Does somebody know of a site that has the maximum ratings allowed for certain domestic supply voltage plugs and sockets.
Specifically will the three pin mains plugs and sockets in the US rated at 110/120V - Type B be able to pass a Europe 220/240 voltage safely, or is the design inhibitive by the materials or proximity of cabling within the mouldings ?
Yes, they "will" pass 220/240V without "self-destructing"- and I used them for many years as the distribution system in my Hifi system because we had a lot of spare such plugs & sockets at work
- but that is not to say that they "should" be used at that voltage range because:
- there's almost certainly not enough distance from the L/N pins to the edge of the plug face, and therefore there is a greater risk of touching the pins as you insert/remove the plug from the socket, because, whilst some such plugs (as shown for Australia) do have sheathed pins, most, including those for the US, don't!
- it can be somewhat confusing to wire them up because the pins are not marked with the "L"/ "N"/" fir tree" symbols - and if you use a plug with an already attached cord there is a possibility that it will not have the the International colour code. Also the "L" might not be connected to the "Right hand" pin (as seen from the cord/top side of the plug) and so the "L" and "N" connections could be reversed because that's how the Yanks do it on 110\120V! By comparison, the equivalent US 220/240v plugs are not polarized because they use a centred-tapped to earth distribution system - thus resulting in what I call "+/- 120V", although there is a more correct name that I can't remember at the moment!
- and, of course, those plugs don't have fuses, so need to be connected via a fused adapter.
