Same design was used in Ireland. I remember stealing plugs off other appliances when you were short a plug.

I have mixed feelings about the UK plug. 1) they are HUGE. therefore power strips are also quite large, and the wall outlets only have place for one device. 2) I've seen plenty of UK plugs where the conductor goes all the way to the housing, not halfway like he shows as a feature. I've seen Euro-plugs with both types as well. 3) putting fuses on the plug instead of part of the house means that too many <13A devices could be plugged in, and (if used simultaneously) cause a fire in your walls and burn your house down (I assume UK requires circuit breakers and branch circuits nowadays). 4) the same safety device that requires ground to be plugged in first makes it really-hard to plug into cheaply made outlets or power strips (the plastic cover doesn't slide easily).
That said, another safety feature that he didn't mention in the video was that most wall outlets have their own switch on the outlet itself. Turn-off ; plug-in ; turn-on. This prevents arcing, which is easier with the higher 240V.

Euro outlets' holes are too small to fit most screwdrivers, knives, fingers into, and they have both grounded and ungrounded (smaller) variety.

My favorite are the IEC-60309 plugs/outlets, but are only for bigger amperages - 20,30,50,60, etc.

Schuko!

If each plug has a fuse and there is no fuse box, wouldn't stabbing an outlet kill you? Since there is no fuse to trip? I could image a kid stabbing the ground to open the live then stabbing the live with something else.

The other point that's missing is the fact that you can't (and threfore don't) unplug it by pulling the wire.

It's not perfect, but it is a good design, especially when wired correctly.

Interesting video. I always thought that type seemed like a bad design because they seem big and clumsy. Often struggling with the American system where one prong is larger I now appreciate them more. Don't get me started on USB cables. I think I fit those right at about 10% on first attempt.

As an American electrical engineer, I must say that these safety features are great. I approve.

Stabbing a US outlet could also kill you, unless it's a (properly wired) GFCI outlet (or GFCI breaker). Being wet increases risk of shock, which is why GFCI outlets are required in bathrooms and recommended in kitchens.

GFCI will detect a very small amount of current running through the ground (instead of neutral like it should) and then trip the internal breaker. "very small" = less than could accidentally kill/injure your average human, which is surprisingly small.

regular breakers trip at a much higher amperage, 20% below what would physically start heating the wire gauge that is in the wall. This is why you should always use appropriate size fuses/breakers rather than bigger ones (or a penny instead of a fuse).

Why isn't everything GFCI then? They are much more expensive, and don't last as long. Teach your kids not to jab metal things in the outlet, or they'll learn the hard way.

Schuko all the way, best plug on the planet (at the moment). Ground always attaches first, the socket forms a protective casing and pins can not be touched long before contact happens, is protected from elements better, latched inlets (both pins need to push on them to allow the plug thru), can be plugged in two orientations.. Seems counterintuitive that it would be the safest to have neutral and live be allowed to switch places but it prevents highly dangerous practice of connecting earth and neutral inside the appliance, 50% of the time that would short and trip the fuses. Appliance manufacturers HAS to follow basic safety quidelines. Also means onnecting a plug is easy, just breen-yellow to ground, rest is up to you which way you want them. In fact, most of use can't remembers which color is neutral and which is live as they are BOTH treated as live.

Also they don't have fuses in the plug. Again, seems counterintuitive but the fuse is meant to protect individual parts of the circuit. The fuse in the appliances them selves protect the appliance, not it's cord. The fuses on the wall sockets have to be built to protect all cabling, both in and out of the wall.

Small details but it forces buildings to be built with higher standards, less shortcuts can be made.

One feature on Schuko is that when pulled from the cable, the plug leaves the socket first. In UK plugs, you can have a situation where someone trips on a wire and the wire will leave the plug, plug stays in the wall (or wall socket is damaged too) Making the weak point the plug-socket connection, the wire will stay firmly screwed inside the plug, socket and plug will be undamaged. There are L shape plugs too with Shcuko so this is not always the case but most often, those are incased and molded: your appliance will take the hit instead and fly off the desk. Also stops dangerous cable pulling with long cables with extensions for ex in construction sites. You have to actually go and move it yourself. Safer, more work but safer (yes, there are few cases where we knot the wires to stop it happening but when done by a professional, we know how to knot them so that the force is not pulling or bending the plugs at all, otherwise they can disconnect by them selves, often modus operandi when rigging lights)

Also, the pins are round, making bent pins something that just wont happen unless you drive a truck over them. Damaged, bent pins will be destroyed in the process, preventing someone to just bend them back in shape: the tube will not be round again.. It's a genius design.

Only thing that it is horrible at is transformers, small PSUs that takes up sometimes three sockets as Shcuko is more compact, the extensions are smaller then too.. So sometimes two wall sockets can take one PSU and we end up with lots of extensions chained with half of the sockets filled (i got 600 led lights in my living room, takes 4 extensions to get them all running, half of the sockets are used....)

Well, I think they're ugly as hell, and way too big.
I still don't understand the fuse part either. You still need a fuse box. the fuse box lets you do rewiring without shutting off a master switch and screwing all the clocks in your house or your computer.

Very British! This shows how little faith they have in their children.

then you're doing better than me. I am convinced it is physically impossible to insert a usb cable correctly on the first attempt.

Here's the explanation

ingenuity? dont tell me about outlets... tell me about back bacon

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Pretty neat. *promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Monday, July 7th, 2014 9:30pm PDT - promote requested by dag.