SocketMan

Please sign this government e-petition: Regulate the sale of all plug-in devices intended for use in 13A sockets - e-petitions The petition is a result of the enthusiastic discussion on socket covers taking place at the Electricians Forums: A reminder to everyone - FatallyFlawed - Child Plug Socket Covers Campaign It turns out that there are a lot of electricians who are very concerned about socket covers, and many of them have felt that way for a lot longer than the FatallyFlawed campaign has been running. The message has been well promoted on the forum website by the forum owner (himself the father of a toddler). The petition was started by one of the contributors and has just gone live. It does not call for a ban, but the regulation of anything which plugs into a BS 1363 socket, but is not actually a plug. The current (pardon the pun) situation is that a supplier selling a real plug which does not conform to BS 1363 dimensions is liable to up to six months in jail, but anyone can sell a socket cover (or phone charger, or night light, or air freshener) with oversized pins, and the potential to cause permanent damage to a socket, with impunity. Damaged contacts are poor contacts, and poor contacts arc, overheat and catch fire. Even if you believe that a properly fitting socket cover has some value, (and there are none of those on the market – they are all wrong) please sign the petition to help put a stop to the sale of damaging and dangerous junk. Also, please consider helping to spread the word. Encourage your friends and relatives to support this cause, it will not cost them a penny! Thanks. FatallyFlawed PlugSafe

I wonder just how many people there are like me who spend hours doing serious work on a PC every day, using many different applications, but have absolutely no need for a smartphone or tablet, do not have either, and no interest in the metro interface. I loaded Windows 8 on to one of my testbeds, (5 year old single core) no problem with installation, but to me, such a horrible interface that I cannot bring myself to waste time loading on applications to test it further. I support a lot of elderly people, the small changes in interface from Vista to Win7 cause all sorts of unexpected problems for them, so I live in dread of a time when Win8 is the only replacement I can get for them! I fear MS has really lost it this time!

In the UK we have a very high standard of electrical safety. In the UK we have a very low rate of accidents involving electric shock. Perhaps the second statement is as a result of the first? The plugs shown in the photos provided are completely illegal to sell in the UK, the penalty for doing so is a maximum of 6 months imprisonment. The Plugs and Sockets, etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994 were introduced to provide a regulatory regime to address issues regarding consumer safety. There were concerns that consumer safety was compromised by the substantial quantity of counterfeit and unsafe electrical plugs and sockets being placed on the UK market. The regulations require that all UK plugs have been certified as conforming to BS 1363, so as BS 1363 specifically disallows sleeved Earth pins (but does require sleeved Line and Neutral pins), it is clear that the plugs in question are counterfeit and illegal. Despite this, there are many counterfeit plugs on sale in this country, they often have incorrectly sized pins which cause bad contacts and hence overheated/burnt sockets. Some, such as the one in the picture posted by Chris_ have no fuse, others have fuses which are not actually connected to anything, those counterfeit plugs which do have fuses have counterfeit fuses, these do not conform to BS 1362 and will explode if the load is short circuited. Most counterfeits are supplied attached to power cords, and you can be certain that the wire inside those cables is undersized, BASEC have reported wires with as little as 3% of the copper necessary! If you come across such counterfeits PLEASE return them to the supplier and draw their attention to their illegal activity, Trading Standards will also be interested, if you do not know where it came from, destroy the plug by breaking off the Line pin (easily done with a pair of pliers) and dispose of the cable safely. Someone with PAT testing experience commented that they “wouldn't have batted an eyelid at that”, sadly they are not alone. When I recently had a visit from a PAT tester I gave him a sample power lead having a plug with sleeved earth, and a fuse which was not in circuit. He told me there was nothing wrong with it! (Which demonstrates that PAT testers need some knowledge, and eyesight, not just a test instrument.) I do hope HP has been informed about the OP’s discovery, I am sure that they would not be knowingly involved in such criminal activity.