They're like that in this apartment we're renting and I keep seeing them elsewhere. I don't get it.
So we can turn the power on and off.
Why else would you have a switch next to a power socket?
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025
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Allows you to remove power from the plugged in device without unplugging it. This provides convenience to easily and quickly turn things on and off and prevents arcing when unplugging. 240V 13A can arc a bit, particularly if unplugged under load, or on older sockets where the contacts have worn. While a little arcing doesn't do much damage immediately, over time it will cause pitting and make a high resistance joint that will generate heat.
The switch only disconnects the live terminal, but the neutral terminal should be similar potential to earth (depending on how the building is wired).
Truly the king of plugs and sockets. The plugs are individually fused according to the device needs, ergonomic to use and exciting to stand on.
Makes sense, American lie voltage (outlets) are 120V. 240V is considered high voltage and isn't typically fed into residential units. Plugging anything rated for 120V into a 240V outlet is gonna be a bad time, and is why the outlets for high voltage are shaped differently.
I was gonna guess that the switches were too negate so-called vampire power, which is when a truck's of electricity flows into appliances that are normally off. IMO that trickle is so negligible in a residence that is 6 effectively irrelevant, but that's just here in the US. I don't know anything about foreign electrical systems.
240 is used all the time for furnaces, driers, and increasingly EV outlet connections.
It's just all our "normal" stuff is 120.
I wish our electric kettle outlets were 240. I'm unreasonably jealous that other places in the world can boil water faster!
I think you can have it, but you'd need to spend a pretty penny.
All it would take is calling an electrician to run the appropriate wiring from the place you want the kettle plugged in to you breaker box, connect it to the breaker box with the appropriate breaker, cap off the other end with the appropriate plug (a 240V plug does exist in America), and then buy a kettle capable of receiving the rated voltage and current and splice on the appropriate plug (because I presume you won't find one sold with that plug).
An extremely expensive way to save maybe three minutes boiling water, but you can do it.
exciting to stand on
Thanks, I hate it.
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the UK power grid is weird. mostly due to echoes of the war. used to be that, to save copper, the entire house and sometimes multiple houses on a street would be wired as one big loop of wire, no fuse box or anything. that's where the individually fused plugs and switched sockets come from. then, since it turned out to be quite a good idea for safety, they kept doing it.
When I bought the apartment I'm living in, the previous owner had refused all modernisation, even legal ones (he had mental problems), so the appartment had the original 1 hot wire going everywhere, you just "tapped" off power where you wanted to to ground. 1959 era.
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when any electricity leaks out (for example through your body) it switches off. the eu also has the same system, but its one switch for your entire house. the us also has this but only in bathrooms.
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I like them, personally. You don't have to use them but they are sometimes handy. I just spent 30 seconds feeling around a TV to turn it off only to discover it doesn't have buttons. Killed it at the wall.
It's not a deal breaker, in any case. The weird foreign convention I would like to shame is doors that require a key to open from the inside.
The weird foreign convention I would like to shame is doors that require a key to open from the inside.
Huh. Where have you seen those? Seems dangerous.
We mostly just leave the key in them unless I'm going on holiday.
If somebody is going to steal my stuff while I'm away, I'm going to make them work for it.
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As any cautious parent could tell you, these are helpful when the toddler starts sticking things in places where they don't belong. Such as metal cutlery. In the power sockets.
Don't toddlers start pressing buttons even earlier? Not sure this alone could protect them
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