Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Hey. Arrived in Australia on Thursday - big move! We brought some electrical bits and bobs, as you do, which of course all have UK plugs. We have a few UK-Oz plug convertors, but I went to Dick Smith shop today and was surprised to see that they're not especially cheap - $16/$17 or so. An Aussie power plug is only $3 however.

I'm confident with UK plug wiring, and Aussie plug wiring looks easy too. What I'm not sure about is that fact that UK plugs have a fuse and Aussie plugs do not. Why is that then? If I cut the plug off my laptop's charger lead and wire on an Aussie plug, what's the risk to my equipment, if any?

On a related note - any recommendations for buying stuff like this online? Dick Smith doesn't seem cheap - or perhaps the exchange rate just makes things seem expensive? - but usually online is cheaper. I need to buy a couple of multi-voltage power supplies too (e.g. for baby monitor) and don't fancy paying Dick Smith prices for those either.

Cheers :)

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

This is why we advise people to bring power boards for UK stuff - cheaper and easier than plug changing (and in some States more legal) - my place looks like spaghetti junction, specially as there is only one power point in each bedroom and only one in the living room.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Thanks for the reply!

It is a great idea, but I'm already here! Can I get a UK power strips here?

The idea of using a UK power strip did occur to me but only after arrival. However the question remains the same - if I do have a UK power strip, it will have a UK plug on the end of it, and I will need to change it for an Aussie plug. The UK plug has a fuse, the Aussie plug does not. I want to be sure that I'm not going to be frying anything!

Cheers

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

In WA at least it's illegal to wire a plug yourself, you'll find it hard to find spare plugs in a shop. They're available on the internet. also all houses by law should have an Rcd on the power so fuses are irrelevant.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Do Bunnings et al not sell them over there? It's supposed to be illegal over here but they all sell them so most people do their own. Disclaimer = everyone I know anyway.;)

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Seriously?! (Of course seriously) :huh: Thankfully I'm in NSW. So if you accidentally bust a plug, you have to pay for someone "qualified" and no doubt overpriced just to wire a simple plug? How is this policed/regulated?

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

if it all goes down in a fire caused by a screwed up plug installation, an insurance co is probably going to have a say. Noone is going to bust into your house checking plugs, don't worry.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Bunnings do sell plugs here in Wa.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

The fuses in UK plugs are an additional safety factor which ensures that the failure of one appliance won't blow a main fuse/breaker and disable all the power points on that circuit - but it only works if you have the right size fuse in the plug which most don't. It's not essential.

Don't try buying plugs etc from Dick Smith, they're not in that business any more. Either go to Bunnings or Jaycar and rewire your appliances or buy one of these which will take any plug used in the world.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

:thumbup:

Good advice. Didn't know those coverters exisited. Looks handy.

Yep, don't buy from DS, much cheaper at Bunnings.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

The fuse in UK plugs is a legacy from before RCDs were used and is now kind of redundant. You can get plugs at Bunnings but I prefer the Clipsal ones which you can usually only get from an electrical wholesaler. I find that they are not as easy to wire as UK/SA plugs but you will soon get the hang of it if doing lots.

I think the Australia plug has serious design flaws, but that's another topic.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

I have loads of those that I bought in Singapore. They work well and save a lot of hassle.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Thanks all. Have myself a plug, wire cutters and screwdriver. Going to give it a whirl...

I miss websites such as ebuyer, Misco, cclonline, etc. for getting cheap stuff. Even Amazon was pretty good most of the time. e.g. DS had a replacement power lead for my laptop's power block (so just the mains to block bit) and it was something like $15. Stuff that. Can't help think how I could get these in the UK for peanuts! Any suggestions for similar ebuyer, etc. websites?

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Ebay

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

+1

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

The Australian plugs are a travesty of design: cheap, nasty, badly thought out and difficult to use compared with any other country's.

An (older) electrician who was involved in wiring my build told me that the authorities took the UK standards then - as they do here - changed them and b*gg*r*d them around so as to make them unusable. So they were ignored in practical terms.

That's hearsay, so perhaps an electrician can put me right.

What *is* true is that IMO Australian plugs and sockets come at the very bottom of all the ones I've ever used except perhaps the original South African ones.

No, I take that back: they come well below South African ones.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Actually,in WA it is legal to wire your own plugs
http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/Energy...f_electricity/
RCDs protect people. Fuses and circuit breakers protect electrical equipment. It's not unsafe to not have a fuse in a plug, but as KJ has pointed out it will stop the appliance from tripping the final sub-circuit breaker

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Got to love QLD .. lucky that we are trusted to flick light switches

http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/fair-a...sumers/dontdiy

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

I imagine that the Act governing electricians is similar to the one governing professional engineers (in Qld) namely the work has to be performed under the "direct supervision of a registered professional" - otherwise no apprentice would ever be allowed to install anything! So there is nothing to stop you doing your own electrical work as long as you have a mate with a licence who is prepared to 'supervise' you.

And to state that unlicenced electrical work is dangerous is just one of those statements that governments like to make - like "Every K over is a Killer". I did my engineering apprenticeship with English Electric, went from there to the CEGB Research Labs, then worked for a firm making electrical switches for level control. I know as much about power factors, insulation values, creep distances, air gaps, cable ratings, induction effects, etc. as any licenced electrician, although he probably knows more about the local regulations than I do. The fact that I don't have a licence doesn't mean my work is not safe, just that it is not legal.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

I bought about 20 from bunnings and swapped them over. Everything has worked fine. I find the plugs ok, they are different to UK plugs but nothing wrong with them.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Thats not correct. the fuse has nothing to do with having a RCD.

Never the less Just remember to rewire with the active (brown colour) the first pin clockwise from the earth, the UK plug appears the opposite way round and may be confusing.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Err, with UK plugs the brown wire is the first wire clockwise from the earth pin too..?? (Not opposite). I never forget what my dad taught me: BRown wire - BR - Bottom Right. BLue wire - Bottom Left. If I understand what your saying, you think it is the other way around?

That aside. I'm a little confused over the point of a fuse now. UK uses them, Aussie & many other countries don't bother. So why does the UK fuse a plug, with so many different fuse types? The lead for my laptop charger is only a 5A fuse. I'm sure it will work without a fuse, but it is there to protect something for a reason. What's the risk to my kit if I use a fuse-less Aussie plug then?

Cheers

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

What do you think an RCD does then?

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

RCDs detect earth leakage, and protect people. Fuses detect overload and short circuit, and protect electrical equipment.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Your laptop will be fine. If a fault were to occur on your laptop (with a UK plug) then if you had a fuse in your plug then the fuse would blow in the plug. As your OZ plug doesn't have a fuse then it would blow the fuse, or trip the circuit breaker at the main switch/fuse board. No worries, your laptop is still protected.
Why does the UK use fuses in its plugs? Short answer, don't know.
It's probably a case of being over cautious but in the electrical field we have something called discrimination of fusing.
Basically, this means that a fault on one part of a circuit, or a number of circuits won't interrupt supply to that circuit or circuits.
So, this means that if your laptop were to develop a fault (with a UK plug) then it would just blow the fuse in the plug.
With an OZ plug it will take out the fuse / circuit breaker at the main switchboard and cause interruption of supply to any other appliance plugged into the same circuit.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Ah. Understood. Good explanation, thanks :-). One to remember! :starsmile:

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

When I was a kid the UK used plugs and sockets with round pins in 3 different sizes - 5A, 10A and 15A (there may also have been a 2A one) and so you not only had the plug to suit the appliance but you had to have the right socket on the wall - you could buy adaptors to enable you to plug a 5A appliance into a 15A socket but not the other way round!

As far as I can remember the fuse box only had two fuses in it, one for lighting and one for power, so any time an appliance fault blew the fuse it put out everything in the house. Then they brought in the fused rectangular pin plug and the 'ring main' where you still only had one fuse protecting the ring (which might have been a 20A fuse or even bigger depending on the capacity of the ring main) and each appliance was supposed to have a fuse in it matched to the rating of the appliance. This worked for new appliances which came from the factory with the correct fuse rating, but when it blew the householder usually replaced it with whatever he had handy - which included wrapping the blown fuse in tinfoil!

Houses today have several different circuits, each of which is protected by an overload circuit breaker as well as an earth leakage safety switch (residual current device or RCD, used to be called an ELCB) - one protects the circuit, the other protects people. The use of fuses is being phased out as circuit breakers can't be overridden like fuses can - the fact they still exist in the UK plugs is historic rather than for any safety reason.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Thanks all for the advice and info. Lots of useful interesting stuff.

In a very small way I am strangely proud of myself for have just carried out my first Aussie plug wire-up, AND it works! Now my confidence it up, anybody need their house rewiring? How hard can it be? :beer: :getcoat:

;)

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Being a bit pedantic here, but then this is turning into a pedantic thread, but:
RCD can also protect electrical equipment
When I was an apprentice, we were taught that fuses and CBs protect the weakest link, which is usually the cable/wiring. We still apply this theory in electrical design.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

I bought a house in the UK in 2001 that had only been re-wired a few years previously - I had all the paperwork. They had basically used rewirable fuses in the distribution board! In the late '90s FFS. There were 3 socket and 2 lighting fuses, no RCD. How that was legal/allowed at that time is beyond me.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

The wiring in our old house in the UK was shocking. You'd take a switch or socket off the wall and find all the wires behind were the same colour. You'd then chase them back to the box only to find all the wires at the box were all a different colour. It was a bloody nightmare but we were quietly impressed at the ingenuity of the original leccy! :lol: Mind you the wiring in this house was fairly shite, and not a tag anywhere to be seen.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

A mate of mine once worked on a house removing all the old fixings, cables and got a shock of a socket because it was being fed by the house next door :eek:.

I guess that's one way of lowering the bills :D

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Right, I've just sorted through the gadget cupboard (since we're moving house next week) and I have six UK multiplug boards with UK plugs on the cable still (4 x 4 way and 2 x 6 way) which I'm gonna chuck in the bin unless someone wants them.

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

I'm interested. Will cover postage costs obviously. How much?

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

i know exactly how you feel. I've recently replaced my old 12v downlight fittings for 240v GU10 ones so I can put in cheap LEDs. Of course the usual crowd shouted "you MUST use a licensed electrician!" but I went ahead and did it. I was amazed at how untidy the wiring was that I ripped out and replaced. I'm absolutely convinced that my illegal work is considerably safer than the legal work that was in there before.

Im now wondering what other old electrical stuff I can fix up without paying the $150 per hour for a sparky that's stopped me fixing the house for the last 10 years! :rofl:

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

All for free, dunno how much postage will cost. Will find out for you.

Send me a PM. :)

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Altho it's possible to safely pull an Aussie plug out of the socket by it's own cord from 10 foot! ... can't do that with a UK plug can ya! ... ;)

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

Nope, you can't, and if you have tried, you'll find that as the wires come out the plug they'll short out causing the appliance to meltdown but the fuse in the plug will be fine. :D

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

i wish;)

Re: Electrical advice - plug wiring
 

When you've clambered over or under allsorts to get the plug in, there's nothing like just tugging the thing from a distance to get it out ... :thumbsup: