[Gllug] OT: Mains electricity colour coding.

[David L Neil]

> This is why foreigners always carry a screwdriver.  You have to push the 
> earth hole to move the live/neutral covers out of the way.

=ok:
1 I'm not a furrynor, and
2 my screw-driver was taken away by the Hitler-wannabe at Thiefrow so 
now I carry a multi-tool (and none of that Leatherman garbage that bends 
or breaks before the component even moves, but a "Buck tool" - a name 
familiar to anyone who 'knows' knives (hunting or military context)) - 
hey a nerd by any other name...

=it's really useful to know which way around the various plugs and 
sockets/receptacles work. I can tell you from personal experience that a 
belt from UK-style 240V-AC is considerably preferable to a US-style 
110V-AC zap+crackle+smell+trip-across-the-room (and serious hang-over 
for several hours thereafter!). Mercifully without first-hand evidence 
or observation, I'd also suggest that feeds from a gen-set are to be 
treated with even more respect - if not actual fear!

=would my hair still be its original color today had I heeded the pretty 
colored picture warnings in those nice text books...?


> The real problem is of course that most continental circuits are fused 
> at 16A so the plugs need have no protection device.  If you do that 
> trick in the UK and have a short you are likely to fry the appliance 
> cable instead of blow the fuse if there is a short.

=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?)

=however once the power company guy, who called-in to fix a 
top-of-the-power-pole fuse, had recovered from his amusement (UK stuff 
is HUGE compared to the fuse-less antipodean alternative), he 
pointed-out both of these (this thread's) needs: correct observation of 
+ and - (and separation/connection of ground/earth, obviously), and to 
watch the effect of device power-line fusing 'within' circuits designed 
to be (safety) controlled by house-level switchboard circuit breakers.

=I find those little tags they put on sold-separately British plugs very 
useful - don't have to remember the color-code convention (per OP), 
until I'm wiring-in a device from overseas or time-gone-by... I keep one 
in my electrical tool-box at all times.

=and in case you hadn't guessed it yet: the local devices MUST also all 
be color-coded, but according to a different convention!!!???

=Regards to all (open) "prisoners of mother England"
=dn

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