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What is the best style electrical outlet?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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Hey did you get that idea from the coffee shop thread? Someone was asking about weird outlets shown in a picture.
My answer for the question is obviously the UK standard.
Also knows as the caltrop plug because it the damn things always fall spikes up and hurt whoever is trying to move through a room in dim light.
The correct answer is of course SchuKo plugs / CEE 7/7. If you check plugs used in the world you notice it has a huge spread of compatible plugs, as it can fit SchuKo plugs of two types and Euro plugs of two types. It also has all security features, including a raised ground that connects the ground before the power can come into contact.
It's tough to truly pull favourites with power sockets - you just use what you got - but if I had to pick one that'll be decreed to be used worldwide, it'd be this one. For sure. Note how the 7/7 variant has a lot of interoperability with other existing plug variations, too. It can for example use the french outlet-ground-pin, not only the german-style clamps, all with the same plug. Outlets can be designed to be compatible with swiss plugs, IIRC. Danish ones I'm not sure about, though.
Schuko and CEE pull out when pulled straight, and are annoying as fuck with vacuums and power tools so UK one beats them
Grounded danish plugs don't fit Schuko sockets, but Schuko plugs fit danish sockets (but aren't grounded).
This leads to a staggering amount of ungrounded devices in Denmark, as most are imported and making a variant for such a tiny country isn't profitable.
Fun fact: the danish power plug was created by Lauritz Knudsen, a Danish company who had a monopoly. They are the reason Denmark uses this plug as the only country in the world, and Schuko only became legal to install in houses quite recently, so 99% of houses still use their standard.
LK has since been bought out by Schneider Electric but we are still stuck with our special plug and most imported devices are still ungrounded.
Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.