On 26/01/2021 14:00, Tim+ wrote:
NY wrote:


Here in the UK, if the plug is rated for 13A, that means it is safe to run a
3-bar electric fire (3 kW, which is 12.5 A at 240 V) through that plug and
socket without it overheating to dangerous levels (melting of insulation) no
matter how long it is left running.

I dont believe that this is the case. Real life experience indicates that
they DO frequently overheat with 3kW continuous loads

It is common. However, good quality plugs and sockets, with properly
terminated wires don't overheat. I've been in the test labs (back in the
'80s and '90s) and seen how they ran them in heated cabinets on high
loads, for long periods of testing; while others were repeatedly
inserted and removed, under (lower) loads, by air rams; switches
operated on and off 100s of thousands of times.

The cheap and nasty stuff available now is another matter!

Electric vehicle €œGranny chargers€� designed to plug into a standard 13 amp
socket are all de-rated to 10 amps for this reason.

That makes sense, as they can't know the quality of socket that they are
being placed into.