[Gllug] OT: Mains electricity colour coding.

[Jacob Mansfield]

I know, it is confusine
Jacob Mansfield
Programmer



On 26 October 2010 10:03, James Courtier-Dutton <james.dutton at gmail.com>wrote:

> On 25 October 2010 23:39, David L Neil <GLLUG at getaroundtoit.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > =valid point. Traveling frequently I adopted a policy of buying
> > multi-voltage equipment (another free lesson: ALWAYS check your PC power
> > supply for a manual setting BEFORE plugging it in!) and even so quickly
> > became irritated by the need to replace plugs every time I moved. So now
> > I have a bunch of distribution boards (pls translate to word in your
> > dialect) and thus only have to change one plug (into the wall) and not
> > for every single appliance, eg system unit, screen, printer power pack,
> > and speakers' transformer - my desktop is currently running of an ex-UK
> > board whose power cord has been tricked-out with a New
> > Zealand/Australian 3-pin plug (which, true to expectation, has its earth
> > pin at the bottom instead of the top, per 'proper' (or UK) equipment!)
> > Currently the German equivalent is enjoying discarded-toy status, which
> > may mean that I have finally achieved nirvana (or nicht-ordnung?)
> >
>
> In the UK we have a fused plug.
> In Australia they do not have a fused plug.
> So, I thought that the UK must be safer than Australia.
>
> But, this is not necessarily the case.
> Australia just wires the house completely differently from us.
> The UK has ring mains, so the central fuse box might have a 30A fuse,
> and then each plug has 5A or 13A fuses depending on their use.
> In Australia, they do not have ring mains, they have a direct
> point-to-point link from the wall socket to the fuse box, and then put
> the 5A or 13A fuse at the fuse box.
> So, if something fuses, you can go to the fuse box and see which fuse
> as blown and therefore which device has caused it. It seems easier to
> find a fault.
> In the UK, certain faults cause the central fuse box to click off, but
> it can be any device on the ring main that caused it, making location
> of the fault more difficult.
>
> Cheers
>
> James
> --
> Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
> http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/gllug/attachments/20101026/3a1073ef/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug