dee (10/27/82)
>From decvax!minow Tue Oct 12 19:49:04 1982
To: cca!dee
Subj: Swedish Electrical Outlets
I have a bunch of these left over from my stay in Sweden. Most things
you can buy in Sweden are double insulated and consequently don't need
or use grounded outlets.
Plugs and outlets are designed so you have various flavors of both:
"ordinary outlet" takes ordinary and double-insulated plugs.
"ordinary grounded" above + grounded plug
"grounded" grounded + double-insulated
There are others for high-amperage.
Noteworthy:
The home wiring is 230 Volts, generally 7.5 to 15 amp circuits.
Most homes are fused, and fuses seldom blow. Fuses and fuse holders
are keyed so you can't put the wrong amperage in.
The outlets and plugs and wiring in general is built to a much higher
standard than is common here. Even ordinary lamp cord has two independent
insulated coatings. Plugs are wired using a screwdriver; I've never
seen a push-through plug there.
A friend moved into an old house in Cambridge recently. The house
service looked like it was originally built for a Vincent Price
movie -- uninsulated busses hanging open and the whole mess channeled
through two 15 A fuses on the other end of the basement. I never
saw a mess like that in any house in Sweden, no matter how old or
decrepid.
(When I said "homes are fused", I meant that circuit breakers weren't
used in most of the places I lived in.)
There was a Nova last year on arson and general fire safety. They
put the Swiss fire code on the table (a small book) and the US code
on the table (a five foot shelf) and suggested that the more fire
code, the more fires. The Swiss system mandates twice a year cleaning
and inspection. The chimney sweeps are the inspectors. As simple as
that.
Feel free to forward this.
Martin Minow
decvax!minow