People who joke about legos haven't stepped on this bad boy
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
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Mildly Infuriating
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I covered that. Different rating. That 15A cord will survive a 20A fault. Its rated at 15A because the voltage drop will be out of spec at 20A draw, not because it will be a fire hazard at 20A. You will be able to get enough current through that 15A cord to trip the 20A breaker. You might not be able to get 20A through a 5A cord before the cord catches fire.
My point is that UK appliances are specifically not designed to trip UK breakers in a fault. US devices are.
In every jurisdiction where fuses are not required in plugs, appliance standards require the appliance to be able to trip the household breaker. This is a fundamental concept of electrical safety.
That's actually false. You're conflating the resistance of "skin" with the resistance if the "body". Once you burn away that skin, your internal resistance drops substantially.
ANY cable being driven above it's rated load is a fire hazard. There healthy margins in those ratings, so going slightly over is likely not going to have any affect, but those margins are for good reason (namely people like you thinking it's fine to plug a 15A cable into a 20A circuit without external fusing or current limiting), and deliberately overloading any part of an electric circuit is ALWAYS dangerous and stupid. And what about 7A cables you can get in japan ? you can explicitly get 0.75mm² cables, which are only rated to 7Amps. Just as confident of blasting 20A through those ? Almost 9 times the amount of waste heat being generated in the core than at it's max rated load.
Nope, again completely untrue. Breakers are only required to trip if the circuit becomes overloaded.
Your breakers don't, and can't give a shit about what's happening on the other side of the outlet.
Your device could slowly be melting itself into a pile of burning plastic, as long as it's drawing less than 16 Amps to do so, the breakers will not trip. As I've pointed out, repeatedly already, and you have repeatedly ignored, breakers are solely and exclusively for protecting the wire from overheating /overloading.
And in fact, the fused plugs actually make it way MORE likely for something to trip on a device side fault in the UK, because the current only has to be like 3Amps to kill the fuse. In every other place of the world, current needs to be at least 16A before anything trips.
I address that point, quite literally, in a later a paraph where I write
So what happened here ? Did you not read my comment ? Did you not understand it ? Or did you read it understand, and then continue to pretend like I haven't already explicitly addressed this anyway ?
At this point I think calling this behaviour accidental would be an insult to your intelligence, and just have assume that you know exactly what you're doing, and are knowingly and deliberately arguing in bad faith and with intellectually dishonesty, so stop. Just go away. I'm done. You're either fully incapable of, or unwilling too, engage in honest debate, so I'm not linger interested in continuing this.
Breakers are only required to trip if the circuit is overloaded. That part is correct.
The internal resistance of drastically undersized wiring may not be capable of passing sufficient current to overload the household breaker. And yet, pretty much the entire world (except the UK) doesn't require fuses on their plugs. The unfused power cords for those non-UK appliances are either a fire hazard OR those cords are required to be able to carry sufficient current to trip the current limiter without catching fire. The latter is, indeed, the case. This is a big part of UL, CSA, CE, and other electrical certification standards around the world.
That's actually part of NEC code applicable in the US and Canada, and I'm not going to delve too far into it, as it really pisses me off. Basically, there is no functional difference between our 15A and 20A components. The standards needed for a component to carry 15A in North America are the same as the standards needed for it to carry 20A. Effectively, our 15A components have a safety margin 5A greater than that of our 20A components.
The historic and technical distinctions for this are well outside the scope of this discussion, and I think it is, indeed, moronic. But yes, technically, we can indeed use certain 15A-rated components on a circuit protected by a 20A breaker.
Here again, you're demonstrating my exact point, despite claiming that what I am saying is "completely untrue": The rest of the world builds its appliances to tolerate at least that 16A fault. For the UK to use that exact same manner of protection, they would need to build their appliances to tolerate a 30A fault. The same appliance would need a much heavier power cord in the UK than in the EU.
Since no rational person would want to overbuild each and every appliance to be able to tolerate a 30A fault, they included a fuse in their plug. That plug, unneeded in the rest of the world, is an essential component in the UK. That plug is what allows the UK to be able to safely use the world's 16A appliances on UK 30A breakers.
(No, the rest of the world doesn't need 16A before "anything" trips. The rest of the world includes their fuses inside the appliance, immediately after the cord rather than on the plug end.)
Yeah. If you undersized a en entire houses ring circuit at AWG24, then indeed a 30A fuse wouldn't be tripped. Though on the plus side, to even achieve it you would need to undersize the wire to such a massive degree that the wire itself just becomes a fuse.
In a our real world overhere, of fucking course a ring circuit can pass enough current to trip it's breaker, and it's fucking laughable to claim they can't.
No they don't. They can actually use much smaller power cords. Because there's a fuse in the plug itself. If the plug itself has 1A fuse, then no matter what happens, the maximum amount of current the device can ever consume is 1A, so 1A is the highest fault current that device will ever have to handle. The UK system actually makes fault protection on the device side much better and easiest.
Appliance wiring, not household wiring. I clearly specified that. You're reading what you want to read, and not what I actually wrote. You're laughing at yourself, not at what I claimed.
Remember: most of the world safely uses unfused plugs on their appliance power cords. Their 16A household breaker is the only current limiter available to protect those unfused power cables. Those normal sized, unfused cables would be drastically undersized if plugged into a less-restrictive, 30A outlet.
You read what you wanted to read, and not what I actually wrote:
The rest of the world relies on their (ostensibly) 16A household circuit breaker, and not on a fuse in their plug. For the UK to rely on the household breaker, their appliances would need to be able to handle a 30A fault.
That fused plug is not necessary in the rest of the world. The rest of the world builds their power cables to handle 16A, and puts their 1A fuse inside the body of the appliance. The UK needs that overbuilt plug, specifically because their household wiring standards are so much less restrictive than those of the rest of the world.
I think you've lost the plot. Every time you argue for a feature provided by the UK plug that isn't needed in global plugs, you're making my point for me: The UK plugs are vastly overengineered. The necessity of that overengineering is due to less-restrictive household wiring standards.
The higher voltage has nothing whatsoever to do with ring circuits. The UK runs on the same 220-240V AC as all of mainland Europe. And Africa. And most of mainland Asia. And South America. And Oceania. And most of the middle east. So not quite "higher than any other country"
Also those two claims are diametrically opposed to each other. Unless UK people use over twice the amount of electricity than Americans, the higher voltage will lead to LOWER total current. That's quite literally the specific and sole motivating factor behind choosing a higher grid voltage.
And the current a conductor can pass has nothing whatsoever to do with it's safety. You could have 50 amps blowing through a circuit, if it's at 12V you can still touch it without getting a shock. Your car battery is capable of peak currents of several HUNDRED amps, and those are considered safe enough to just carry around by random people with bare hands..
The Japanese plugs are basically the same as American. You can literally get an electric shock if you hold them wrong whilst unplugging. There's exposed live contacts from when you start unplugging until the prongs break their connection to the outlet.
Basically everything you said is demonstrably false. I've rarely seen someone be this confident and this incorrect about something.
That is utterly irrelevant. Circuit breakers and fuses are designed for the exclusive and sole purpose of protecting the circuit from being overloaded. A 100 amp circuit with a 100 Amp fuse is exactly as safe as a 20 amp circuit with a 20 amp fuse or a 5 amp circuit with a 5 amp fuse. If the voltage is above ~100-200V, all 3 of these are hundreds of times the amount of current it would take to deliver a fatal electric shock, and none of those fuses would trip from you getting shocked.
And a dead short on a 240V network will literally trip everything. UK ring circuits are fused at 30 Amps. A dead short at 240V with only the internal resistance of copper wiring would pull current in the neighborhood of 1000 amps. 1000, somewhat famously, being slightly larger than 30, making this another lie there.
And even if it weren't a lie, how on earth does the location of the fuse make a difference in safety here ? If it's in the wall or in the plug, as long as it's there and does it's job both would be equally safe.
No it isn't. 110V is still dangerous to a child, and if you think otherwise I hope to god you aren't, or ever become a parent. Also, as I stated, your plugs literally allow for an electric shock to happen whilst unplugging them because they're so terrible. As for whole house GFCI, that is by necessity included in a ring circuit that wants GFCI on any outlet at all.
Also you seem to fundamentally misunderstand the relationship of current and voltage. For a given electrical appliance, with a given wattage, a lower voltage means it needs to draw more current, not less. That's why the US Japan need to have 20A household breakers, whereas in the EU 16A branches are more than enough, whilst still providing a higher load handling capability than a 20A Japanese fuse. A 1000 Watt microwave plugged into a Japanese socket will draw over twice as much current as a 1000 Watt microwave plugged into an EU or UK socket (which also means it produces 4 times the amount of electrical waste energy as heat, though that is generally negligible for short household cable runs either way. Can make a difference on the scale of a country though).
For a given voltage, the outcome of recieving a shock on a 20A fused circuit is literally indistinguishable and fully identical to that of receiving a shock on a 100A fused circuit. Identical. Literally.
No it isn't. I literally just told you you can buy 15A rated extension cords in Japan in the comment you're replying to. 15, is in fact less than 20, just fyi.
Wrong. Again. The current limit imposed by the internal resistance of your body at voltages in the range of 100-200 is a few hundred milliamps. Maybe an amp or two if you stick electrodes inside yourself, and anything higher than 100 mA going through your heart is already lethal anyway. You're gonna be dead 200 times over waiting for your 20A fuse to save you. The power that will pass through your body depends exclusively and solely on the voltage. The capacity and fusing of the circuit is utterly irrelevant, unless it's fused at like 40 MILLI amps.
ANY cable being driven above it's rated load is a fire hazard. There are healthy margins in those ratings, so going slightly over is likely not going to have any affect, but those margins are for good reason (namely people like you thinking it's fine to plug a 15A cable into a 20A circuit without external fusing or current limiting), and deliberately overloading any part of an electric circuit is ALWAYS dangerous and stupid.
And what about 7A cables you can get in japan ? you can explicitly get 0.75mm² cables, which are only rated to 7Amps. Just as confident of blasting 20A through those ? Almost 9 times the amount of waste heat being generated in the core than at it's max rated load.
Your device could slowly be melting itself into a pile of burning plastic, as long as it's drawing less than 16 Amps to do so, the breakers will not trip. As I've pointed outñ
And in fact, the fused plugs actually make it way MORE likely for something to trip on a device side fault in the UK, because the current only has to be like 3Amps to kill the fuse. In every other place of the world, current needs to be at least 16A before anything trips.
I address that point, quite literally, in a later a paraph where I write
So what happened here ? Did you not read my comment ? Did you not understand it ? Or did you read it understand, and then continue to pretend like I haven't already explicitly addressed this anyway ?
Here's a list of prior arguments I've made, that you fully ignored. Until.you give me s good faith really to THE ENTIRETY of each argument,. I'm ignoring you.
240V @ 30A is the highest on the planet. You consistently ignored current rating, despite recognizing that without the special, overengineered fused plugs, appliances would be exposed to them. Your inclusion of this is dishonest.
The claim you're rebutting is not the claim that was made. The claim that was made was that each UK circuit has higher current than a comparable North American circuit. Which is true. A UK household circuit is at 30A, while Canadian/US/Mexican is at 15/20A. American and UK homes use roughly the same amount of total power, but the American home typically distributes that power with roughly 4 times as many, lower-current circuits.
Both of us have rebutted that several times already, in recognizing that a low-current wire is a fire hazard when connected to a high-current household circuit. You make that argument yourself, below.
Conceded. The insulated prongs on the UK sockets are not "overengineering". Such prongs are used on Europlugs as well. That leaves the extremely large size of the contacts, necessitating the shutters.
Everything? Really? My "rebuttal" is to ignore this ad hom.
The rest of the world safely uses unfused plugs. Every argument you make that requires fuses supports my contention.
You're assuming the internal resistance of a wire of sufficient gauge. An undersized wire - such as a power cord intended to be used on a 16A EU appliance - may not be capable of drawing 30A, let alone 1000, without catching fire. It may only draw 28A while it is glowing red hot. That same unfused power cable is perfectly acceptable and perfectly safe on a 16A EU circuit, but is unsafe on a UK household circuit without that special UK plug.
You're ignoring the original point and arguing something tangential and irrelevant. The rest of the world safely uses unfused plugs. Which means that their power cables are simpler in design and construction, but necessitates that their power cable must be able to survive the full rated household current. The UK does not use this "unfused plug" design philosophy. The reason they don't use it is because it would necessitate that their power cables be capable of surviving 30A faults, rather than the 16A in the EU.
The UK does not restrict their household supply circuits to 16A. They allow their household circuits to carry 30A. That standardization decision necessitates the fused plug that the rest of the world simply doesn't need.
Again, conceded: The sleeved contacts are not part of the "overengineering" of the plug. The EU plug uses a similar design. American and Japanese plugs are deficient in this aspect.
Not an accurate observation of my understanding at all, and not particularly relevant to the discussion. The topic of discussion is the relationship of plugs to household wiring.
Conceded, with the caveat that the RCD/AFCI/GFCI device for the 20A circuit will be more sensitive and allow lower current to pass than the equivalent RCD/AFCI/GFCI device on the 100A circuit.
The 15A extension cord in Japan is designed to be plugged into a Japanese outlet. This is the same bullshit historical and technical issue that we have in our NEC code, where identical components often have different nameplate ratings. That 15A extension cord is specifically designed for use on circuits protected by 20A breakers.
Conceded, and irrelevant to the issue at hand.
I addressed this with my diatribe against the NEC's position on 15A vs 20A components. The 15A extension cord is specifically designed for use in a circuit protected by a 20A breaker. It's an asinine provision, but it is there.
I suspect that those cables actually do have a fuse in them, much like the fused plugs used on North American Christmas decorations.
Yes, exactly. Which is why the unfused portions of that device have to be designed to handle at least 16A.
Agreed. I've repeatedly made that exact argument in support of my point.
I confess, I didn't read it. As It wasn't and isn't particularly relevant to the core issue, I'm happy to concede the point.
So your argument is that if you remove a necessary safety features the system is suddenly less safe. Well fucking shocker. That's no different from me saying that if you used a ring breaker on a Japanese branch, it would be exposed to 30A and just as dangerous, and therefore concluding the Japanese system must be worse.
It's a stupid hypothetical that tells you nothing about either system.
Also, at the point where a device is drawing short circuit current, EITHER breaker will trip most instantly, and whether the threshold is 30 or 20, the device is a smoking pile of burnt plastic afterwards anyway.
And again, breakers aren't designed to protect devices, and devices aren't designed to withstand some kind of massive fault tolerance based on the circuit they're plugged into. No device on planet earth is designed with the concept of "it has to survive even when a 20A short circuit happens. And even if so, it would just be "short circuit" in general. Because as I've pointed out, a dead short will trip EVERY breaker, instantly,, period. As I've pointed out repeatedly, 7A rated power cords are completely legal to sell for use on 20A Japanese outlets.
But if I'm wrong feel free to correct me. But specifically. I want specific and concrete measures and steps that you aledge are taken specifically to guard devices based on the fusing of the circuit they are attached too.
Sure, the current on one ring is greater than that on one branch, that's is true, I'll concede that. I just consider it irrelevant. The total current coming in at the terminal connection though is half as much in the UK than the US. The US commonly has 100, 150 or 200Amp service panels.
No it doesn't. Because you're laboruimg under the delusion that breakers are designed to protect anything beyond the internal wiring of your walls. They don't give a shit about anything else. That is their singular and sole purpose. Look for example at America. America has UNFUSED multi cords rated for 7A. There's literally nothing stopping you in America from plugging a 7amp rated extension cord, into a 20A outlet, plugging in two space heater on max and a third one on low, and pull 18-19 amps through a cord rated for 7, and no fuse or breaker is going to stop you from doing that. So quite demonstratably, at minimum one part of the rest of the world very much does NOT safely use unfused plugs.
The code HAS those fuses, and with those fuses it is safe. Safer than a central breaker system in fact. You can't just keep racking caveats changes and asterisks onto the UK electrical code and then laughing at how unsafe is. Every single arguement you make where you need to exclude/ignore safety features that the UK system has, is in fact an argument in favour of the system.
A power cord intended for a 16A EU appliance would be illegal to sell in the UK without an 15A fuse in the plug. Problem solved.
Again, you can't argue the system is less safe when you keep needing to ignore safety devices to make that argument. I could just as well as say that without your indivisible branch breakers, the Japanese system is unsafe, and the UK manages to work perfectly safely without individual branch breakers. According to you, this is valid logic to demonstrate the Japanese system is worse than the UK system, and every time you mention branch circuits or branch breakers it just strengthens my point.
I can just as easily flip that argument, about the UK safely using ring circuits with plug fuses, whilst the rest of the world needs to use branch breakers to keep their branches limited in size.
You're literally just talking about the fact that the unique system in the UK requires unique safety features. That is itself value neutral, and adds nothing of relevance.
Considering you were arguing that Japanese plugs need to handle LOWER current, when in reality it's the exact opposite, they have to handle HIGHER current, I'd say it's an accurate observation. The most common standardised all purpose plug in the UK is fused at, and rated for 13 Amps. Well below a 20Amp. Japanese circuit.
Your caveat is wrong. The baseline leakage current is affected predominantly by voltage and cable length. A 20 Amp circuit and a 100A circuit could both perfectly adequately and safely be protected by a 30mA RCD.
Relevant to the issue at the time, which was you claiming the outcome of electric shock changes based purely on the amperage rating of the cable used.
So the entire core of your argument, other countries not needing fuses in cables/plugs has just gone poof then.
I'd like to a citation for the claim that appliances need to be withstand the Maximum current in a fault case. Also what "withstands" is even supposed to mean in this context.
But In my opinion, even if that's the case, that's a point in FAVOUR of UK plugs. You can receive literally the IDENTICAL level of safety by making the appliance 3A fault tolerant, and giving the plug a 3Amp fuse.
Isn't the ability to make every device individually fault taulerant so much better than needing make them all fault tolerant to the max current.
It's also far safer abroad, because you're literally taken the fuse in the device with you. According to you, what happens when a device designed for a 16 Amp EU socket is plugged via adapter into a 20A Japanese socket. Now suddenly it has inadequate fault protection. Do the same thing with a UK socket, and it maintains the exact same level of fault tolerance it's always had.
So if you agree with all my points then what exactly is your issue with the UK ekectric code ?
It seems to me that your entire grape is based around the fact that the same safety features are achieved differently in the UK, and you never argue about those safety features being worse, you simply point out that they are necessary, and somehow that makes the system worse. Also, small current fuses are arguably safer than circuit breakers. You can't detect a defective breaker, until it fails to actuate at excess current. A defective fuse would just be broken, and not allow a circuit to form in the first place.
I happen to have (several) 30A 240V circuits in my house and shop. The one I was using tonight has an arc welder plugged into it. Under the applicable electric code in the US, this circuit has to be dedicated. It can serve only one outlet. If I want another 30A outlet, I have to wire a completely separate, dedicated circuit for that outlet. I can only install such outlets in certain places within my home and shop.
That is the standard here in North America. The standard for EU, Japan, and the rest of the world is comparable. North America (And possibly Japan?) has an additional feature in that our 240V circuits are split-phase: They expose the user to a maximum 120V fault to ground. To experience a 240V fault, you have to be ungrounded and simultaneously contact not just one but two opposing hot phases.
The UK daisy chains single-phase, 240V to ground, 30A outlets throughout their homes. They put circuits suitable for arc welding in their bathrooms. They use circuits suitable for arc welding for their alarm clocks and hair dryers.
The UK requirements on 30A circuits and outlets are far less restrictive than the requirements on 30A circuits and outlets in the rest of the world. The UK uses substandard household circuits, necessitating their over-engineered plug.
The UK could have deprecated their 30A circuits in favor of the 16A circuits in use in Europe. They elected to keep their substandard, arc-welder-ready outlets and over-engineer a plug instead.
And here we are again. For the billionth fucking time in a row:
THE CURRENT CAPACITY OF A CIRCUIT HAS ZERO, NADA, NULL INFLUENCE ON THAT CIRCUITS ELECTRIC SHOCK POTENTIAL OR SEVERERTY AND IS NOT RELEVANT WHATSOEVER FOR HUMAN SAFETY.
And device safety is MORE THAN adequately provided by fused plugs. You just irrationally hate the UK network for some fucking reason, and are yet completely incapable of providing even a singular valid argument as to it being less safe.
Of course it is. That's not the issue under discussion. The issue under discussion is "Why does the UK use overengineered plugs not needed in the rest of the world?"
And the answer is because their household circuits are radically substandard relative to those in use in the rest of the world. Without those special plugs, UK circuits would be extraordinarily dangerous.
People die in fires.
Not the topic of discussion. Again, the topic is "Why does the UK use overengineered plugs not needed in the rest of the world?" To understand that, we consider the hypothetical use of non-fused plugs on UK circuits, compared to non-fused plugs on global circuits. When we consider that hypothetical, we realize the exceptional danger posed by that condition, and we identify the need for those plugs.
Because that is not the topic of discussion. The topic of discussion is "Why does the UK use overengineered plugs not needed in the rest of the world?" The danger is not the plugs. The danger is the household circuitry. The plugs are the safety device grafted on to restore the degree of safety the rest of the world enjoys without those special plugs. Of course the plugs are safe. The danger arises when we hypothetically apply the world's non-fused-plug standard to UK household circuits, in order to understand the necessity of those plugs.
Projection.