Re:Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V?
by housemusicfan on Tuesday August 29, 2023 @12:28PM
(#37310285)
Thinking that having dedicated independent circuits is madness sounds like Stockholm syndrome. The point being a single faulty appliance won't knock out the lights and sockets to half the house simultaneously (a common occurrence during a fault in the UK, especially the RCD). It's also quite convenient to switch off a single appliance for service. Yes British sockets are all switched but not necessarily in a convenient location.
A software analogy would be running all your services on separate VMs, as opposed to running them all on a single server which could go down at once.
Brits don't even put outlets in the bathroom, minus a current-limited transformer-isolated one for an electric razor.
Re:Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V?
by mytailorisrich on Tuesday August 29, 2023 @01:33PM
(#37311188)
Ah, the regs have changed and we can now have a full socket in the bathroom as long as it's far enough from bath (.6 + 2.5 = 3.1m from edge), which rules out most bathrooms...
Re:Why does the USA use 110V and UK use 230-240V?
by housemusicfan on Tuesday August 29, 2023 @05:06PM
(#37314102)
I assume the temptation to use the electric tea kettle whilst having a bath is too great...
A typical British kitchen will have a ton of sockets (although never enough), to plug in a fridge (or two, or three), a microwave (or several - they rarely goes about 1kW anyway), a dishwasher, a washing machine, a tumble dryer (UK kitchens tend to have washers and dryers, rather than bathrooms. Larger houses have separate utility rooms)
The only thing on a dedicated circuit would be a hard-wired oven.