040411 1348 - Dan Hartung posted:

Den wrote:
Oh they have (except they're pronounced RCD's ... residual current device)!.
In the UK though, they tend not to be fitted to an appliance (like modern US
hairdryers) but at the breaker board (UK fuse board), or sometimes in place
of a outlet (UK socket).

The latter are normal here for kitchen and bathroom installations. I
would say that breaker board is found in new construction, outlet in
remodeling, as a rule of thumb. Of course there are thousands of
kitchens and bathrooms with non-GFCI/GFI/RCD outlets installed.

Only recently have hairdryers come with their own in-cord device.

Mind you UK wiring regs prohibit outlets in bathrooms, and switches must be
pull switches. All you can have is shaver sockets powered by isolation
transformers!

Interesting. The rule here is no outlets or switches within X inches of
a bathtub or shower (to discourage accidental mixing of electricity and
water), but it's allowed to have outlets in the bathroom proper. In
fact, I was just asking a friend whose bathroom is being redone why she
left only the double socket by the sink instead of upping it to four.

Heck, in my parents' bathroom, there's a radio, a space heater, a
water-pik, and a CO detector -- and that's not counting hair dryers and
curlers that are plugged in temporarily.


That's why they make those cubes: so you can plug in more stuff...