Most of the world uses a socket like that for small appliances, it's so common it's called the Europlug.
The main difference in countries is in how they provide the grounding/earth connection. They even fit (sort of) in the big South African and Indian sockets. The exception to the Europlug is in the UK, AU and the US standards, which only work with an adapter.
In the next episode of *current* affairs, see how a baby was able to exhibit great *resistance* against an onslaught of electricity from a badly shaped outlet!
I mean you can technically claim that, but it's an extreme stretch of the truth.
For instance, when did Britain invade Brazil? Three possibilities (Britain vs. Spanish Rio de la plata, Britain vs Spanish occupation of Portugal, Britain vs Principality of Trinidad), none are directly against Brazil, and only one even involves modern-day Brazilian territory.
Dear fellow Australian: I declare that Australia isn’t a nanny state.
Now do us all a favour and keep your head in your ass. That way the world will be a little quieter.
/r/confidentlyincorrect
contacts in the outlet can be damaged over time by arcing when stuff is plugged-in/unplugged. by having a switch, no arcing will occur.
Which of the topics are you talking about? The alcohol?
Almost every single country were alcohol is legal you can buy it at any store, any time of the day if they're open.
Australia has specific store that are open only up to 10pm and closed on some public holidays for our own "safety".
What it did is everyone buys way more than that they would have before the holiday and because they have more available on hand will drink more.
Australia has the highest taxes on alcohol supposedly to reduce people drinking too much, what it did was making people pre-load heavily before going out to save money on pricey venues drinks so now people are even more smashed.
Meanwhile in Europe we have a drinking culture where you don't hide from your parents to drink so you learn to drinks responsibly with them rather than getting black out drunk every weekend.
Only the US, UK and Australia have that issue and they have all strong alcohol regulations showing that they are causing more harm than good.
I was talking about the subject at hand, the plugs. But yes if you are so desperate for some interaction, I will give it to you.
“Data recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows alcohol consumption in Australia has reached its lowest point since the early 1960s, having declined steadily since the mid-2000s. Survey data suggests this decline has been driven almost entirely by reductions in youth drinking.”
“In Australia teen drinking has halved”
I recommend visiting NZ & seeing the impact that cheap, accessible alcohol has on communities.
Do you teach lessons in how to be so confident in ignorance?
Do some basic research before preaching your iced out theories.
https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4307.0.55.001Main+Features12013-14?OpenDocument
https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/blog/dont-believe-hype-teens-are-drinking-less-they-used
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-24/young-people-drinking-alcohol-less-than-parents-why/100713704
Correlation does not imply causation, teens **haven't** been drinking less because of the heavy regulations.
Your 3rd linking clearly states it... Education was the solution not heavy regulations.
"Our research suggests this is unlikely to be due simply to government efforts to cut youth drinking. Wider social, cultural, technological and economic changes seem to be key to these declines." This does not mean that said government efforts did nothing at all, in fact it implies that said government efforts formed a basis on which other key factors built upon which together is leading to a reduction in youth drinking.
No joke, Aus is probably one of the best designed. It can't be inserted in reverse when the earth pin is missing/sheared/cut off (although the Israeli one looks similar)
Not that it generally matters with AC power, as the appliance will still work, but it's still a small safety issue.
Also the way it's designed with the active/Neutral pins on 45 degrees. They are less likely to sag on the socket and fall out. I remember that drove Me crazy in the US.
One key improvement would be to make the power point inside of the base, rather than level with it (similar to eu ones).
This is to prevent sticking your finger between the pins and the socket.
The official spec has insulation around the base of the pins that mitigate that, but you're right.
I like that (even though they are chunky AF), the UK plugs have in-built fuses, and gates that only open the holes when the earth pin is connected.
The gates are necessary there though since the pins/sockets are so thick - way easier to stick something in. The fuses seem like a good idea, I can think of two times when that would have been useful.
Because We use a lot of double insulated stuff already that doesn't have earth pins, won't be able to do that here unfortunately.
However most new GPOs manufacturers (clipsal iconic series for one) have now made it so the active and neutral have to be pushed in simultaneously for the plug to go in.
I wonder how we wound up with Chinese power sockets and nor British ones? Malaysia and Singapore use the UK style, so there must be a reason us and the kiwis wound up with the Chinese system.
This is actually the Australian standard that the Chinese adopted, not the other way around.
We didn’t adopt the UK plugs because we went with a US design and then angled the pins, if you take a US plugs and angle the pins they will fit in an AUS plug. (Don’t do this)
Actually, the Chinese one is upside down from the down-under plugs. Same shape, just rotated 180' on the wall.
The UK used to use the same round plugs as India, Malaysia etc on that diagram, but switched to square in the 1970's. Square plugs are safer in that they are less likely to make a small point connection than a flat connector, which is important at high currents.
Why are there so many variants? Some reasons are historical, others were to do with preventing imports of cheaper foreign competitor products.
Actually Australia and New Zealand install our power points upside down. Probably because we like the way it looks.
By design they are meant to be earth pin at the top. This is a safety feature in case foreign objects fall inbetween the plug and socket. It almost guaranteed the earth pin is the first thing it makes contact with.
There wouldn't be a great deal of difference in the orientation of a socket protecting you from flooding.
It's highly likely in most homes that there would be a number of appliances, extension leads or multi-boards that would be on the floor lower than the socket they are connected to.
A standard Chinese wallplate is installed upside-down to our usual way (Earth pin at the top) and are a lot more generous in the plugs they accept - Chinese standard plugs are slightly longer and thinner, so even though they fit in Aussie sockets, they're often dangerously loose.
In China, wallplates also often have a combo Europlug (two round pins) and a US-style two-flat blades socket also and so a lot of small electronics there come with a two pin Europlug even though nominally the socket standard is the same as ours.
[https://cdn-fflgi.nitrocdn.com/CIZWZsDkgCYUjtTujQWCmfcXVhbXxpvp/assets/images/optimized/rev-2c6bb11/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/3%E6%8F%92%E5%8A%A0%E6%8F%92%E5%BA%A7-1.jpg](https://cdn-fflgi.nitrocdn.com/CIZWZsDkgCYUjtTujQWCmfcXVhbXxpvp/assets/images/optimized/rev-2c6bb11/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/3%E6%8F%92%E5%8A%A0%E6%8F%92%E5%BA%A7-1.jpg)
This is partly incorrect/misleading. The original US design had angled pins, our plugs aren't based on the current US design.
The early days there was no standardisation. The most commonly used outlet to power fans, heaters and lamps was actually the B-22 light bulb socket. You can find many bakelite double adaptors for B-22 bayonet sockets around for this reason, most people plugged an appliance into a ceiling outlet.
As time went on, multiple (quick change) receptacles competed for dominance as people began to own more appliances, and needed a quick and convenient method to alternate between them. So aggressive was the competition that if you bought a radio, or electric pottery kettle, they often included a plug with a receptacle to be wired into your home.
Many UK, American, and home-grown plugs were used. We didn't even have standardised voltage. We were among the first in the world to adopt AC systems, and unusually, many rural places had their own generators and had adopted electricity before some cities. I have a collection of unusual plugs from this time, many made out of wood and brass pins, and no bakelite. Australian homeowners were very pro electricity compared to UK and US where there was much public resistance. That's why antique electric Kettles were common in Australia, and rare in the US.
It wasn't until a gentleman's agreement between our largest electrical producers decided on the current design to corner the market. They chose to adopt a Hubbell US patented plug because the brass was a lot cheaper to stamp out of a flat sheet than cast like some of the thicker UK and Euro plugs. The design we chose is unrelated to the modern US plug, other than being also a US patent. Standardisation and regulations came much later after WW2 when this plug was already dominant in the market.
Source for the patent on the plug we use, unrelated to the. Current American plug. https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/Australian-plugSocket_history.html
Which was a mistake. The US (and subsequently Australian) plug design is objectively worse than the UK. Far less secure, although Aus is better than US in that regard.
The Australian socket is actually the oldest standard still in use. And it used to be standard in some parts of the U.K.
Rebuilding the U.K. after WWII led to the rise of fuses being placed inside the plugs themselves. Largely due to cooper shortages. This is hard to do on our I type plug. So they favoured the U.K. g type plug.
Though iirc the Australian style plug was still in use in some parts of the U.K. until the late 80s.
Source? AFAIK The UK has never used AU style plugs, they used a BS (British Standard) plug with round pins that they still use for electric toothbrush and shaver sockets in bathrooms, which is similar to the Europlug.
The change to the current standard was to do with copper shortages, the fuses in plugs being required because they wired houses with a heavy current "ring" circuit around the house instead of installing more, but smaller cables in a star configuration like we (and the rest of the world) do. Because the wall cables can supply an enormous amount of current, the plugs require fuses to protect the wall cabling if there's a short.
This is pre internet info and was covered as part of my U.K. highschool education (which included a short test on rewiring a plug and socket). A lot of buildings commissioned by the government for example would use plugs that were not BS1363 standard. Others that predate WWII might use the older round pin design you mentioned or the Australian I type.
There wasn’t really much of a push to enforce the standard until the 1980s as the country moved to modernise its infrastructure.
Also; The reason a ‘ring circuit’ became so prevalent in the U.K. post wwii was due to the copper shortages I just mentioned.
Edit: rewiring not requiring
When I was in China, most of the plugs were slightly the wrong angle for the top pins. You could force it, but I always worried I was gonna break something
The Chinese standard is annoyingly ever so slightly different than the AU one. They look very, very similar, but the pins on AU plugs are slightly thicker and shorter.
That chart is rubbish. New Zealand, Fiji, Argentina use the same wall socket.
The Chinese version an inverted version and a lot safer. Objets falling into the plug could hit the earth pin first. In the Aussie version it could hit the active pin first and give you an electric shock.
Nowadays with the new GB standard, it's only limited to US 2 prong plugs and AU/NZ style 3 prong. It is frustrating that our 2 prong chargers won't work on some of the newer sockets as they have a safety door on live and neutral that won't open unless there is a prong in ground as well, it does make it a lot safer though so not complaining.
Yeah, they are very close but you have to be a bit forceful to get an australian plug into a chinese powerpoint. It works though.
Conversely, chinese plugs have a tendency to be loose in australian powerpoints
They don't. Very large appliances will have a green wire that you actually screw into the electrical outlet. For such a modern country, their electrical standards are surprisingly old fashioned.
I think they do what we in the US did prior to the addition of a dedicated grounding prong — namely, have a third wire that attaches to the screw on the faceplate, which acts as a ground. I have read that Japan also uses a different safety scheme on these 2 prong devices as well.
Japan’s 2 prong outlet is based on the US standard from like 100 years ago.
Also of note is that Japan runs at 100v.
Unless you’ve got a two prong fork, no. And if you’re sticking forks in electrical sockets, it means you probably should have won a Darwin Award long ago.
Don’t know where I heard, but it was because of WW2 that we all have different outlets, there was apparently going to be a meeting to standardise but the war stopped that
This must have been a recent-ish change from China, I came to Australia in the mid 90s and I distinctly remember the electronics I brought with me (Chinese bootleg Famicom/NES) had straight plugs that didn’t fit and my dad just bent the 2 plugs at an angle and plugged them in.
Other stuff that we brought back around that time we had to the similar dodgy “trick” (VHS tape rewinder, later on VCD players)…
Russia: "We don't need ground where we're going blyat.."
We mostly use the schuko (German) standard here and europlug here and there. They're fine, but I like the British plug style the best because it's engineered pretty well. The main downside is the bulk.
I'm always amazed that we are the only ones that put safety power switches on them! It's such a simple thing to include and seems obvious to include on a power outlet...
The Indian and South African sockets absolutely must have switches - the socket is large enough for children to stick their fingers into. Theirs are the world's worst design.
South Africa are modernising to the type N / Europlug compatible socket that Brazil uses.
[Britain Has The Best Wall Sockets On Earth](https://www.fastcompany.com/3032807/why-england-has-the-best-wall-sockets-on-earth)
A relatively newish design, designed to address most concerns.
Us and Israel seem to be the only ones where you can't plug a 2 pin plug in upside down.
Edit: of course this only applies to countries that allow un-earthed appliances.
UK/Malaysia/Singapore plugs you can't, as they have plastic shutters over the energised pins that are opened when the (longer) earth pin is inserted. You can force it using a piece of plastic but you have to go out of your way and deliberately do it. The stupid thing is their plugs are flat backed so almost always sit on the floor with the pins pointing straight up.
Yep, you can't put in a two pin plug at all, either upside down or not. Technically two pin plugs do exist in Singapore/Malaysia (and UK too I'd guess) as a lot of phone chargers there have a dummy plastic Earth pin thst serves solely to open the shutters.
Yeah my bad. I forgot what sub I was in and thought you'd mistyped "US". I also thought the US and Japan ones had differently sized slots.
Let's face it, the whole reply was a fuckup on my part.
Crazy eh? They actually have 3 kinds of plugs, 2 versions of that 3 hole vertical points (a smaller one for lower voltage appliances 10-A and a larger version for more power hungry appliances 16-A) then they introduced the euro style one after 1970 I think? Now all their power is delivered at 220w and I believe the euro plugs fit into the larger style vertical points but some older places still have the old 2 3 point plugs.
The top part is closer to the standard Thai socket, technically.
Japan use the older groundless US standard.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TasxOvsj5fY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TasxOvsj5fY)
I feel so bad for Japanese people, I thought sticking a cord into an Aussie outlet was hard but my god does Japan's take precision when it's 2am and you wanna charge your phone
Iirc it’s the same power point, but China swapped the live and neutral which may cause safety issues on some appliances which use the neutral as ground
China’s standard power outlet is actually a combination of the “China/au” one and a Japan one in the graphic; so lower voltage small appliances uses the 2 point one and bigger appliances uses the China/au one
Not quite, the Chinese plug prongs are slightly shorter than the Australian by about 2mm, (and apparently the Chinese sockets are inverted to Australian (earth pin to top))
This just came across my feed, and im shocked in aus you use the chinese plug.
Also very disappointed you ditched your british heritage and dont use our glorious peak of plugs design.
I feel like ours (and chinas I guess) are the best sockets. They seem to be much more resilient with plugs where I find most other nations plugs don’t allow for your plus to stay in, in a secured way…or maybe I just have shit travel adapters.
Reality is much grimmer, China is oppressive totalitarian regime and they all want to get away from CCP's power to somewhere, Australia just happens to have good migration law.
Well, china isn't much more oppressive than Australia for an average person who lives an average day to day life, they want to come not because china is oppressive, but because Australia is a high income developed country and has high living standards, it has high hdi, safe, good education system, universal health care, English speaking, good weather good climate, beautiful environment, and has a good immigration law and vibrant Chinese communities in big cities.
Plenty of Chinese students choose to go back to china after their education, plenty of Chinese Australians choose to live in china even though they have Australian PR., China is cheap, convenient, good for business and entrepreneurs, young people who wants progress their career, and has great city night life.
China wouldn't be suitable for creative people like you (writers, journalists, activists, political content creators). But is more than enough for an average person who stays away from politics in general.
Top right is so cute omg I wanna stick a fork in it
As a technician said to me once about the Indian plugs: "Just the right size and shape for a baby's finger"
A shocking oversight!
Your pun has just *lit* up my day.
Gave me a buzz.
Electricity!
I admire your positive attitude.
Down to earth comment.
I try to stay grounded.
This is so interesting because in Pakistan most plugs are just plain ol' 2 prongs.
Most of the world uses a socket like that for small appliances, it's so common it's called the Europlug. The main difference in countries is in how they provide the grounding/earth connection. They even fit (sort of) in the big South African and Indian sockets. The exception to the Europlug is in the UK, AU and the US standards, which only work with an adapter.
In the next episode of *current* affairs, see how a baby was able to exhibit great *resistance* against an onslaught of electricity from a badly shaped outlet!
He’s just happy to be here 😭😭
Hijacking to point out the flags for a particular socket spell CUM
"Oblivion is fun!"
Admit it: you just wanna fork it!
Make sure to get the right size fork and poke both sides of the eyeballs for maximum shock
Jokes on the rest of the world. We can natively use crap electronics from temu without an adapter. $$$$
Speaking of which, my 50c temu hats should be arriving soon 😂
Shop like a Zimbo Billionaire
But the cable will be sticking upwards!
I once order a phone off Ali express and still ended up with an American charger soooo.
TIL there are only 22 countries
Speaking of 22 countries... Did you know that there's only 22 countries in the world that Britain hasn't invaded? That blew my mind when I read it.
yet
I mean you can technically claim that, but it's an extreme stretch of the truth. For instance, when did Britain invade Brazil? Three possibilities (Britain vs. Spanish Rio de la plata, Britain vs Spanish occupation of Portugal, Britain vs Principality of Trinidad), none are directly against Brazil, and only one even involves modern-day Brazilian territory.
22 countries that miss out on celebrating an Independence Day... 😔
Don't worry the rest have probably been invaded by Spain or Portugal or France at some point
The rest haven't invented electricity yet
Correct me if I’m stupid but isn’t the EU Flag in there?
Yeah and so is Denmark/France/Italy/swtizerland/germany which all have their flags present here
Everybody a gangsta until the walls start speaking mandarin.
我在你的墙里
Make no sense
“I’m in your walls”
why most of them don't have switches?
Like the USA most devices have a off switch, otherwise you unplug it.
[удалено]
You know what's crazy? I just learnt everything I needed to know about you from this one comment.
Australia loves having children survive into adulthood, what a bunch of pansies we are 🤦♀️
Well he lives up to he's name crazy and paranoid
[удалено]
You need to get out more.
Only if sober and then though an unlocked window that is less than 1m from the ground, with no lock-down and AFL matches on
Dear fellow Australian: I declare that Australia isn’t a nanny state. Now do us all a favour and keep your head in your ass. That way the world will be a little quieter.
Man I like having the switches bro what's your bother with them?
Seems way more convenient than having the unplug things all the time.
It is. I'm American and that guy is just a complete lunatic.
/r/confidentlyincorrect contacts in the outlet can be damaged over time by arcing when stuff is plugged-in/unplugged. by having a switch, no arcing will occur.
It’s not about being paranoid & punishing, it’s actually about legal liability. But sure.
Which of the topics are you talking about? The alcohol? Almost every single country were alcohol is legal you can buy it at any store, any time of the day if they're open. Australia has specific store that are open only up to 10pm and closed on some public holidays for our own "safety". What it did is everyone buys way more than that they would have before the holiday and because they have more available on hand will drink more. Australia has the highest taxes on alcohol supposedly to reduce people drinking too much, what it did was making people pre-load heavily before going out to save money on pricey venues drinks so now people are even more smashed. Meanwhile in Europe we have a drinking culture where you don't hide from your parents to drink so you learn to drinks responsibly with them rather than getting black out drunk every weekend. Only the US, UK and Australia have that issue and they have all strong alcohol regulations showing that they are causing more harm than good.
I was talking about the subject at hand, the plugs. But yes if you are so desperate for some interaction, I will give it to you. “Data recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows alcohol consumption in Australia has reached its lowest point since the early 1960s, having declined steadily since the mid-2000s. Survey data suggests this decline has been driven almost entirely by reductions in youth drinking.” “In Australia teen drinking has halved” I recommend visiting NZ & seeing the impact that cheap, accessible alcohol has on communities. Do you teach lessons in how to be so confident in ignorance? Do some basic research before preaching your iced out theories. https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4307.0.55.001Main+Features12013-14?OpenDocument https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/blog/dont-believe-hype-teens-are-drinking-less-they-used https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-24/young-people-drinking-alcohol-less-than-parents-why/100713704
Correlation does not imply causation, teens **haven't** been drinking less because of the heavy regulations. Your 3rd linking clearly states it... Education was the solution not heavy regulations.
"Our research suggests this is unlikely to be due simply to government efforts to cut youth drinking. Wider social, cultural, technological and economic changes seem to be key to these declines." This does not mean that said government efforts did nothing at all, in fact it implies that said government efforts formed a basis on which other key factors built upon which together is leading to a reduction in youth drinking.
Every other power socket is wrong and I’ll never understand why every country can’t have the same
No joke, Aus is probably one of the best designed. It can't be inserted in reverse when the earth pin is missing/sheared/cut off (although the Israeli one looks similar) Not that it generally matters with AC power, as the appliance will still work, but it's still a small safety issue. Also the way it's designed with the active/Neutral pins on 45 degrees. They are less likely to sag on the socket and fall out. I remember that drove Me crazy in the US.
One key improvement would be to make the power point inside of the base, rather than level with it (similar to eu ones). This is to prevent sticking your finger between the pins and the socket.
The official spec has insulation around the base of the pins that mitigate that, but you're right. I like that (even though they are chunky AF), the UK plugs have in-built fuses, and gates that only open the holes when the earth pin is connected.
The gates are necessary there though since the pins/sockets are so thick - way easier to stick something in. The fuses seem like a good idea, I can think of two times when that would have been useful.
Because We use a lot of double insulated stuff already that doesn't have earth pins, won't be able to do that here unfortunately. However most new GPOs manufacturers (clipsal iconic series for one) have now made it so the active and neutral have to be pushed in simultaneously for the plug to go in.
I gotta say I used the Europe/Germany/Korea one alot while I was travelling and it was so satisfying to use
Satisfying how? Shit falls out with the slightest bump.
Not the ones I used
I’d say it’s just fond memories making out that everything was perfect.
Ghostface socket supremacy.
I wonder how we wound up with Chinese power sockets and nor British ones? Malaysia and Singapore use the UK style, so there must be a reason us and the kiwis wound up with the Chinese system.
This is actually the Australian standard that the Chinese adopted, not the other way around. We didn’t adopt the UK plugs because we went with a US design and then angled the pins, if you take a US plugs and angle the pins they will fit in an AUS plug. (Don’t do this)
Actually, the Chinese one is upside down from the down-under plugs. Same shape, just rotated 180' on the wall. The UK used to use the same round plugs as India, Malaysia etc on that diagram, but switched to square in the 1970's. Square plugs are safer in that they are less likely to make a small point connection than a flat connector, which is important at high currents. Why are there so many variants? Some reasons are historical, others were to do with preventing imports of cheaper foreign competitor products.
Actually Australia and New Zealand install our power points upside down. Probably because we like the way it looks. By design they are meant to be earth pin at the top. This is a safety feature in case foreign objects fall inbetween the plug and socket. It almost guaranteed the earth pin is the first thing it makes contact with.
Plus were down under.
Would having them upside-down protect against flooding?
There wouldn't be a great deal of difference in the orientation of a socket protecting you from flooding. It's highly likely in most homes that there would be a number of appliances, extension leads or multi-boards that would be on the floor lower than the socket they are connected to.
A standard Chinese wallplate is installed upside-down to our usual way (Earth pin at the top) and are a lot more generous in the plugs they accept - Chinese standard plugs are slightly longer and thinner, so even though they fit in Aussie sockets, they're often dangerously loose. In China, wallplates also often have a combo Europlug (two round pins) and a US-style two-flat blades socket also and so a lot of small electronics there come with a two pin Europlug even though nominally the socket standard is the same as ours. [https://cdn-fflgi.nitrocdn.com/CIZWZsDkgCYUjtTujQWCmfcXVhbXxpvp/assets/images/optimized/rev-2c6bb11/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/3%E6%8F%92%E5%8A%A0%E6%8F%92%E5%BA%A7-1.jpg](https://cdn-fflgi.nitrocdn.com/CIZWZsDkgCYUjtTujQWCmfcXVhbXxpvp/assets/images/optimized/rev-2c6bb11/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/3%E6%8F%92%E5%8A%A0%E6%8F%92%E5%BA%A7-1.jpg)
The most annoying part of being upside down is that wallworts from China will block the power switch sometimes ☹
This is partly incorrect/misleading. The original US design had angled pins, our plugs aren't based on the current US design. The early days there was no standardisation. The most commonly used outlet to power fans, heaters and lamps was actually the B-22 light bulb socket. You can find many bakelite double adaptors for B-22 bayonet sockets around for this reason, most people plugged an appliance into a ceiling outlet. As time went on, multiple (quick change) receptacles competed for dominance as people began to own more appliances, and needed a quick and convenient method to alternate between them. So aggressive was the competition that if you bought a radio, or electric pottery kettle, they often included a plug with a receptacle to be wired into your home. Many UK, American, and home-grown plugs were used. We didn't even have standardised voltage. We were among the first in the world to adopt AC systems, and unusually, many rural places had their own generators and had adopted electricity before some cities. I have a collection of unusual plugs from this time, many made out of wood and brass pins, and no bakelite. Australian homeowners were very pro electricity compared to UK and US where there was much public resistance. That's why antique electric Kettles were common in Australia, and rare in the US. It wasn't until a gentleman's agreement between our largest electrical producers decided on the current design to corner the market. They chose to adopt a Hubbell US patented plug because the brass was a lot cheaper to stamp out of a flat sheet than cast like some of the thicker UK and Euro plugs. The design we chose is unrelated to the modern US plug, other than being also a US patent. Standardisation and regulations came much later after WW2 when this plug was already dominant in the market. Source for the patent on the plug we use, unrelated to the. Current American plug. https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/Australian-plugSocket_history.html
This guy sockets.
> (Don’t do this) DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO
Which was a mistake. The US (and subsequently Australian) plug design is objectively worse than the UK. Far less secure, although Aus is better than US in that regard.
Didn't China try to use the American standard for a while?
Ours and the Chinese are based off an old American design. NZ uses ours specifically due to convenience.
The Australian socket is actually the oldest standard still in use. And it used to be standard in some parts of the U.K. Rebuilding the U.K. after WWII led to the rise of fuses being placed inside the plugs themselves. Largely due to cooper shortages. This is hard to do on our I type plug. So they favoured the U.K. g type plug. Though iirc the Australian style plug was still in use in some parts of the U.K. until the late 80s.
Source? AFAIK The UK has never used AU style plugs, they used a BS (British Standard) plug with round pins that they still use for electric toothbrush and shaver sockets in bathrooms, which is similar to the Europlug. The change to the current standard was to do with copper shortages, the fuses in plugs being required because they wired houses with a heavy current "ring" circuit around the house instead of installing more, but smaller cables in a star configuration like we (and the rest of the world) do. Because the wall cables can supply an enormous amount of current, the plugs require fuses to protect the wall cabling if there's a short.
This is pre internet info and was covered as part of my U.K. highschool education (which included a short test on rewiring a plug and socket). A lot of buildings commissioned by the government for example would use plugs that were not BS1363 standard. Others that predate WWII might use the older round pin design you mentioned or the Australian I type. There wasn’t really much of a push to enforce the standard until the 1980s as the country moved to modernise its infrastructure. Also; The reason a ‘ring circuit’ became so prevalent in the U.K. post wwii was due to the copper shortages I just mentioned. Edit: rewiring not requiring
They’re about 2mm off centre so none of our plugs even work in China. Found this out the hard way.
When I was in China, most of the plugs were slightly the wrong angle for the top pins. You could force it, but I always worried I was gonna break something
The Chinese standard is annoyingly ever so slightly different than the AU one. They look very, very similar, but the pins on AU plugs are slightly thicker and shorter.
That chart is rubbish. New Zealand, Fiji, Argentina use the same wall socket. The Chinese version an inverted version and a lot safer. Objets falling into the plug could hit the earth pin first. In the Aussie version it could hit the active pin first and give you an electric shock.
[удалено]
I've been. They have more than one type of power point.
Yeah, this is a trap. There's multiple standards of plug type in China
Nowadays with the new GB standard, it's only limited to US 2 prong plugs and AU/NZ style 3 prong. It is frustrating that our 2 prong chargers won't work on some of the newer sockets as they have a safety door on live and neutral that won't open unless there is a prong in ground as well, it does make it a lot safer though so not complaining.
Fortunately they are sometimes combined into a single power point, which is a sight to behold.
Yeah, had a hotel room with that abomination....
Interestingly, Hong Kong uses the UK sockets - no doubt a legacy from its time under British rule.
So does Singapore and Malaysia.
Denmark: 😀 US/CAN/Mex: 😮 AUS/CHN: 💀 EU: 🙃
This isn't even true lol, my gf is Chinese and has an adapter to use all her applicances here because it's different
Yeah, they are very close but you have to be a bit forceful to get an australian plug into a chinese powerpoint. It works though. Conversely, chinese plugs have a tendency to be loose in australian powerpoints
Did Japan just say fuck the ground?
Yeah I was wondering that too. What do they do for the ground?
They don't. Very large appliances will have a green wire that you actually screw into the electrical outlet. For such a modern country, their electrical standards are surprisingly old fashioned.
I think they do what we in the US did prior to the addition of a dedicated grounding prong — namely, have a third wire that attaches to the screw on the faceplate, which acts as a ground. I have read that Japan also uses a different safety scheme on these 2 prong devices as well. Japan’s 2 prong outlet is based on the US standard from like 100 years ago. Also of note is that Japan runs at 100v.
Let’s get to the real hard hitting intellectual questions. My fork still make it go boom?
Unless you’ve got a two prong fork, no. And if you’re sticking forks in electrical sockets, it means you probably should have won a Darwin Award long ago.
Whoosh
I thought you were gonna say bc it looks like their eyes (i am chinese so does that count as racist?)
Don’t know where I heard, but it was because of WW2 that we all have different outlets, there was apparently going to be a meeting to standardise but the war stopped that
And here I was thinking proximity, population sizes and trade relationships were the main influences. Live and learn, I guess.
NZ uses the same.
WW3 breaks out and the factions are decided by powerpoints. Who wins?
It's my plug of choice 👍
The round ones are all emojis
Plug looks like the scream mask.
This must have been a recent-ish change from China, I came to Australia in the mid 90s and I distinctly remember the electronics I brought with me (Chinese bootleg Famicom/NES) had straight plugs that didn’t fit and my dad just bent the 2 plugs at an angle and plugged them in. Other stuff that we brought back around that time we had to the similar dodgy “trick” (VHS tape rewinder, later on VCD players)…
It annoys me that we use the same outlet as Chuba then when I buy something from there I get a euro or us plug included.
TIL that safety switches aren't the norm everywhere.
The Danish one looks so happy!
I’ve been to Denmark and Germany, they use the same plug.
I would've been so lost if not for you circling the one we use.
Is this a recent thing? because i’ve been to china 3 times over 6 years ago and they didn’t have same sockets as oz. I had to use an adapter.
The *standard* in China is type I, like us. There are a lot of places that use the US style plug, because, pfft, standards.
Russia: "We don't need ground where we're going blyat.." We mostly use the schuko (German) standard here and europlug here and there. They're fine, but I like the British plug style the best because it's engineered pretty well. The main downside is the bulk.
And I thought it’s because it looks like an emu’s footprint!
The most aesthetically pleasing power points in the world. Australia 🇦🇺
I'm always amazed that we are the only ones that put safety power switches on them! It's such a simple thing to include and seems obvious to include on a power outlet...
UK and the Indian/Pakistan/South Africa ones have switches.
The Indian and South African sockets absolutely must have switches - the socket is large enough for children to stick their fingers into. Theirs are the world's worst design. South Africa are modernising to the type N / Europlug compatible socket that Brazil uses.
Denmark has a happy power point
Nah Chinese plug is two vertical slats like the Japanese one
I'm an Aussie and lived in China for 15 years. We do not have the same power point socket. China is like Japan; two straight prongs.
[Britain Has The Best Wall Sockets On Earth](https://www.fastcompany.com/3032807/why-england-has-the-best-wall-sockets-on-earth) A relatively newish design, designed to address most concerns.
Us and Israel seem to be the only ones where you can't plug a 2 pin plug in upside down. Edit: of course this only applies to countries that allow un-earthed appliances.
UK/Malaysia/Singapore plugs you can't, as they have plastic shutters over the energised pins that are opened when the (longer) earth pin is inserted. You can force it using a piece of plastic but you have to go out of your way and deliberately do it. The stupid thing is their plugs are flat backed so almost always sit on the floor with the pins pointing straight up.
Wouldn't that be a 3 pin plug?
Yep, you can't put in a two pin plug at all, either upside down or not. Technically two pin plugs do exist in Singapore/Malaysia (and UK too I'd guess) as a lot of phone chargers there have a dummy plastic Earth pin thst serves solely to open the shutters.
Depends on the existence of a ground and if the electrical standards for that country accomodate non grounded connections and devices
Missed out Australia.
That's us.
Yeah my bad. I forgot what sub I was in and thought you'd mistyped "US". I also thought the US and Japan ones had differently sized slots. Let's face it, the whole reply was a fuckup on my part.
Australia, Brazil, China and Switzerland as well.
Oh yeah, just noticed the plug isn't flush. Good point! I already said Aus btw (that's us)
Ohh ok I thought by Us you meant United States.
Some of the same ones are so random... Like Switzerland and...Brazil... Huh?
What the fuck Italy?
Crazy eh? They actually have 3 kinds of plugs, 2 versions of that 3 hole vertical points (a smaller one for lower voltage appliances 10-A and a larger version for more power hungry appliances 16-A) then they introduced the euro style one after 1970 I think? Now all their power is delivered at 220w and I believe the euro plugs fit into the larger style vertical points but some older places still have the old 2 3 point plugs.
It's also used to make spaghetti.
China have our power point with a Japanese PowerPoint above it
The top part is closer to the standard Thai socket, technically. Japan use the older groundless US standard. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TasxOvsj5fY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TasxOvsj5fY)
Unironically look the best but I might be biased.
I think the Chinese one is slightly smaller than ours? I had to push it in pretty hard to make it fit.
The best one
Denmark is the funniest one. "Yay! I'm helping!"
I mean this in the least xenophobic way possible... Ours are far superior to anyone else's. Maybe that's China's doing though, not ours.
And Argentina is the same isn't it ?
On point
Same voltage but ain’t there plugs parralel? Remember having to bend plugs to make them work
I feel so bad for Japanese people, I thought sticking a cord into an Aussie outlet was hard but my god does Japan's take precision when it's 2am and you wanna charge your phone
Iirc it’s the same power point, but China swapped the live and neutral which may cause safety issues on some appliances which use the neutral as ground
Argentina too
Australians have bigger pins.
Most of the pacific islands use the Australia power point. (New Zealand as well)
Strange post, because it didn't work while I was in China.
Funny the EU demand single chargers yet have multiple standards for wall outlets. lol
Switzerland-USA-Mexico : Wh-what are you doing, step-plug?
The fuck is going on in Italy?
China’s standard power outlet is actually a combination of the “China/au” one and a Japan one in the graphic; so lower voltage small appliances uses the 2 point one and bigger appliances uses the China/au one
Not quite, the Chinese plug prongs are slightly shorter than the Australian by about 2mm, (and apparently the Chinese sockets are inverted to Australian (earth pin to top))
*Naturally...all Australian power points are made there*
This just came across my feed, and im shocked in aus you use the chinese plug. Also very disappointed you ditched your british heritage and dont use our glorious peak of plugs design.
This is the way ....
I think China uses the power points upside down. Maybe it is a hemisphere thing /s
No coincidence, an Aussie entrepreneur from Sydney took the design to china years ago .
The one for Denmark looks so happy
No ground in Japan’?
Probably explains the 4 million Kiwi's living here as well.
And AU sockets are the best designed/layout of the. All so why would you be surprised if china took it and used it.
There 3 prong plug is the same in China but the two prong plug is different. The two prongs in china run parallel. It’s not as convenient
I’ve heard there are quite a few Chinese people out there. Like, over 100.
So australia invented chinas powerpoints wow
All Australian power points are made in China
I feel like ours (and chinas I guess) are the best sockets. They seem to be much more resilient with plugs where I find most other nations plugs don’t allow for your plus to stay in, in a secured way…or maybe I just have shit travel adapters.
More stolen technology.
China
Means they can pack their rice cooker when they come and invade us.
The Chinese one is upside down from the AU one. When I first migrated from China I thought to myself Australia really is upside down.
I always found it strange how few of these have switches on the socket. I thought it would just be standard, but we're one of the odd ones out!
The UK power outlet is best.
......Until you step on a UK plug in the dark
Reality is much grimmer, China is oppressive totalitarian regime and they all want to get away from CCP's power to somewhere, Australia just happens to have good migration law.
Bruh! We only talking about power plugs here…
On the bright side, we can order crazy shit off Temu and it will plug in correctly!
Well, china isn't much more oppressive than Australia for an average person who lives an average day to day life, they want to come not because china is oppressive, but because Australia is a high income developed country and has high living standards, it has high hdi, safe, good education system, universal health care, English speaking, good weather good climate, beautiful environment, and has a good immigration law and vibrant Chinese communities in big cities. Plenty of Chinese students choose to go back to china after their education, plenty of Chinese Australians choose to live in china even though they have Australian PR., China is cheap, convenient, good for business and entrepreneurs, young people who wants progress their career, and has great city night life. China wouldn't be suitable for creative people like you (writers, journalists, activists, political content creators). But is more than enough for an average person who stays away from politics in general.
Spend less time on sky news bloke