring that takes those needs into consideration. Overloading the system in a domestic setting is never going to be a problem, there's usually a separate ring circuit for upstairs as one for downstairs, and sometimes a different one for heavy duty kitchen appliances.
As a 55year old British citizen, I have never had an issue with so called load balancing and never heard of it being an issue even in office buildings or single phase industrial settings. Also whilst yes standing on a plug is incredibly painful! I have yet to have a plug fall out of its socket overnight and lay in wait for me to stand on it ;-). Although I'm not an electrician, I have seen electricians test ring mains many times and its a very quick and easy process, they simply plug a tester into each socket where they wish to test the ring, the tester is a 3 pin plug with a series of lights on it that test each of the wires (Live Neutral & Earth). If its green then its good if its red it needs to be investigated. Switches on sockets are awesome and make it easy to switch appliances off fully especially if you go away on holiday (vacation). I wonder if installing UK plugs and sockets in a US house would fail code considering they are many times safer than your US plugs and sockets, I would be interested to know this. And if you want more information on the way UK domestic electrics are installed and tested, and what the inside of our consumer units look like, go to Artisan Electrics CZcams channel, they are an excellent source of information on how to do it the right way www.youtube.com/@artisanelectrics/videos
Australian plugs have the active and neutral pins at 45º so they are always correctly polarised, even with two pin plugs.
Ok so the bad things
1. It looks larger, but its smaller because it sticks out less from the wall, meaning you can slide things closer to the wall when plugged in, lovely.
2. Wtf is load balancing? I'm 37, own a busy I.T company and have an insane amount of tech at home in my gaming room/music studio. I have never had any issue with "load" I have a rediculous amount of devices running from just a gang of 4 wall sockets into many 6+ gang extension leads then into a 1000W PSU, a 850W PSU, a 600L fish tank with its pumps etc etc. I have never had any issues ever with this, nor know of anyone who does.
3. Difficult maybe for an American, but as you can see our engineers are pretty good and it is completely normal to them.
4. Cant dispute this one, yeah it fucking really hurts. Solution: Be more tidy.
Load balancing? BOLLOCKS. not a thing in the UK.
It would be more likely in the US since you are running multiple radial circuits.
He was doing so well up to that point.
The ring circuit is protected by a 32A RCD, each plug is protected by a fuse with a maximum rating of 13A
Load balancing is an issue in rings as the electricity has two routes so one has to ensure that it uses both about equally. However, this is more a design issue than a user issue.
Bollocks, Load balancing is only critical on 3 phase systems. A ring system allows a higher load on a lower cross sectional area cable. Check your 18th edition regs mate.@@okaro6595
The plug was designed in the 1940s to standardise the outlets into the UK after WWII as the National Gr8d was installed. It is one of the few things to have successfully been designed by a committee.
Also, standing on a plug left lying around teaches the value of putting things away
The national grid was made 1928-33. It was the post ware reconstruction committee that designed it.
Maybe people in the USA somehow sneer about this, but when I was a teacher in a private school in Britain 30 years ago, the school's chaplain had a very sad story tp tell. He was a great, reforming headmaster of a very important integrating school in Zimbabwe - until his young son was killed (and I still find it hard even to mention this after so may years) by electrocution when he fiddled, quite by accident, with a shorted power outlet. In spite of the negligence - which has to be considered - the absolute fact is that had those sockets been of the British design rather than the American, his son would have lived.
Wonderful priest and friend to me though he always, I know (with first hand knowledge and sadness) that he always knew that.
I've never heard of an uncertificated "electrician" being allowed to install a ring circuit, etc. into a building in the UK. Inspectors from the local electricy supply company have a legal right to enter your property and disconnect you if they believe the installation is substandard. I'm sure all Brits would agree that this is an entirely reasonable precaution so as to drive out of business cowboy traders who put others' lives and property at risk.
The British standard for the type G plugs/sockets is BS1363
"load balancing", am 53 and never experienced a load balance issue with sockets in my entire life.
I remember being taught in secondary school how to wire one, Change a fuse etc. Having been born in the UK this particular plug is nothing out of the ordinary.. However on seeing this video i come to realise how much we possibly take them for granted over here in the uk. Not Unless your one of these people who gives thanks on a daily basis and is grateful for absolutely everything inc your house hold electrical plug. you never know. I remember My dad used to wrap the blown fuses with cigarette paper or foil. LMAO.. He was a bit of a twat..
Great video, I'm from the UK and I like our plugs a lot better, I've been to the US quite a few times and find the plugs very flimsy. While staying in Las Vegas I even had to put something up against my charger as the plug just fell out of the wall and wouldn't stay in. Load balancing has never been an issue to me in the UK and it's really not hard to figure out if it's switched on at the wall or appliance lol
From the UK, I called the "stepping on" negative. But he missed out that your parents can remove the fuses in all your appliances as a punishment (except alarm clock for school)
Load balancing ? Never been a problem at all. Unwisely, perhaps, I have never even given it a thought! More difficult to test a ring system? Unless, I am mistaken, a hand held device in the UK is used to easily test the electrics and it gives a little 'beep' if there's a fault in the electrical circuit. We know if a wall socket is 'off' normally because the top of the switch shows red. Also some sockets have a red light on the socket to remind us to turn it off if we choose to. I have trodden on a plug - in my youth - but have not done so since. Once 'bitten, twice shy, you might say! Thanks for this video - it was a good watch.
load balancing is becoming more important with the uptake of EV's.
it never really used to be an issue,but there's a lot of people buying EV's now,living in older houses,with lower rated mains supply.
Same with heat pumps!!!!! the government gave that all the big sell,but there's lots of folks in properties that aren't suitable(yet) without an upgrade.
in the mean time, you have to do your sums right with charging times, and make sure the EV has shut off charging before you get out of bed in the morning,jump in the shower,and then make everybody coffee!.
It should be noted that the 'G' type wasn't just invented, it evolved from the Round Pin type 'D' & 'M'.
I can remember when the spec being revised to include the insulation on the Live and Neutral pins, before that they were solid brass and tiny fingers could get a shock if touched when the plug was partially inserted - I know cos I did.
Mark Latimer a house near us sold about 10yrs ago, it still had the round pin sockets in every room. The old lady who lived there must have replaced the plugs all her new electrical stuff she had and the electrics still worked perfectly fine.
Of course the young couple who bought it rewired the 1920’s house to bring it up to date.
It was funny to see the old sockets I remembered before they transferred over to the new we have now.
@@witlesswonderthe2nd883 My parents house still has a few round 2 pin (5 Amps) dotted about but I remember Dad going around changing all the Round 3pins for the current 13A sockets in 1965.
PS Do you want to buy some, I've got a big box of them next stop Ebay?
True, it took influnce on them but there was no compatibility. In the Continental Europe there is compatibility to around 1900 though none of plugs of 1900 would be compatible anymore as all sockets now are grounded on new installations and the voltages are different.
Here in the UK many new homes are now built with radial circuits rather than rings. Rings are being slowly phased out.
in my 59 years in the UK, i've never even heard of load balancing let alone ever had a 'problem' with it. Also, due to the switch, we don't need to pull the plug out of the socket to fully disconnect it from he circuit so plugs stay plugged in and don't as a rule trail around on the ground. When i've ben to the states, plugs always look like they are just about to fall out of the socket just be the weight of the cord.
That's because it's not an issue. Usually a British ring system runs at 32 amps so it's able to provide more power at a single source vs the radial system which will normally run at 20 amps. The other factor with a ring circuit is if one leg of the ring fails you'll still get power throughout the ring to all of your sockets while in a radial circuit if something goes wrong at socket #2 you'll lose power to every socket after that in the run.
You haven't as those who design the circuits have done it for you:
czcams.com/video/c28vLmsszFM/video.htmlsi=IRPhvz4lAbjVl7QZ
We were taught how to wire these plugs in science at high school
His negatives are really clutching at straws - they have never been an issue to anybody I know - apart from yeah, don't stand on one (so we don't). Always hated having to use US plugs - quite terrifying. Another plus is that you can push furniture right up the plug socket without bending the cables since they always just hang straight down.
Somebody else said that, as our wiring comes out at the bottom of the plug, as against the US ones, coming straight out, we can put our furniture much nearer to the wall.
There are US plugs that allow the same.
how come the Americans that watch this dont know that?@@okaro6595
Whilst at school in London, during Year 4 (aged 8-9), we boys learned how to put one of these plugs on a loose cable. Nowadays these come affixed to electrical goods, but back then even white goods came with a cable with no plug.,
During a practical exam at school I had to wire a plug to a light fitting
We don't just have one circuit, we have several, and the thickness of cable and size of the main power breaker protecting the circuit differs, so an electric stove will use 4mm wire and have a 32A circuit breaker, whereas a lighting circuit will use 1mm wire and a 6A power breaker, a standard socket circuit will use 2.5mm wire and a 16A power breaker, and there's usually a separate light and socket circuit for each floor so it's not just one huge vast circuit, it's a series of smaller circuits, each with it's own power breaker in the main fuse box, which makes it super easy to isolate parts of the circuit for working on without having to shut off the whole electricity supply, I've never even heard of loading balancing being an issue in the UK before and my brother is an electrician.
Cookers usually use 6mm² cable and the breaker can be 32A but is sometimes 40A.
Not all British sockets have switches, this is preffered in my opinion but it is optional.
Two squares doesn't indicate double grounded. It indicates double *insulated* .
Double insulated isn't grounded at all.
Load balancing has never been an issue as others from the UK have said. Also our plugs are bigger but because the lead comes out of the bottom of the plug it lies flatter to the wall and you can push furniture up against it. Your USA plug although smaller would stick out more from the wall and you could not put anything up against it.
He had to dig to find any downside to our plugs, if say a lamp doesn't work the first thing you do is see if it's switched on at the socket. I do know my ex who was American constantly forgot to switch the socket on and always had about 15% phone battery.
Our plugs are brilliant, I'm old enough to remember being taught how to wire a plug.
The major issue I had with plugs in the USA was after a lot of usage I found the 2 pin plugs just didn't stay in the wall all that well it just felt flimsy and not that safe. I guess I was just use to using British plugs.
This is not a conversation I was expecting to have on a Tuesday afternoon.
A good electrician who lays the cable knows what's needed, so no problem there he forgot to mention that because the plugs are almost flat on the wall, you can actually put furnishing closer to the walls, with the American plugs design makes it almost impossible to do that, an electric oven are on there own circuit and it's own fuse, lighting is the same through the house, again its own fuse / breaker then again the same for the sockets, which each room can have a circuit breaker, it depends on how much money you want to spend, its the old saying, don't put all your eggs in one basket, plus it's easier to isolate each room for repairs if needed, with a fuse in every plug plus a switch on every socket and surge protection in your circuit box theres nothing much safer, next to no junction boxes, the German system is almost as good as the British, but a switch on the sockets is rare, the sockets can have child safety features, there are no fuses in the plugs, a shame really, but thats because of the design, they are two progs and a grounds bar that makes for a good design, of course safety features cost money, for me the more the merrier, but still the british plugs and sockets are the safest system. 😊
Load balancing issues are so rare that I only know of one in my 55 years that happened to friend who tried to wire his new cooker with a halogen hob into the standard downstairs circuit. It's supposed to have it's own spur and fuse. He learned the hard way when he shorted his whole house and had to spend a night with no power. Other than that. It's not an issue. We also rarely have brown outs int he UK. Last power outage where I live - or even significant fluctuation was maybe 5 years ago? 1 every 2 or 3 years is about the average.
What he didn't say is that each ring circuit in the UK has its own fuse located at the main panel. If a circuit overloads to a dangerous degree that fuse will blow and instantly cut all power to that particular circuit. This is fuse is relatively easy to replace with another you can purchase from most hardware shops.
Fuses as such are not used in consumer units these days, although older installations can still be found. All recent installations will use MCBs or better still RCBOs.
Because our electricity is 240V we do not have plug outlets in the bathroom. The light switches are either outside the bathroom or if inside are a light pull.
Most countries have sockets in bathrooms. They are only for washing machine. Light switch is of course outside in any room where there is just one entry and where one spends only a short time. The only drawback is that kids somehow find very funny to turn the lights off when someone is inside.
Being British it gives me some pride watching your great videos buddy. Also it gives me pride being The USA's best buddies in peace and war. So lang may yer lums reek America.
Higher voltage circuits mean less current draw for equivalent power rating therefore, cable sizing can be smaller than US with no issues. Cookers, immersion heater and electric showers etc., normally have their own (radial) supply and have cable sizes commensurate with their requirements. Unswitched sockets are still found, particularly in cheap, new build houses. I was particualrly pleased & surprised to find when on holiday in the Maldives, that I did not need a travel adapter where as, in Australia & New Zealand I did.
Go figure!
load balancing is never an issue mate, high concumption units like cookers hobs and electric showers have there own feed from circuit board, the ring mains for your genral sockets just dont experience enough loads. the biggest problem we have is older houses with just one socket in the room that people then plug 20 extension leads in to and every possible device.
lastley as some one who has done both on multiple occasions stepping on lego is still worse!