On Monday, 13 January 2020 14:11:30 UTC, Scott wrote:
On Mon, 13 Jan 2020 05:42:06 -0800 (PST), whisky-dave
wrote:

On Monday, 13 January 2020 12:24:35 UTC, Scott wrote:
On Mon, 13 Jan 2020 11:14:00 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:
It's mainly old stuff, extension leads & many Chinese imports that need
under 13A fusing. Wherever my 1937 set was sold it didn't come with any
fusing or overload protection, and the radial mains wiring sometimes
supplied suitable protection, sometimes didn't. That just how things
were then. It was common knowledge in the 30s that leaving appliances on
unattended caused many fires and was a lousy thing to do.

I hope you're not suggesting the correct fuse will always stop something
catching fire?

The considerable quantity of iffy Chinese goods, extension leads, and to
a lesser extend old gear makes the advice that a 13A fuse is good for
anything poor advice. But yes, we hear it a lot from people that should
know better.

The best advice would be to junk any extension lead which isn't protected
by a 13 amp fuse. And if old gear isn't protected by its own correct type
of fuse, either junk it or fit one.

What about reducing the fuse to 10 amps to create an added margin of
safety (or even 5 amps if it is only used for electronic equipment)?

As the current through a fuse rises so does the temperature, and as a 5 amp
fuse can carry at least 7 amps for quite a while the temerpature of the fuse will rise and may even become hot, and that will cause the plug to become hot
which might start a fire or cause other problems of expantion and contraction.

True. That's why I suggested 5 amps rather than 2 or 3 amps, which
might be enough. Do you support the +50% rule?

No.

When you don;t know what your lead might be connected to you should
go by the latest regs not invent your own, especailly in a workplace.