Cool Guides
Rules for Posting Guides on Our Community
1. Defining a Guide Guides are comprehensive reference materials, how-tos, or comparison tables. A guide must be well-organized both in content and layout. Information should be easily accessible without unnecessary navigation. Guides can include flowcharts, step-by-step instructions, or visual references that compare different elements side by side.
2. Infographic Guidelines Infographics are permitted if they are educational and informative. They should aim to convey complex information visually and clearly. However, infographics that primarily serve as visual essays without structured guidance will be subject to removal.
3. Grey Area Moderators may use discretion when deciding to remove posts. If in doubt, message us or use downvotes for content you find inappropriate.
4. Source Attribution If you know the original source of a guide, share it in the comments to credit the creators.
5. Diverse Content To keep our community engaging, avoid saturating the feed with similar topics. Excessive posts on a single topic may be moderated to maintain diversity.
6. Verify in Comments Always check the comments for additional insights or corrections. Moderators rely on community expertise for accuracy.
Community Guidelines
-
Direct Image Links Only Only direct links to .png, .jpg, and .jpeg image formats are permitted.
-
Educational Infographics Only Infographics must aim to educate and inform with structured content. Purely narrative or non-informative infographics may be removed.
-
Serious Guides Only Nonserious or comedy-based guides will be removed.
-
No Harmful Content Guides promoting dangerous or harmful activities/materials will be removed. This includes content intended to cause harm to others.
By following these rules, we can maintain a diverse and informative community. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to the moderators. Thank you for contributing responsibly!
view the rest of the comments
Schuko (type F) is better than the UK plug. UK plug is huge, and schuko has same safety features, except the fuse, which is not needed if your houses would be build better.
Local fusing provides notable advantages, even without ring finals. In particular, one failed appliance doesn't necessarily take out the whole circuit, and lower draw appliances can be more closely fused (e.g. 3A) reducing available fault energy.
It's not worth the trade off of the giant plug in my opinion. And local fusing doesn't really protect the user directly, it protects the wires. Modern codes in Europe put the equivalent of GFCIs on all circuits which can actually save lives.
GFCI will save people from direct shock , but won't always stop a fault from say starting a fire. Example a damaged wire arcing the live and neutral (not a dead short) won't trip gfci, there is no ground fault because the power is returning over the neutral as it should. And since it's just a partial arc short it's not going to draw enough to trip the main breaker so it can just sit there and get hot and catch fire.
Technically we now have AFCI to try and detect exactly that, but it's still relatively recent and generally very expensive to implement.
All that said, I prefer the g-type outlet simply because of the giant plug ensures a nice, proper, secure connection, and isn't shaped in a way that lends itself to being particularly damaged. Even if something lands on it, it's profile prevents it from being ripped out of the socket. Whereas the other socket types tend to stick out quite far from their socket and have a tendency towards being yanked out of it. Obviously I'm partially overreacting because I'm dealing with the absolutely fucking garbage type B Outlet I just want an outlet that will finally stay secure
This is why both (fuse+GFCI) are put to the line and located in the electrical cabinet.
Still not nearly as safe. Leaving it up to the home owner to replace the fuse/breaker for each circuit each time a device of a different amp requirement is used is very... naive? The manufacturer of the device shipping the item with the fuse that matches requirement is easier and safer. It may have been born from the ring mains requirement but it's much safer because of it.
Those fuses that can be changed by home owner themself have not existed in 20 years, all are automatic that you just flip from the panel. Fuse size is calculated based on the width of the cable, so if current gets too high the fuse just flips, so the cable doesn't melt.
Edit: as a counter part, if you plug multiple high usage components on same cable, the individual device/plug fuse does not blow, but the cable can melt inside the wall.
The wire from the plug to the device isn't the same size as that in the wall. So you can have a device cable melt and light on fire without tripping the main fuse. A fuse in the plug prevents this.
Your edit is assuming they're isn't a fuse at the central side. Of course there is a main fuse. And it is sized based on the limits of the wires in the wall
No, what they mean is that the fuse is rated for exactly only What that particular Appliance is expected to pull. Not what the circuit can handle. In my example the fuse in the main breaker isn't going to trip, because it's just an arc fault it's not a full dead short. It's not going to be pulling enough current to exceed the rating of the circuit. But it would be enough to exceed the rating of the appliance as long as it's not like a space heater or something
IIRC, the UK actually teaches kids how to wire plugs properly in school for that very reason. Or at least they used to.
To add, we upgraded our house from 100A to 200A service a little while ago, and one of the companies quoted an AFCI box. Was something like $15k, compared to like $3k for a much simpler setup (which left our existing 100A box as a subpanel instead of moving everything).
Also, I run 3D printers, and apparently those tend to trip AFCI.
What's wrong with a large plug? Surely it's better for people with mobility difficulties in their hands, like arthritis.
I'd argue the recessed nature of a type F socket and the guides on the sides are much better suited for aiding those people.
That is why many devices have built-in fuses.
Built in fuses protect only downstream of where the fuse is. The supply flex is therefore not protected, despite often being the most damaged part.