Isn't part of the reason for the size of the original plug the fact that they have to have a circuit breaker or fuse in them? I wonder how they handle that with the new-format plug.
I remember seeing the early plastic-slug proof-of-concept/prototype design a year or so ago. It struck me as amazingly insightful. It almost makes the UK power plugs seem attractive.
That type of "in line" power plug (his collapsed version, not the typical/standard UK one) could actually be useful here in the US, I think. Esp. with a fuse for protection.
The flat plugs you can get on extension cords are quite good, but you can pretty much ONLY get them on extension cords. I'm not sure about a "collapsed inline" version of a US plug ... US plugs are quite flimsy enough as it is.
I didn't mean "take a standard US plug, turn the connectors 90 degrees, and lets have that". For one, I think such a plug already exists (but at a different voltage level). (found it: See the 2-15R, first line of the chart, 2nd from the left (http://www.nooutage.com/nema_configurations.htm#NEMA%20Configurations))
I meant something much more literal to what I said: A US version of the collapsed UK plug. With connectors the size of the UK ones, with a possible in-connector fuse, etc.. Maybe not an exact duplicate, but closer to that than what we have in the US now. Or maybe something half way in between.
But, yes, merely turning the US connectors 90 degrees, while it might make for a very compact connector, would be rather flimsy. That's why I wasn't suggesting it :-)
Oh, you meant going to something more substantial and closer to the BS1363 plug? I think it'd be good, but I also think the US electrical appliance industry would never go for it. Why, it might add as much as a couple of dollars toi the manufacturing cost of appliances! Clearly out of the question.
Like it or not, I think the US is stuck with what it has. I think the best we can hope for in the near term is wider adoption of the molded flat plugs.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
don't know what the laws there are like.
no subject
That type of "in line" power plug (his collapsed version, not the typical/standard UK one) could actually be useful here in the US, I think. Esp. with a fuse for protection.
no subject
no subject
I meant something much more literal to what I said: A US version of the collapsed UK plug. With connectors the size of the UK ones, with a possible in-connector fuse, etc.. Maybe not an exact duplicate, but closer to that than what we have in the US now. Or maybe something half way in between.
But, yes, merely turning the US connectors 90 degrees, while it might make for a very compact connector, would be rather flimsy. That's why I wasn't suggesting it :-)
no subject
Like it or not, I think the US is stuck with what it has. I think the best we can hope for in the near term is wider adoption of the molded flat plugs.