On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:12:08 +0000, The Medway Handyman wrote:
The reason? Their poxy useless 115v spur type electrical system can't hack
anything else.

TBH, i've never seen an issue with higher-powered 115V devices (e.g.
things like carpet cleaners), nor with fixed wiring at 240V (the fixed
wiring for our cooker, drier, well pump, water heater etc. don't seem any
beefier than UK equivalents).

The problem seems to be with the cables sold for "240V consumer use" in
the US - e.g. the last few feet of 'flex'* for the cooker, drier etc. - as
these seem to be massively over-specced for the job (I assume someone had
a H+S wibble about it once, and now everyone's stuck with a crap standard).

* yeah, right.

US plugs/sockets for 240V use are similarly ridiculous, and like something
out of the ark. OTOH US folk find the massive fused UK 13A plugs
hilarious, so it works both ways :-)

cheers

Jules