In article ,
John Rumm writes:
Just curiosity really, but on various occasions we have discussions here
that touch on the relative merits of the UK vs Euro style electrical
installations and fittings.

I had always thought that the UK regs and practices were amongst the
best, but perhaps not everyone agrees.

Anyone with experience of non UK electrical installations care to
comment on which systems they feel are better/worse and why?

I've had some exposure to french wiring (and italian but
that was long enough ago I'm not sure I remember much of it),
and a little exposure in various other EU countries.

I guess ring circuits are the biggest difference with rest of
Europe. I rather like them, but I can't help thinking that if
I came across them for the first time in some other EU country,
I would probably think they were barmey. Chances are I wouldn't
actually understand all the design work behind them which
includes our 13A fused plugs for example. The ring circuit and
13A plug system is probably the most recently designed mains
power distribution system in Europe (certainly that I know of),
and unlike many of the others, it started with pretty much a
blank sheet, not compromising the design to be compatible with
some eariler system. (Ring circuits themselves go back much
further in the form of ring mains for street distribution.)
Lots of other countries have since adopted our 13A plug and
ring circuit, but they are all outside Europe.

France has very much better meters than we do. You can step
through all sorts of readings on the display just like on those
plug-in power monitors; voltage, current, power, power factor,
phase shift, peak current, peak power, and probably more things
I don't remember. Oh, peak and off-peak energy used of course;-)
No one ever calls to "read" the thing either -- it's done remotely.

--
Andrew Gabriel