12v fuses and plugs

[cuthound]

31 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I wasn't getting at you, but its a point that comes up a lot on Facebook groups and if you don't have an understanding of AC and Phases its not something that is easy to grasp 

 

You definately don't want to make it easy to grasp two phases at the same time! ?

Edited March 13, 2021 by cuthound
Phat phingers

[AndrewIC]

7 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I am glad someone else has pointed this out, I see so many posts where people say I will have a small inverter for the TV and charging laptops and a big one for when I want to use the washing machine etc.

I have the sort of double pole centre-off rotary input selector switch, as found on many boats, to route either the shore supply or the inverter output to the sockets, carefully labelled with a 230V warning sign. It hadn’t occurred to me that with the shoreline plugged in and the inverter switched on, there is actually 400V inside the switch enclosure!

[David Mack]

6 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I can remember houses haven 2, 5 and 15 amp unfused round pin plugs also people connecting the flat iron to a BC plug so it could be plugged into the twin adaptor in the kitchen light above the table. The good old days or rewireable fuses and if it blew you just put 3 strands in next time.

 

A friend of mine at college lived in a medieval building that had been refurbished in the 1920s with wiring dating from that time. His room had just one socket for a desk light, fitted with a long obsolete design of two round pin plug and socket. As you couldn't get the plugs, my friend used to plug his hi-fi and other electrical kit in by poking bare wires into the (unshuttered) socket and forcing the plug in to hold them in place. It generally worked well *, although the wall around the socket got very warm when he plugged the kettle in.

 

* apart from the time the cleaner got a shock unplugging his stuff to plug in the vacuum cleaner.

[wakey_wake]

13 hours ago, David Mack said:

* apart from the time the cleaner got a shock unplugging his stuff to plug in the vacuum cleaner.

This is the great problem with "I know what I'm doing, but I wouldn't recommend anyone else do this unless they understand what can happen".

 

13 hours ago, David Mack said:

It generally worked well *, although the wall around the socket got very warm when he plugged the kettle in.

...and we're back to having a fuse suitable to protect the cable, which there could have been here, but wasn't.