eastern block solution to copper shortages was to wire houses with aluminum instead of copper. this avoided all that bizarre bullshit that brits do, and in principle it’s a good idea since aluminum is used for big time power distribution as well. this worked pretty well until it was noticed that under some conditions hot spots can form on connections over time, requiring replacement of connectors. it’s still legal to use aluminum wires in some places, but copper is more common now
Comment on Why do so many UK electrical sockets have an on/off switch next to them?
lime@feddit.nu 5 weeks ago
the UK power grid is weird. mostly due to echoes of the war. used to be that, to save copper, the entire house and sometimes multiple houses on a street would be wired as one big loop of wire, no fuse box or anything. that’s where the individually fused and switched sockets come from. then, since it turned out to be quite a good idea for safety, they kept doing it.
skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
Wanderer@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Why are people saying this?
I’ve lived in multiple UK houses and never once seen a socket with a fuse. Are you saying this was change way way back in the day?
All houses have fuse boxes (which then got upgraded to circuit breakers). Not one fuses in sockets. Would be a fucking nightmare to take the socket off and change a fuse.
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
The fuse is actually in the UK plug (the big brick-like thing with the wire on it), not the socket. But yes, it’s a thing, and most of the rest of the world considers it overkill. Also a lot of cheap junky equipment (ironically the stuff where you’d most want the plug) omits the fuse in the plug, go figure.
Wanderer@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Yea I know, I’ve wired a plug.
Never seen a fuse in a socket though. That comment is completely wrong and yet it’s the most up voted reply.
silasmariner@programming.dev 5 weeks ago
No fuses in the switch box though, it’s a box of circuits breakers
x4740N@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Didn’t the uk used to have appliances without plugs that you’d need to wire yourself If inrecalling that Tom Scott video correctly
lime@feddit.nu 5 weeks ago
sloppy wording, i meant “switched sockets and fused plugs”.
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
So that switch will trip like a breaker?
1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
No - there’s fuses in the plugs themselves, the switch is largely for convenience and safety - if you want to unplug something broken and potentially live, it’s much safer to switch it off at the wall than risk a shock
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Are folks able to replace the fuses without exposing live parts? I totally get the safety angle.
skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
fuse is in plug and accessible only when plug is disconnected
it’s also a very weird thing because fuses are supposed to protect what is downstream of them. so effectively fuse in plug protects cord and appliance only, not the wires in the wall. there’s breaker box for this
bdonvr@thelemmy.club 5 weeks ago
The screw to get to it is supposed to be on the side that would be facing the wall when plugged in so no
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Where I live we would just turn off the breaker for that part of the house
Valmond@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
When I bought the apartment I’m living in, the previous owner had refused all modernisation, even legal ones (he had mental problems), so the appartment had the original 1 hot wire going everywhere, you just “tapped” off power where you wanted to to ground. 1959 era.
x4740N@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Sorry but I’m going to need a source on that because there is no evidence of that being the reason UK plug sockets have switches
Other countries have switches on their sockets, Australia being one because I live here
Switches on sockets do make a ton on sense though for safety reasons for example if you need to quickly isolate electricity from the switch and the breaker hasn’t done anything
Switches also prevent arcing when you pull out a plug if an appliance doesn’t have an off switch and you can switch something off that you use commonly say a kettle but don’t unplug because you use it commonly so theirs less chance of an electrical fault happening while no one is there and its also the same reason I’ll demand an isolation switch be installed on electric stoves just incase the switch on the stove fails and the stove turns on
lime@feddit.nu 5 weeks ago
looking for a source is not hard. anyone can do it.
switches are not required by the bs1363 standard. the provision for them only arrived in the 1960s. there.
donuts@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
This is the answer. When all sockets are connected to one big loop, there’s fuses in each socket to prevent a device from screwing with the whole system.