Mike wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com.

Time to ask The Question.

If there were plugs and sockets that took up half or a third
the
space
of today's, and were fully compatible with 13A plugs/skts,
meaning
you
could plug either kind of plug into any and all sockets, and
they
were
to all the usual BS etc, would you choose to use them? Why?


Why not just use the superior continental plug/sockets ?
Not sure how they stand under part P but they cannot actually be
banned here
as they are the approved IEC socket, not our oversized
Swedish-reject
monstrosity.


Many reasons make this a no-goer.

1. the plugs dont plug into existing sockets, thus consumers would
not
want new goods with these plugs, thus mfrs would not use them

There are convertors available

People dont have the laest interest in buying an appliance with a
foreign plug plus a convertor, it completely misses every single
advantage in what I've proposed. Hence no-one is doing it.


3. the plugs do not meet our safety standards in several respects,
so
getting approval would ilkely not be possible.

NO ! All IEC plugs automatically have approval. No signatory
government
can legislate against them or otherwise preclude their use. If you
wish to
use them you can.

They meet BS1363 or BS548?


4. for anyone to use them it would require wiring in a house full
of
new style sockets, and who would bother.

Changing over to these was discussed for several years in mid 90s but
for
some reason came to nowt.

Would you want to? I did have such a system once, mixed 13A square and
5A round pin. It had its plusses but also its downsides. Using 2
incompatible types of plug/socket is not a plus.


NT