UK-Style 240 Volt Electrics

Nice, but what are they supposed to do? Make the socket more attractive when empty?

Is there a safety aspect that I am somehow missing?

Perhaps this is the real reason why Woolworths are bankrupt in the UK and must close down!!!

They have even recently totally screwed up their closing down sale with over high prices!!!!

Bunch of 1st class W***KERS.....if you ask me!

It stops a toddler from pushing a straw in the earth to raise the shutter, then sticking a coat-hanger in the other holes (!!). Any 5 year old worth his salt will prise the cover off with a sharp knife. Also, when somebody has a technicolour yawn on New Years Eve, the sockets are easier to wip down.

Woolies went pricing-gun crazy. On top of the closure prices, there are rules about how often you can have the word "Sale" on an item (so many days in succession, or x number of weekends per year). In the end the grunts on the shop floor probably thought, "WTF, we're out of a job anyway". Part of their demise was (reportedly) down to bad decisions on leasing property. It was a great place to buy cheap crap locally. Now we have to drive to a hypermarket to buy cheap crap. When the food giants collapse, we'll all be gathered around a hedgehog roasting on an old oil drum.

Hello AmusedEasily:

Like your name by the way!............I heard it was the mother of a girl who was killed pushing a knitting needle into a socket who designed the blank plug safety thing. Don't know for sure but think so.

And the safety mechanisms built in to prevent children pushing items into the socket.... THAT IS WONDERFUL!

Take care and have a wonderful holiday!......................

Just noticed your thread; Does this mean 240V at 10amps is equal to 110 volts at 10amps? or 5 amps at 240V?

It will be 5 amps approx at 240 V.

Some body mentioned using 240v on a 110/20V system, the cable ratings should normally be ok but some fittings wont be.

As for the small transformer power supplies I have had to label mine so I don't loose track of what goes where.

In terms of power, 110V 10 Amps is equal to 240V 4.6 Amps, allowing thinner cabling and quicker safety device response.

120 volts at 10 amps, supplies the same amount of power of a 240 volt system at 5 amps. Simple Ohm's law.....this means that for the same power, the cable can be far thinner and more flexible.

Also a UK /European house has far less expensive copper in it for the same length of wiring that a USA House.

Hello Andy,

What you don't know can kill you!!!

Can you explain this a little more please. Don't quite 'get' it.

Take care.....................

Power is the product of voltage and current, so 120V x 10A =1200W, and 240V x 5A=1200W. The main property that limits the ability of wires to handle voltage is insulation; insulation is cheap - standard 120V wires in the USA are rated at 600V. The main property that limits the ability of wires to handle current is wire size (specifically cross-sectional area. A wire that is to carry 10A must have twice the area of one intended to carry 5A, for the same amount of heating.

The larger wire area of course means more copper per unit length. Of course copper is expensive, so doubling the voltage of a wiring system cuts the amount of copper required approximately in half. As someone pointed out, smaller wire is also easier to bend to the required shapes.

I was amazed the first time I did some domestic 220V wiring in Chile, how small the wire was. The shock danger is theoretically greater at the higher voltage, but I got careless more than once, and the shock from 220V didn't really seem any worse than the many times I've been shocked by 120V here in the USA.

Now we could carry this to an extreme: if we just brought in the 11kV, we would only need a tiny filament to run the whole house! But then most shocks would be fatal, and power supplies for computers etc. would be much more prone to failure. I think the 220/240V range is probably the best compromise, but I don't envision a change here during my lifetime. I'd love to see houses wired with both 240V and 12V or 24V, so all low power stuff could be made to run on that low voltage, and we could eventually get rid of all theose power bricks...

Thanks all, this turned into a very interesting discussion...

Now does anyone want to take a crack on why my DSL at my new house is only 1 meg? Makes the internet as slow as the days of dial up....

Stick 240 Volts up it, that'll speed things up a bit!

3 Questions:-

1) how far is your house physically from the main connection box/telephone system? Nore than a mile and this will affect the speed, especially if cables are really old.....

2) How far is your DSL modem from the connection box that is in the house for the phone lines?

3) What type of cable do you use in the house?

Whoever gave you an "Off topic" obviously didn't read post 72!

OK , I just read every reply and not one mention to how much time and effort spent reprograming every item when reentergized. I would think that when the power is switched off all programing would be lost on most items unless something is different from USA. For the USA to operate with switched outlets and for it to be mandated to switch off what's not being used would that not obsolete all of our programable appliences? That could really be a boost for the economy. If this was to be in our future the appliance industry wood have to make changes many years in advance would they not? J.Conway

Why would programming be lost? Appliances that have any kind of memory store programming data in a non-volatile form, whether it be as Flash or some kind of battery backed memory.

None of my appliances have battery backup nor do any of them remember anything. If I turn off my stove or microwave, I have to reset the time when I power them back up.

This is part of the reason for the post. I really would prefer to leave them on and save that hassle....

Aha I get you, the flashing 12:00 on the video scenario, point taken, I was talking more of channel settings on TV's etc. I would've thought time could be stored quite easily though... Hmmm there's a thought.

Hello Steve S.:

The only items that I know of that the time remains unchanged after removal and replacing of the plug is TV most of them, and computer.

Every other electrical item that can be switched off has to have the time reset. It is no big deal. If you do not actually use the time or take notice of it, say on the microwave, just press the time set button for one click and the light stops flashing and, allows you to cook using the clock as a timer.......Though of course, it won't show the correct time.

I never turn my TV or CD or video player of at the switch. However, I do understand how frustrating it can be. Here in the UK wee have to reset the time twice a year for 'daylight saving time' (I think it is called. Sometimes I just change the clocks I look at everyday. TV, clock radio alarm, and kitchen clock on the wall. Even the landlines have clocks showing now so that can get a bit confusing, if you are arranging to pick someone up and taking note of the time on the phone,..........and,.........it has not been corrected!..............Just one of 'modern day livings chores!

Some devices store the settings this way but there are still plenty that will lose them after perhaps 30 minutes without power.

Hello Nigh,

still plenty that will lose them after perhaps 30 minutes without power.

I have a query about what you said. I live in the southeast of the UK and if we had more than about 50ms loss of power anything that does not usually hold its time has to be reset.

I can think of nothing that can be reconnected after 25 minutes and still have the same time as it did before you unplugged?

Take care and have a wonderful holiday!........................

I have a digital alarmclock with battery back up. The display will go out, but it will keep time and the alarm will sound. Other than that, I'm in the same boat as you.

If it did it would have predicted the disconnection time

Hello Nigh,

I like it, I like it!!!

Take care and have a wonderful holiday.....................

Lemmy70, With just a blip in the power here we have to reprogram the TV, VCR, DVD, DSL, Microwave & Alarmclocks. Otherwise you have to watch that anoying display flash all the time. J.Conway

Makes you realise how vulnerable our society has become.