UK power sockets outside UK

[Adam W.]

And of course, Denmark being Denmark, we have our own brand of "special" Danish sockets and plugs.

 

[mwinfrance]

Rumour had it that you each have your own personal windmill for leccy.. or somesuch.

 

[Agent_zed]

but each room is also getting fibre optic junctions,"combo" mains and low current ( usb outlets ), compressed air outlets

out of interest why do you need compressed air outlets in your house? or is this a lost in translation thing?

I've never had the need to run my air wrench whilst watching the tv?

 

[mwinfrance]

Lot of computers ( 14 ) and associated screens, need the dust clearing out from time to time. Plus I sometimes work with micro air powered wood burr tools and occassionally airbrushes in the living room. when i ran the air line in for them, I thought why not add air to each room, rapid release valves in the skirting boards at floor level next to the leccy sockets and in the living room at shoulder level next to the desk at that end of the desk row. Just above an industrial sewing machine for leather ( triple action walking foot singer 211 ) double outlet there.
Also have another industrial sewing machine ( one of 7 ) ( Juki DLU 490-4 walking foot heavy weight tarp sewer ) in the veranda leading off from the kitchen which has "air lift" and an Efka auto system.

Son's studio flat upstairs is also equipped with air outlets for de dusting his computers etc ,( he has the higher spec machines, animator and cartoonist ) ..and airbrush.

Dust extraction tubes run back down to the atelier which is the other side of the living room wall.Via being hidden inside fake beams.
Until I cut a door into the living room wall, going into the atelier requires going outside and through the tarp reception tent / outdoor atelier for fine weather , to get to the atelier, This is a very rainy part of France, some days ( for 5 months of the year ) you could get soaked just stepping outside the door.

 

[ChaiLatte]

If you buy a socket with usb output but run it off a different voltage

That is slightly misleading. The regulations which govern supply (or the standards to which generators abide) specify a range. The 230v is a nominal voltage only.

See here:

https://leadsdirect.co.uk/knowledge...ence-between-uk-voltage-and-european-voltage/

 

[Scruples]

A couple of considerations:

Is the backbox in the wall or pattress box screwed to the wall compatible with the UK size?

Random image of dimensions, backbox is circa 74mm square for single and 133mm x 74mm for double.

View attachment 157819

The one to which you link on Amazon has USB outlets integrated. Personally I steer clear of these as when they go wrong, you have to replace the whole thing rather than a plug in USB power adapter.

In addition, because they have the USB stuff within the socket, the bit buried in the wall is bulky. This means the backbox needs to be deep enough for it to fit. In the UK, you might have up to nine 2.5mm^2 cores entering the backbox and finding space for these and the USB gubbins is difficult on a shallow box.

There can be up to 3 x 3 core cables entering and leaving a socket on a ring main in the UK. Any more than that is bad wiring. With the conventional deep back boxes there usually isn't a problem with space if the cores are properly measured and dressed. The USB option is OK since the electronics is smal, simplel and reliable and will probably last the lifetime of the socket.

 

[Superduner]

Something that hasn't yet been mentioned is the insurance aspect. When we moved to France we were told that using UK to EU adapters could invalidate your household insurance if there was an electrical fire, even if it wasn't a direct cause of the fire

 

[clogs]

Never seen decent Schuco plugs or sockets here...esp the 90º plugs......
Only recently has it been poss to buy a double socket.....!!!!!!!
Still not seen any sockets with a USB supply....
U can get LeGrand made stuff tho, which is made worse than the Greeks own......
Have various combinations of ext leads, sockets n plugs....but grad getting everthing to Schuco......
PS the french plugs wont fit the Schuco sockets, have spent a fortune relacing them all.....
In fact when her indoors goes shopping she will often bring home a few new plugs......hahaha...
As I go around the house upgrading, all sockets and light switches get replaced.....
OH, plus refixing the backing boxes that are always wobbly.....hahaha

When I moved to SW France there was the mains incoming fuse *ceramic*...3x40amp....
and the only fuse box in the 7 Bed house was from an industrial machine....
even 3 phase to the kitchen and a couple of bedroooms.....!!!!!!..
Just about everything electrical got binned ..........
The house belonged to an electricion working at the Nuc power station for EDF....!!!!!!!!.
ps....
When replacingg RCD's - MCBs I only ever buy German made units....

I believe that MK and Crabtree sockets manuf's are now owned by LeGrand.FR.....?

 

[Agent_zed]

That is slightly misleading. The regulations which govern supply (or the standards to which generators abide) specify a range. The 230v is a nominal voltage only.

See here:

https://leadsdirect.co.uk/knowledge...ence-between-uk-voltage-and-european-voltage/

that's why I said 'unless it is designed to do' in the same sentence. I.e check what you are buying works for the voltage range in your country/area.

 

[Yorkieguy]

If you want to use power tools which are fitted with a UK 13A three-pin plug elsewhere in Europe, which not just use a 'travel adaptor', which is what Brits do when on holiday abroad for small items such as hair dryers? A lot less hassle than fitting UK sockets, which may not be permissible under other countries regulations.

EG; This type of thing, which has USB ports too:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Ad...eywords=travel+adaptors&qid=1682404543&sr=8-9

Or more cheaply, these basic ones - cheap enough for a pack of five:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Eu...ds=travel+adaptors&qid=1682404543&sr=8-6&th=1

Or just cut the UK plug off and fit one for the country in which the equipment is being used.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Sideways]

Travel adaptors are often cheaply made with contacts that are flimsy and barely adequate. It doesn't matter for plugging in a phone charger or gadget but for a 2kW power tool maybe not so good. I would expect to see signs of overheating and unreliable contact over time as the innards are just bent brass or copper strip, loosely held in a plastic moulding. The same is often true of multi way extensions, but those do tend to be better and some even pretty good.
When I was doing a great deal of work abroad, I would take with me either uk permaplug brand trailing sockets (still only bent strip inside but adequate) or best of all, metalclad twin uk sockets with their surface mount box, and a cable gland or two. In country, I could always buy local 16A leads with whatever moulded 3 pin plug so I wired up a converter. I'd leave them behind for my future visits and there was usually someone happy to have them when I was all done.

 

[Sideways]

The other popular trick was to acquire a collection of international power cords for laptop power supplies as you travelled the world. Then you could take the right cord for wherever you were headed and stop messing with adapters

 

[ChaiLatte]

...check what you are buying works for the voltage range in your country/area.

I think you are missing the point. The voltage range (i.e. the minimum and maximum) across the whole of Europe is the same. Within that range, each country might have a different nominal voltage but no manufacturer would ever design something that will only work properly at nominal.

 

[Spectric]

There can be up to 3 x 3 core cables entering and leaving a socket on a ring main in the UK

I assume you are talking about twin and earth, you only find three core in two way lighting circuits normally and Ring mains are old hat, the way forward are radial circuits in either 2.5 or 4.0mm T&E.

 

[Spectric]

I think you are missing the point. The voltage range (i.e. the minimum and maximum) across the whole of Europe is the same.

It would not be good if there was any major difference because we import electricity from the continent ! The one thing all electricity has in common, no mater what country you are in is that it has the potental to kill and it sounds like France has something in common with places like Thailand when it comes to electrical work, do you see this in France

 

[aet1]

Majority stuck to the Regs in my experience, but then I only worked on ex-pat house's and a few locals, seems I was the only person in the area that had an earth spike tester.

Septic tank Regulations all changed in 2012 when the EU told France to clean up its act and stop discharging into rivers.

I bought a house in France that had been "renovated" by an English chap as a holiday home. I did not notice his "friend - a qualified electrician" had put all UK sockets in. As I had been living in Austria that meant a change of plugs or all the sockets, I was on the way to moving back to the UK so went for changing the plugs to UK ones.
What I did not realise was the "qualified electrician" was either permanently drunk or was really the owner with no idea whatsoever about electrics.
I got a shock off the metal housing for a socket - the power was joined using a convenient connector - the earth connection for the housing. A pretty thorough check over led to my upgrading the house earth - it was an earth spike as in the photo, ignore the insulated wire - the joined by twisting rotting thin wire was the only earthing point for the house.View attachment 157950
But I already knew French electrics could be strange as I previously had a holiday home wired using metal conduit and single cables - which would go into the conduit one colour and come out a different colour with a twisted joint with insulation tape somewhere along the conduit.
My house in Austria had previously been used for immigrants who ran wires from junction boxes (they do like junction boxes in Austria - several in a room) for table top hotplates with no regard for the number wired in.
I like the robustness of the UK plugs and sockets, but the lower cost of Shucko plugs, and I do love the way you can just drill a hole for a shucko socket or a light switch instead of having to chop out a square or rectangular one here.

I still use a UK to Shucko extension lead - I have not got round to changing the plugs on some of my power tools - perhaps because I dream of moving back to Austria before I die.

 

[aet1]

,Our bathroom had 13 amps ( socket with no earth ) available 20 cms from the hand basin and 60cms from the shower curtain, no breaker or fuse on that line at "the box". "Les regs"..they've heard of them.

Of course ! Where else would you put your washing machine?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Qualified electricians?
We moved in 1992 and the late Victorian house had been empty for nine months. We decided to paint everything white first and think about things afterwards. I looked into a cupboard and found a large loop of 2.5mm with a strip connector in the middle - it had obviously been left there to install a socket at some stage - so I said to my wife I'd tidy it up and fit a socket. Uncertain of the electrics, I went into the basement and pulled all the (unlabelled) fuses. I plugged in a radio and put back the fuse I thought was the right one. The radio came on. I pulled that fuse and started to replace the others. The radio came on. All the tails were mixed up. My wife was going away on a course so I said I'd disconnect everything and test the circuits to find what went where, if I had a problem I'd call a friend. The basement lights and cooker were on one fuse, the downstairs lights and the immersion on another, three rings on six fuses. I traced everything, labelled the fuses and put everything back as it ought to be.
I went to the local. I didn't realise how many people I already knew that drank there. One of my friends, a builder, said one thing you won't have to worry about in that house is the electrics. Why's that? I said. Because the guy you bought it off is a qualified electrician.

 

[Spectric]

It has not got any better, for some reason houses are an odd category where you get a domestic installer who can throw in the wiring but in industrial, public buildings and such you have to have a qualified electrician to do the work but what idiot thought that the electricity was safer in a house. Learn the subject well, if you are trained in three phase and electrical theory then you are safe to work on most installations.

 

[MikeJhn]

Shocking as it may seem, in the UK there is no such thing as a qualified electrician, there are no statutory recognised exams, qualifications or Regulations except the "Electricity at work Regulations 1989"