ARE OUTLETS IN THE UK MORE SAFE THAN OUTLETS IN AMERICA? #reaction #uk #ukvsusa

ARE OUTLETS IN THE UK MORE SAFE THAN OUTLETS IN AMERICA? Let's find out. I learned a lot about UK outlets and they seem much more safe

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00:00 Introduction
00:17 my thoughts
02:01 reaction
09:15 The Winner Is

[helenwood]

Our plugs also don't fall out of the socket. All in all, they are the best.

[Cjbx]

In the UK we still have circuit boards with trip switches on. Usually these will be simply split into downstairs sockets, downstairs lighting, upstairs sockets, upstairs lighting then there will be separate trip switches for high power items such as cookers and showers.

[davidb]

Also remember these safety laws were set in the 1950s, and many other countries are still playing catch up.

[gordoncampbell]

He left out "The wire come out of the plug at the bottom" this makes it very difficult to accidentally trip on the wire and pull out the plug

[jamesday]

1. A normal home gets one phase so no risk of overpaying due to unbalanced phase use.
2. Normal homes get a 100 amp supply to the meter, used to be 60A. At the 230 volts used in calculations that's 23kW of potential supply.
3. The usual ring circuit to sockets is protected by a 32A RCBO, a combination of overload and leakage/imbalance protection. 7680W. Older installations may have removable fuses or even fuse side holders in the consumer unit/ breaker box, usually 30A.
4. 13A per socket means 2990W and 3kW as well as 2, 1 and 500W heating devices like fan heaters, jug kettles for boiling water efficiently are readily available. Washers, dryers and some stoves don't require a special circuit but they are common for hob/oven combinations and electric showers.
5. Every socket has a ground/earth connection. No screw an adapter in and hoping that there's grounding for it somewhere.

All of this makes day to day use without worrying about special supply or overload easier.

[jonathanwetherell]

A few things he missed out. The blue wire is longer than the brown, so pulling out the cord disconnects live first. Pulling out is not easy, there is a cable clamp in the plug. Treading on a plug? never done it, we leave our plugs plugged in. if we wish to switch the appliance off there is a switch on the socket!. They don not pull out easily, like type A and B as the lead exits the bottom of the plug, not the face.
Finally, power to a UK home come as Phase and Neutral, with 230v across. The US brings in two phases, with phase to neutral being 120v. So lose a wire on your type B and you still have 120v on the other. In my book that is shocking.

[Gillie-blsu]

Also, the vast majority of sockets (outlets) have individual switches on them, so other than when you want to put a gadget or small appliance away when not in use, rather than unplugging them, all you need to do is flip the switch to 'off'...

[keithhurst]

The comment about standing on the plug is correct it WILL HURT but.... our sockets tend to have a switch so you can switch off the device at the socket and do not need to remove the plug to isolate the device, just switch off the switch and leave the plug plugged into the socket.
Every home in the USA has a 220 V AC supply to the property this is then connected to a centre tapped transformer then most outlets and lighting circuits are fed from connections between the centre tap an one end of the supply giving 110V AC. Supplies to hard wired power hungry devices such as washing machines electric cookers etc. are fed from the 2 incoming supply cables giving 220 V AC.

[Escapee]

While the video has a patriotic slant, it's actually an interesting insight into the design process.
Designers try to ensure that, in the case of a failure, the product fails to a safe condition, rather than failing to a dangerous condition.

[johnwoodhouse]

Just a clarification. The fuse in the plug has only one function. It is there to prevent the appliance and the cabling from overheating in the event of a fault developing in the appliance such as a jammed motor causing a huge current flow. It doesn't protect against a short circuit. That job goes to the RCD (residual current detector) located at the distribution panel. Also at the panel are the MCBs (miniature circuit breakers) These resettable devices perform the same job as the fuse in the plug. So if a plug did not have a fuse (which was once the case) the appliance is still protected from overload.

[martinbobfrank]

There are other features that this short video doesn't mention. The wire exits downwards, so less chance of the plug being pulled out of the wall socket accidentally. A wire grip inside the plug, so less chance of the wires being pulled out. Every wall socket has an on/off switch, so there is no real need to unplug them. There are different fuses for different power requirements (common 3 amp, 5 amp and 13 amp).

[johnt]

Stepping on one of these plugs is painful, as is stepping on a leggo brick in the middle of the night. But the plug shouldn't really get stepped on because firstly, there is no need to uplug it when you can just switch off the outlet, and secondly, the outlets aren't usually in the middle of the room, so why is the plug ?

[Aloh-odef]

The only downside to these plugs is when you tread on them!

Your foot hurts for days after you tread on it 😂

[mervinmannas]

Also becasue the cord comes out the bottom of the plug not pointing away from the wall. A. its really hard to pull in out from just tugging on the cable and B. if you have a socket behind furniture it can be pushed much closer the the wall.

[chansetwo]

Mains voltage in the UK is double what it is in the US. That means if you get across it, twice as much current will pass through your body. The mains voltage in the UK is far more dangerous than the US, so they need those safer plugs. In the US, we only use that higher voltage for cloths driers, electric stoves, etc, and use safer plugs for them.

[Dog-whisperer]

I have always found it strange if not dangerous that you guys in America wire your sockets and light on one circuit for each room, ie you come of the breaker an outlet near the door you then come off the outlet to the light switch the on to the light. Is there any reason/regulation that prohibits you from using our outlets and wire your house the we way we do ours ? Ie outlets wired as a ring on a 32 amp breaker light as a radial on a 6amp breaker so you would have one lighting circuit down stairs on a 6amp breaker the one lighting circuit upstairs on a separate 6amp breaker
Then one ringmain down stairs on a 32amp breaker and on another 32amp breaker a ringmain upstairs
Oh and a ring main go from the breaker to each outlet in turn and returns back to the same breaker hence the turn ring main . So if you lose your upstairs lights you still have your upstairs outlets to plug in a table lamp and you still have you down stairs light and outlets . And vice verser .

[UKsystems]

The thing is most of these safety features are implemented in multiple designs for instance the European variance have some of the safety features so they are at the quarterly safe although this is safer a lot of this is not as groundbreaking as you think it is simple design

[wulfgold]

Recently moved into a new place and been doing some electrical work + I am pretty proud of UK electrical stuff. It's just layer upon layer of safety features that are all pretty sensible and easy to work with.

[valerieheatlie]

Electic cookers are on a different and higher circuit. You cannot plug the cooker in the wall . Has a separate connection and has to be installed by a qualified electrician

[gregblair]

We have different plugs for large appliances, but they are not the same as the UK "type G" plugs!