Best sparks

[brizospark]

Which country has the best sparks?

I heard someone today saying it was UK

 

[Engineer54]

It was slightly tongue in cheek mate, but be honest look at them !!! bare pins, about as much metal on them as a Korean car , and a connection capacity of if you look at them funny they fall out ............

No common is sense is prevailing here mate the BS 1363 Socket which would just have been used for 220v here is now the norm for most commercial/industrial builds.

Hope your talking about the 380/220V supply, and not the 220/127V incoming supply?? ...lol!!! As you know the latter 220V is a PH to PH voltage, not too clever to use our BS 1363 outlet/plug top in that situation. Can remember however using the BS1363 socket on the single phase 127V 16A radial circuits, some i've seen ringed too, at 20A !! Can't say i know, or heard of any problems using them at this voltage band...

Problem comes when you have Both types of supply feeding a building, as was often the case in Saudi. Then you do really need to distinguish outlets. As you say the BS1363 for the single phase 220V, and the German schuko Euro plug for the Phase to Phase 220V, and then the Yank single phase outlet ( as you posted) for the 127V single phase....

 

[Knobhead]

Pity the sites not still on the web. Quite a while ago I found a site by an ex Mansfield District Council Electricity Board (MDCEB) engineer (Leslie Marriott). It went in to the history of public supply around Mansfield from about 1905.

DC at 650V, 550V, 225V, 220V, 110V. AC 550V, 500V 440V, 400V 250V, 230V, 220V 200V, 120V, 115V, 100V and just to add fun to it frequencies of 60Hz, 50Hz and 25Hz. The site explained how they were all brought together. It went in to the HV side of things as well, which is how I found it.

2 sides of a street could be on different voltages, so Mrs. Browns’ iron packs up (connected in to the light fitting of course) so she goes across the road and borrows Mrs. Green’s iron, sets fire to Mr. Brown’s best shirt and all the lighting circuit. Well that’s one less house to worry about.

Clipstone colliery would supply any workers house within a certain distance from the powerhouse, for 4d (2 pence) a week. 100V @ 25Hz, you were allowed a maximum of 3 X 40W lamps, exceed that and the “flicker” relay would kick in. the current would pull the relay in and cause the lights to flash on and off, that added to the lights flickering anyway due to the low frequency. And of course the lights dimming every time the winder started.

If you were due for conversion the council had to replace any appliance. From the story of converting the chip shop from DC to AC it must have been hilarious. It was a busy chippy with a modern potato rumbler. They got the calculations a bit wrong when they changed the motor, potato peelings stuck to the walls, ceiling and the poor lad trying to work it!

We have a good system in this country, it’s taken many years to get it so. Now it’s being ruined by know all, know nothing’s.

 

[mayfair]

Looking in from outside, but being from inside if you know what i mean. Its a hard one to call but i feel that the UK is bogged down with rules and regs some good some bad. All i can really say is UK three pin plugs are much better, safer than any of this Shucko crap and as for the USof A well that would be trolling.
The new build regs here in Spain are very good but kept simple not over complicated with codes etc Believe it or not the testing is quite stringent but supply's are very very low, A lot of 2 bed homes have a suppy on 6mm and are restricted to drawing 15A at anytime by a unit called an ICP

 

[Dcf]

First time I went to the USA I had a quick look at some of their stuff on the passing and it was like the uk circa 1973.D/boards that resembled the old crabtree c50 style etc on a 2 year old jobWhat a pile of cackThere was an interesting piece in a San Francisco paper that bemoaned the fact they were stuck with 120v and the light switches were hugeAnd Europe had quite nice switches because they had 230v n didn't have to have 20a switches for lights

 

[Engineer54]

First time I went to the USA I had a quick look at some of their stuff on the passing and it was like the uk circa 1973.D/boards that resembled the old crabtree c50 style etc on a 2 year old jobWhat a pile of cackThere was an interesting piece in a San Francisco paper that bemoaned the fact they were stuck with 120v and the light switches were hugeAnd Europe had quite nice switches because they had 230v n didn't have to have 20a switches for lights

Everything in Yank land has to be BIG, you didn't know that?? lol!!!

They have only very recently started to use European type MCBs and MCCBs with meaningful protection curves. You just wouldn't believe some of the time/current curves they have previously used in domestic installations for general type circuits. No wonder they had high numbers of electrical fires. If you ever get to have a look at there NEC (National Electrical Code) look up ''multi branch circuit'' That'll be an eye opener for you!!...lol!!!

 

[Dcf]

Christ they still use screwit connectors for everything A bit of trunking wouldn't go amiss either.Still, they are top dogs at shooting their own allies thoughMust count for something

 

[sparks_114]

Funny this topic should come up, only yesterday driving with a builder mate in his van we were talking about the atrocious electrical standards in many other countries and how the BS7671 is respected around the globe (I am told). There is a lot of regulation and a lot of bureaucracy but dear does it have the advantage of making installs awfully lot more safer. I have the privilege of knowing quite a few foreigners (no offense intended folks, born foreigner myself) and the number of times I am asked by a friend of a friend to carry out some electrical work and once they hear my price they nearly always come out with the same line: "it's only 2 wires!". No concept of IP rated bathroom lights, or use of metal fittings when there is no reading of an earth (or no cpc), or correct size of cable and circuit breaker and on an on I could continue. Without sounding too arrogant I have to say, at least to some degree, this attitude has to do with the state of the installations of where ever they are from. I have made up my own words for these types: "Ten pound 2 wire" customers. Long live BS7671 Huseyin

 

[conall]

easy irish ones

 

[Rockingit]

I've taken touring shows all over globe to every continent and a pretty good showing of countries. Some places just suffer through lack of knowledge and materials (plus life is cheap) like India, Mexico etc. Some suffer from laziness (most of the rest and LOTS of Europe!) and some through over-ambition. But the Yanks just have no excuse whatsoever. I remember resolving a c-up that happened when some 110>230 step ups hadn't been ordered properly, so instead I got the Yank electrician to hard wire me 2ph of his 3ph as my L&N. He just didn't understand how it worked and kept telling me it would blow us all up. That must have been fifteen years ago and I reckon he's still scratching his head over that.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

Was doing a PIR the other day when a Belgian electrical engineer said he would fail it. Not due to the electrical safety but how scruffy the install was. (True, was scruffy install, but mostly, electrically sound). Was told you could not get away with in Europe.

That a bit rich! The Belgian's were still using open knife switches as isolators even on domestic installations the last time I was over there.