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A comment on We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electrify everything. Parent comment

Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by jacquesm on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @03:47PM (#34344502)
Ground fault interrupters are life savers. The minor overhead of figuring out the cause is well worth the price of admission: without them you might not be around to figure anything out.

In the UK, where ground fault interrupters can be part of the sockets it can be hassle, but then again that is strictly optional: in most other countries the ground fault interrupters are always integrated into the circuit breaker at the distribution panel. The upside of that it is that it also protects the wiring.

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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by OJFord on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @04:03PM (#34344770)
> In the UK, where ground fault interrupters are part of the sockets it can be hassle

Did you mean US? I've never seen that, and searching 'ground fault interrupter UK' images all look like US sockets.

They're usually called RCDs (Residual Current Devices) in the UK, and they're fitted in the Consumer Unit.

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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by jacquesm on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @04:09PM (#34344883)
No, I meant the UK, for instance:

https://internationalconfig.com/icc6.asp?item=72300-S-10MA

or

https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-900-series-13a-2-...

It's the only place where I have seen these.

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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by OJFord on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @04:51PM (#34345464)
Wow ok, I've never seen that in the wild. RCDs are required on all circuits including lighting in the current regs (i.e. old installations can not have them and be compliant, but they have been required and socket circuits for a long time; bathroom & outdoor lighting for less; all lighting more recently). Maybe these sockets are for when you have no more room in the panel and don't want to replace it, but need it upgraded due to other work or to pass an EICR to let the property? Not sure.

Example US looking one I was seeing: https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/e9c29ec0-5eeb-40c3-8cde-e2f...

I suppose Earthed sockets are less common there anyway right, so that limits how common these could possibly be.

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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by jacquesm on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @05:01PM (#34345612)
The lack of grounded sockets in the US has always been a complete mystery to me. Especially for kitchen appliances.
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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by Domenic_S on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @05:32PM (#34345998)
Grounded outlets became code for kitchens and baths in 1961, although it wasn't that uncommon to see in '50s new construction. 1971 code started requiring them throughout the house.
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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by OJFord on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @08:57PM (#34348060)
It's weird on imported goods here in the UK too. Macs are infamous for the fuzzy feeling of the double not-quite-insulated chassis. My Marantz amplifier (not US made but also sold there) that arrived today is the same. Weird looking plug too, like they had to go out of their way to source a dummy Earth to Earthless kettle lead and the result is bizarre and cheap looking but it's all they could get, because it's a weird requirement.
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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by scrlk on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @05:45PM (#34346177)
The university halls that I lived in had those RCD sockets installed. The halls dated back to the early 60s - the sockets + Ethernet were installed in perimeter trunking. I suspect it was the cheapest option available to the university to modernise the electrical infrastructure inside the halls.
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