Atlas Obscura:
When you travel internationally, power outlets provide a pretty good reminder that you’re not in Kansas anymore.
Outlets vary wildly depending on the part of the world, both in the shape of their sockets and the voltage with which they’re compatible. For those who travel across multiple regions, it can be frustrating. And it’s probably too late to solve this problem, because of decisions made more than a century ago.
If you don’t travel internationally, you won’t know the aggravation of the world’s power outlets. Here is an interesting video about the British outlets and why they may be the best design.
Funny, I’ve been to Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, India, China, and some other places. But I’ve never been in a hotel (and some were quite “quaint”) where I couldn’t use my standard plugs. And despite power outages in Tanzania, or a lack of plugs altogether in a miner’s shack in Colombia, I’ve rarely been prevented from using a standard plug. I still carry adapters. But all my Apple stuff and camera stuff works without a converter. So 110 or 220 is not an issue.
Now food. That’s an issue. 🙂
There are pieces of the design that are nice, but ring circuits with 32A at each outlet (and no fuses/breakers in the household wiring) really disqualify it as ‘the best design’ in my opinion. Note also that the 2008 NEC requires ‘tamper resistant’ receptacles in the US (so we get shutters on our outlets now too).
He talks about how the shutter system is so great in preventing kids from sticking a screwdriver into the plug. Then he demonstrates how easy it is to bypass it, and then makes it clear that he doesn’t remember when he himself was a child and hasn’t spent time around children. You’d have to have a really inventive child to bypass that safety feature? They’re all inventive. The British plug and the plugs I find in other parts of Europe (which are different) have the great failing of being too damned BIG. Space efficiency is HUGE with the American plug. How many times have I seen a plug in Europe where they only had room to place a single plug? Lots and lots and lots of places. The American plug is so compact that you almost never see a solo plug; they’re almost always dual outlets, in about the same space as a mono outlet in Europe. My 2c.
UK plugs hurt like an SOB when you step on it and the flat back makes it sure that the prongs will be up when you do. Also, it’s freaking massive. US plugs are much better as are the euro 2-prongs (with shutters even). Euro 3 prongs are too big and come in too many different flavors (France, Germany, Italy, Israel, etc. are all different.)
Half the features he mentions are pretty standard in other parts of the world these days. In Australia most plugs now have the insulation and many power boards have the shutters or other safety features. The size of the UK plug is enormous too.
In my totally biased opinion I think the Australian plug is best simply because its the same plug used by the world’s largest manufacturer of electronics, China.
This page shows all the different plug types http://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/ bonus points to the US for the scared face the sockets make, also to Denmark and Greenland for making the happiest looking sockets (Type K).
</i .>
Was just in Malawi at a high end hotel.
They had universal plugs — take any plug, from anywhere, and plug it in. No adapter necessary; it had the holes to receive anything.
Haven’t looked into it at all, but there it is.