German Power Plug

A

archive10

Guest
I decided to make a cable adapter using a local power plug at one end and a Schuko socket at the other end like the one shown below.
This way I will not need to cut the original appliance plug, and adhere to safety standards
( pretending not to have ready posts #31-40: )

Although is more complicated, it is very likely the best compromise, given that you cannot change the plug due to warranty voidance (is that a word?)

In fact, regularly travelling between Denmark, Sweden, Schuko-land, Italy, and UK, I have several "adaptors" similar to your made up of a cut-away IEC cord + a female from DK (where I buy electrical appliances most often), Sweden (where I buy electrical appliances almost as often), and the UK (where I used to buy electrical appliances, several of which still lives harmoniously in my household).

So thumbs up!
 

2cvbloke

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
9,768
Reaction score
1,808
Points
113
Age
38
My Satellite Setup
No satellite stuff for the moment (aside from a 43cm minidish that was on the house already), Samsung SyncMaster T27B550 Smart TV & Monitor, and a few computers...
My Location
Near Pontop Pike, Co. Durham
My Belkin UPS has german sockets on it, so I bought a couple of german plugs to wire to a UK extension cable (which lives out in the back shed, for when I want light out there without running a cable to the house or running the Honda generator), bit of a PITA, but, makes it less problematic than using adaptors that aren't quite up to scratch... :)

just think of the recent surveys in the UK that showed that the vast majority of modern men don't even know how to wire up a 13A plug.

Then they are not true men if they can't even wire a plug, there's no excuse to not have that basic knowledge, though, I will say, it did get me a free fully-operational washing machine from my neighbour who had a water leak over the washer's original moulded plug, and said washer runs off the Belkin UPS, mostly... :-rofl2
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
For many years before portable UK 13A power strips, or dedicated AV power distribution strips, were widely available, my AV 240V system power distribution was with US NEMA 5-15R 125V 3-pin sockets (UK Pin polarity observed! :D) in matching back boxes and with matching US NEMA 5-15P plug cord sets (we had a lot of "spares" at work) - not "conventional", but very compact and "safe" when used with suitable knowledge & care :-lol
 
A

archive10

Guest
For many years before portable UK 13A power strips, or dedicated AV power distribution strips, were widely available, my AV 240V system power distribution was with US NEMA 5-15R 125V 3-pin sockets (UK Pin polarity observed! :D) in matching back boxes and with matching US NEMA 5-15P plug cord sets (we had a lot of "spares" at work) - not "conventional", but very compact and "safe" when used with suitable knowledge & care :-lol
Not as ancient, but much in the same vein, here is a picture from the underside of my desk showing (right-to-left) the UK mains distribution unit / power strip, the Swedish Schuko equivalent, and a Danish un-earthed one (there is a Danish earthed variety, I'm just not using it here). The UK MDU is fed from a Danish grounded plug making the whole (hybrid) circle complete...

This arrangement was originally born from an all-danish set-up, modified over the years moving to the UK and back again. Desk has changed, but the power strips moved across.
It may not be text-book, but it works very well with the assortment of earthed plugs and power cords I have ammassed over the years.

IMAG3675q.jpg
 

sonnetpete

Grumpy Old Retired Moderator and quiz inquisitor..
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
8,948
Reaction score
3,491
Points
113
Age
73
Website
wordpress.com
My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
Slightly off topic, but there are UK owned houses over here which have either been self renovated or renovated with the assistance of a UK electrician, that have 13A UK sockets fitted. Needless to say that's not up to French regs and invalidates their house insurance....
 

Topper

Amo Amas Amant Admin
Staff member
Joined
Nov 18, 2004
Messages
23,991
Reaction score
4,014
Points
113
Age
69
My Satellite Setup
Has gone to a good home elsewhere
My Location
Blackburn, Lancashire
Slightly off topic, but there are UK owned houses over here which have either been self renovated or renovated with the assistance of a UK electrician, that have 13A UK sockets fitted. Needless to say that's not up to French regs and invalidates their house insurance....
After staying in an AirBNB in Paris four years ago, I am surprised to learn that there are any regs in France, let alone ones that are superior to British Standards. It was a complete bare wire death trap, an accident waiting to happen and I put that on my review.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
After staying in an AirBNB in Paris four years ago, I am surprised to learn that there are any regs in France, let alone ones that are superior to British Standards. It was a complete bare wire death trap, an accident waiting to happen and I put that on my review.
"Surprisingly" there are wiring regs in France in the form of French Standard NF-C-15-100 and its ancillary standards - the document format is structurally similar to BS7671, the IET Wiring Regs in the UK, (because they are both based on the format in IEC 60364-1) but the content varies in a number of aspects (no ring-main systems, 13A sockets and so on) and EDF are not supposed to allow the supply to be connected until the installation has been inspected and shown to comply - presumably the place in which you stayed may have been inspected a very long time ago - but not since :D
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,533
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
The internet is very spotty right now due to another major storm blowing through, my last post about the pigtail I tried to post before #30 popped up.

Sooooo Sorry about that.


Just seen that on the news, theres more on the way as well

At least the dam is no longer an issue.
 

2cvbloke

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
9,768
Reaction score
1,808
Points
113
Age
38
My Satellite Setup
No satellite stuff for the moment (aside from a 43cm minidish that was on the house already), Samsung SyncMaster T27B550 Smart TV & Monitor, and a few computers...
My Location
Near Pontop Pike, Co. Durham
Slightly off topic, but there are UK owned houses over here which have either been self renovated or renovated with the assistance of a UK electrician, that have 13A UK sockets fitted. Needless to say that's not up to French regs and invalidates their house insurance....

Seems legit to me, after all, you can buy US sockets designed to fit UK back boxes... :D

USsocketUKpattress.jpg
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Seems legit to me, after all, you can buy US sockets designed to fit UK back boxes
I wouldn't do that in the UK because our system relies on the fuses in the plugs to protect the appliance cables as the consumer unit c/bs are rated at 32A - and you can't get US plugs with fuses (except for some very special ones I came across once) :(.

Wouldn't do it anywhere else in Europe either because the plugs and cables are nominally rated at 125V, AND they are much smaller than European plugs and don't have any insulation on the L&N pins and so there is a higher risk of shock from touching them - alright, I once used them on my 240V system but I did know the issues & risks, and they were supplied from a normal 13A plug & fuse.

OTOH, in some parts of the Far East, notably the Philippines, they do use the US 125V plugs on 220V - but then almost all of the countries in the region pay scant regard to electrical safety at the best of times!:-lol
 

2cvbloke

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
9,768
Reaction score
1,808
Points
113
Age
38
My Satellite Setup
No satellite stuff for the moment (aside from a 43cm minidish that was on the house already), Samsung SyncMaster T27B550 Smart TV & Monitor, and a few computers...
My Location
Near Pontop Pike, Co. Durham
I wouldn't do that in the UK because our system relies on the fuses in the plugs to protect the appliance cables as the consumer unit c/bs are rated at 32A - and you can't get US plugs with fuses (except for some very special ones I came across once) :(.

Well, them pictured sockets I'd assume are used in things like hotels and run off fused spurs and on dedicated 120v stepdown transformers, with the appropriate protection they're just as safe as UK sockets, as the US system is usually 2x 15A outlets on a 20Amp breaker, and it's radial wiring over there too so it's basically one cable per socket so the fusing is actually in the fusebox rather than the plug just as we had with BS546... :)

The UK system of having fuses in the plug is simply because of copper shortage after WWII, before then the dominant BS546 standard of the 2A, 5A and 15A plugs & sockets was standard with the fusing done at the fusebox (there were other regional standards, but not as widely used), and being radially wired (I.E. 1 or 2 sockets per fuse) used more copper, so they decided to have the ring main feed multiple sockets, and as the 30 amp cables could deliver more than the old BS546 plugs were rated for, they had to devise a localised fusing system which resulted in our one-for-all BS1363 plugs, though in this day and age, a lot of new builds are being wired radially, so the fused plug is a becoming a bit pointless but we hang onto it anyway, though why 13Amps makes me wonder, cos 15 Amps was a much nicer, rounder, more lucky figure... :-lol

But as for the US plug ratings, I have plugs somewhere in this mess of mine from the US and they are actually rated for use at 250v, the only real difference is their use of single-insulated wire (essentially thicker versions of speaker wire) versus our double-insulated, and of course, insulated pins are not a thing over there as yet (and there was a video on youtube a few years ago where someone demonstrated how easy it is to short the two pins while plugged in out creating quite the bang!!), but they'll catch up eventually I'm sure... :-rofl2

As for the eastern countries, well, look at what they've done to our BS1363 standard:

BS 1363 Plugs and Sockets

:eek:
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
2cv

You are pretty much correct in all the above - except that I think the only US-style 15A sockets allowed over here would be those for electric shavers which are fed from very low current output isolating transformers because they limit the touch currents if a person does touch the plug pins - although companies could probably justify non-current limited sockets for special manufacturing and test facilities used by trained personnel. The only other exception is probably on military bases run mainly by US Service personnel.

PS: those US 250V plugs are almost certainly for the US centre-tapped to Earth /Ground system you mentioned earlier - they are almost the same design as the 125V plugs but the two current-carrying pins are rotated at right-angles to the Earth Pin, and they only fit the specific sockets which have 125V to Earth on each of them = 250V across those pins but only 125 V to Earth.

As for those examples in the linked page, that's a serious and timely warning to anyone on this forum to be careful of what you buy and from where! I've had unshuttered Continental 2-pin to 13A plug mains adapters from Amazon suppliers, and those unfused undersize plugs from ebay suppliers - as did the hairdressing salon I use where I spotted one last Xmas (one of the staff had bought it with some Xmas decorations, and, "luckily", it was plugged into an extension socket-strip and so it was at least protected by a fuse!).

PS: the linked page also makes reference to counterfeit BS1362 plug fuses that don't have any sand filling (that quenches the arc when the fusible element ruptures) - having done tests on some of those many years ago, I can vouch that the results of the fusible element rupturing can be "interesting" (e.g. smoke &/or flames coming out of any aperture in the plug body) if the ceramic tube then breaks, or the end-caps melt, under the expansion pressure from the gases generated!
 
Last edited:

skomedal

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
2,108
Reaction score
2,112
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
This and that
My Location
thule
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

German Power Plug

And we have the Norwegian version round plug 2 pin earthed ( earthed with 2 side contacts ) or unearthed:-doh:-rofl2:-ohcrap


Google it:D
 
Last edited:

2cvbloke

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
9,768
Reaction score
1,808
Points
113
Age
38
My Satellite Setup
No satellite stuff for the moment (aside from a 43cm minidish that was on the house already), Samsung SyncMaster T27B550 Smart TV & Monitor, and a few computers...
My Location
Near Pontop Pike, Co. Durham
PS: those US 250V plugs are almost certainly for the US centre-tapped to Earth /Ground system you mentioned earlier - they are almost the same design as the 125V plugs but the two current-carrying pins are rotated at right-angles to the Earth Pin, and they only fit the specific sockets which have 125V to Earth on each of them = 250V across those pins but only 125 V to Earth.

Nope, they are NEMA 5-15P plugs, the bog-standard 3-pin US standard, they came off some metal clamp lights I got around 10 years back (which got lost in moving from lancashire to up here) directly from the US, kept the plugs for some reason after snipping them off to fit a UK plug, dunno what I kept them for, but can't find them at the moment annoyingly, but that said I have a friend over in Texas who's educated me in what they use there, the standard 2-pin, the polarised 2-pin, the 15Amp 3-pin, the 20Amp 3-pin (the latter of which requiring a "T-slot" wall socket to allow the 15A plugs to fit), the twist-lock, the dryer plug & the water heater plug (and in his previous house, the water heater plug was a very old style plug, which is now the 240v Australian standard!), aswell as how their split-phase system works with half the house on one phase, half on the other, and joined in the dryer and water heater plugs to create their 240v... :)

Meanwhile we just plug it in and go... :-rofl2

I was surprised when I happened upon those Crabtree sockets to be honest, as the only US-style sockets I'd seen on ebay were the chinese deathdaptor styled ones (where you can plug everything into them, and later have them arc themselves into a nice cosy fire in the wall), or actual proper US sockets designed for US backboxes, so those are an oddity, but I still like to think they're intended for hotels that offer multiple sockets in their rooms (whether or not they're compliant is another issue for them and their insurers to deal with!!) for travelling guests who forgot their travel adaptors...:)

And just to keep someone happy:

GermanPlug.jpg

An actual german (not Schuko) plug... :p
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
2cv
Interesting! - but did your American friend ever mention the use of the 5-15P plug on 250V in the US (I've never heard of that there, but, certainly the Philippines version is officially the standard "250V" plug as I remember seeing an illustration from the standard)?
PS: for anyone (probably no-one!) who is interested, you can (just about!) see all those plugs that 2cv mentioned above in that pic I posted yesterday.
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

German Power Plug

And we have the Norwegian version round plug 2 pin earthed ( earthed with 2 side contacts ) or unearthed:-doh:-rofl2:-ohcrap
Google it:D
The 2-pin version is not just a Norwegian "invention" because it was (probably still is in some countries!) widely used all across in Europe before it was realised that earthing is a "good idea" for anything that has exposed metal work that could become "live" if the primary insulation fails unless Double Insulated construction is used. Unless since updated you will find matching 2-pin sockets in many old buildings.

The "death knell" of those plugs and socket in the more advanced countries was the widespread introduction of central heating with metal radiators where an insulation failure in unearthed equipment could result in someone touching that and a radiator at the same time! The story I was told in the 1970s, when I worked for BSI Technical Help to Exporters, was that it first time that first time the risks became became widely "appreciated" was in the Netherlands after North Sea gas became available and gas-fired c/h was introduced in that country! You probably needed a lot of ignorance, or "Dutch courage", to continue to use them after that.
 

2cvbloke

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
9,768
Reaction score
1,808
Points
113
Age
38
My Satellite Setup
No satellite stuff for the moment (aside from a 43cm minidish that was on the house already), Samsung SyncMaster T27B550 Smart TV & Monitor, and a few computers...
My Location
Near Pontop Pike, Co. Durham
2cv
Interesting! - but did your American friend ever mention the use of the 5-15P plug on 250V in the US (I've never heard of that there, but, certainly the Philippines version is officially the standard "250V" plug as I remember seeing an illustration from the standard)?

Nope, but he knows I've done it and occasionally do it when powering the lighting in the back shed (as I wired up an extension cable to work off my step-down transformer, but decided to use 240v instead cos moving the transformer was a faff!), hasn't gone bang yet though... :)

I also run my Tristar vacuum (fitted with a 240v motor) with its original 2-pin 120v plug on 240v with a home-made adaptor (UK plug wired to a US 2-pin extension socket), and it's not had any problems with running on 240v, as long as the amperage isn't exceeded, it's usually not a problem, and if it were PAT tested as is, aside from complaints about the plug, it'd sail through I'm sure... :)
 

jeallen01

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
6,674
Reaction score
2,630
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See Signature
My Location
Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
FWIW, I helped to write the very first BSI Worldwide guide to national voltages, plugs and sockets in the early 1970's (and then later updated it at least once). At that time the equivalent US "guide" was rather less than "authoritative" :(, but we wrote (no internet then!) to the authorities in a large number of countries where the existing information was rather less than "conclusive".

Nowadays, the info on this subject is far more widely available and reliable - unlike, possibly, some of the "fake news" that seems to be "out there".
 
Last edited:

skomedal

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
2,108
Reaction score
2,112
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
This and that
My Location
thule
In the UK, the power sockets in a house are connected by means of ring circuits, which are protected by 32 A circuit breakers. This type of wiring is rarely used outside the UK and requires the use of fused plugs. Small appliances, like mobile phone chargers, usually have a 3 A cartridge fuse inside the plug; heavy duty appliances, such as coffee makers, have a plug with a 13 amp cartridge fuse. Almost everywhere else in the world radial circuits are used. In this system each wall socket, or group of sockets, has a circuit breaker at the main switchboard, so there is no need for plugs to be fused. As a result, if you take some foreign appliance to the UK, you can use an adaptor, but technically it must incorporate the correct value fuse. Most would have a 13 amps one, too big for computers for example.

Back to thread topic please:-doh
 
Top