Comment on Why do so many UK electrical sockets have an on/off switch next to them?

• KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Switches located next to the door are for lighting, as opposed to switches on the socket which mean you can fully turn off your rice cooker without unplugging it. We do sometimes have sockets in the UK with the switch at the door, but they are usually a different shape socket that is designed for a lower current and is only intended to be used for floor lamps.

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  • grue@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    1. Okay, that makes sense.
    2. Wait, your lamps use a different plug? That seems needlessly limiting/inconvenient.

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    • rmuk@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      The specific-plugs-for-lamps think is very rare these days. The reason for it is that it’s not uncommon for our plugs to be on a high amperage circuit - sometimes 30A, occasionally higher - that can’t be safely controlled with a light switch or similar, so the lamp-only circuit will be capped at, say, 3A with unusual plugs to avoid someone trying to connect a tumble dryer.

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• Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Do you have individual switches for each plug socket / outlet wired next to the door? That seems like it would take a lot of wiring, and need a lot of switches.

  The room I’m currently in has six double sockets spread out around the room. They each have one switch per socket like in the post’s image. If they were wired back to the door, they would need a lot more wiring, and one of the two entrance doors would have to be chosen. You’d then have to walk to that door every time you wanted to turn something off.

  It seems like a lot more work for no real benefit.

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  • grue@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Do you have individual switches for each plug socket / outlet wired next to the door?

    No, the rooms I’ve seen wired with lamp circuits would typically have one switch next to the entrance with several outlets wired together to it in the same circuit, along with another circuit of several unswitched outlets. Flipping that one switch would turn all the lamps on at once.

    (More rarely, there might be two lamp circuits in a room, with two switches controlling two groups of outlets. I think my parents’ formal living room might be like that, but we barely used it and I haven’t lived there for 20 years, so I can’t quite remember.)

    and one of the two entrance doors would have to be chosen. You’d then have to walk to that door every time you wanted to turn something off.

    Nah, that’s what three-way switches are for: you can have a switch at each entrance that controls the same group of outlets.

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• stephen01king@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  So you don’t get confused which outlet the switch turns off.

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• Aggravationstation@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I know some sockets in US homes have switches next to the door for lamps which would be useful if you are indeed using them for lamps but not very if you’re using them for anything else. But sockets can be wired differently if required. The sockets for my oven and fridge in my old house were under my kitchen counter and the switches were on the wall above them.

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  • kent_eh@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Having a switch next to the door would be useful if you’re using that socket for a lamp

    That is specifically what switched outlets in north America are intended to be used for.

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