For Armi and rayc

[CrowsofFritz]

Well this is a little awkward because it’s not music stuff but I don’t know any Australians anywhere else

@Armistice and @rayc is this portable stove something you’d want? Or is this anything any of your friends would want? It’s from Hong Kong. I assume the outlet is what y’all have. I included the wattage and voltage in the paper—the only thing in the manual I can understand lmao. Stupid website didn’t include that on their page. It’s a shame because it’s a lovely looking portable stove whereas the thing I have now is smaller, but uglier.

Looks like USPS’s slowest time to deliver a 5 lb package to Australia is $15. I’d be willing to pay that just to get rid of this thing. But I don’t know if you’d have to pay anything else when it gets to your country.

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[vomitHatSteve]

Wait, is that what aussie plugs look like? Tiny versions of our dryer plugs?

[CrowsofFritz]

Wait, is that what aussie plugs look like? Tiny versions of our dryer plugs?

Getting this product made me look up plugs from around the world (and ALL of them in the U.S.) and it made my head spin.

Why are there so many different freaking plugs? I feel like electricity should be similar to a universal system like the metric system. Too late the change that now lmao

[Armistice]

Thanks Fritz, nice thought, but I'd have no use for it, indeed I actually wouldn't plug a (presumed) Chinese-manufactured electrical appliance of unknown provenance into my house anyway.

Perhaps ray will but not sure he's around at the moment.

Yeah plugs are weird. Our sockets look like sad little guys - can see one of them in Munch's scream...

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@vomitHatSteve - we only have one type of socket here in general household use. They all have an earth inlet, irrespective of whether the actual device has an earth wire or not. Plenty of two pin things get plugged into three pin sockets. And plenty of unearthed appliances have a three pin plug that has nothing on the third pin because it's just easier.

There are additional variants with heavier pins for heavy current draw appliances, but you'll almost never see them as a socket - said appliances tend to be wired in directly in houses. Three phase power may also exist in some houses but again, not normally as a socket. That's more industrial stuff - all sorts of variations there.

Our standard pins are the same size too because you can't plug ours in the wrong way. #design

I presume that's the difference in your two different types? And why on your two pin plugs the pins appear to be different sizes?

UK ones always look really big and heavy to me.

[CrowsofFritz]

Yeah, some of them are funny looking, but I suppose they’re all funny looking to people outside their country. Already, there’s quite a variety of different plugs, but there’s so many variation of the North American outlets that there’s probably more than what’s pictured below.

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[CrowsofFritz]

Here’s another question @Armistice

I assume those switches above the sockets are an off/on switch? Are they present on every outlet? We have a reset button on certain outlets, but I’d say more often than not (depending on the area and age of the building), there’s no button.

[Armistice]

Here’s another question @Armistice

I assume those switches above the sockets are an off/on switch? Are they present on every outlet? We have a reset button on certain outlets, but I’d say more often than not (depending on the area and age of the building), there’s no button.

Now there's a rabbit hole you can spend a lot of time exploring. Do some googling on the matter and you'll see what I mean.

It's only when you asked the question that I realised that in the US you DON'T HAVE SWITCHED OUTLETS!!!!

I'm not an electrical engineer, so I can't give you the definitive answer on why we have switches... but we do as it's the Australian official standard. All outlets have to have switches, so they do. Of course, the switch, being a moving part, is the most likely part of an outlet to fail, and indeed I've replaced switched outlets before for that reason - not legally of course as it's supposed to be done by an electrician, but it's not hard if you know your way round household electricity enough not to work on live outlets.

It may have something to do with our higher voltage, and it may have something to do with how household wiring is done in the first place. Our power outlets are all on a circuit. No individual power outlet, thus, has a reset / circuit breaker, as you're saying some of yours do. This would mean that that outlet is coming direct from the mains. It's not done that way here.

The advantage with switches is that you can turn shit off at the wall if you want to. Mostly people don't, however.

And babies with scissors won't electrocute themselves by sticking things into live sockets. Pretty sure that doesn't actually happen anywhere because parents aren't generally stupid. You can get plastic plugs to stick in your outlets to keep the ruggies safe here. Probably the same in the US and everywhere else in the world.

So really, who knows?

OK then, electrical question for you - in your bathroom, where's the light switch - inside or outside?

And do you have power outlets inside the bathroom?

Go to Europe (and possibly the UK - @JD01 and @muttley will be able to straighten me out on this) and you'll often find bathrooms have light switches outside, and no power outlet inside. Or sometimes there's a pull cord for the light switch inside. Something to do with how house wiring was done back in the day before they invented RCDs, I believe, but when trying to find out about this stuff, you tend to end up on reddit and who knows what redditors actually know...

We have light switches in the bathroom and power outlets in the bathroom too and no-one burns their house down because of it. Also helps when you're offing yourself by throwing a toaster into the bath you're sitting in. No need to find a really long extension cord.

[CrowsofFritz]

OK then, electrical question for you - in your bathroom, where's the light switch - inside or outside?

And do you have power outlets inside the bathroom?

Generally, they are on the inside. There are a few I’ve seen where they’re on the outside. That may be older homes. Almost everything is on the inside—including closets.

Now that I’m thinking about it, the one thing that’s on the outside of my current apartment is the switch to the lights for the stairs that lead down to the garage. There’s been a few times where I’ve instinctively gone inside the dark stairway thinking there was a light switch and had to open the door again and turn it on from the outside like an idiot. That’s how uncommon it is in the U.S.

There’s also outlets in the bathroom—even in the oldest house I’ve been in, which had the knob and tube wiring. I think that was built in the 1910s or 1920s. Certainly before WWII.

Don’t think I’d want to go out by electrocution. Lol

But it’s very convenient for trimmers that need to be plugged in or for women—hair straighteners or curling irons or things of that nature. I don’t know where one would do that without outlets in the bathroom. I use a battery powered trimmer, but it’s garbage. I’ll buy a new one soon and probably one that gets plugged in.

[JD01]

Go to Europe (and possibly the UK - @JD01 and @muttley will be able to straighten me out on this) and you'll often find bathrooms have light switches outside, and no power outlet inside. Or sometimes there's a pull cord for the light switch inside. Something to do with how house wiring was done back in the day before they invented RCDs, I believe, but when trying to find out about this stuff, you tend to end up on reddit and who knows what redditors actually know...

We have light switches in the bathroom and power outlets in the bathroom too and no-one burns their house down because of it. Also helps when you're offing yourself by throwing a toaster into the bath you're sitting in. No need to find a really long extension cord.

We don't have power outlets or light switches in the bathroom - against building regs.
You either have a pull cord for the light, or a switch on the outside.

No plug sockets.

[CrowsofFritz]

Go to Europe (and possibly the UK - @JD01 and @muttley will be able to straighten me out on this) and you'll often find bathrooms have light switches outside, and no power outlet inside. Or sometimes there's a pull cord for the light switch inside. Something to do with how house wiring was done back in the day before they invented RCDs, I believe, but when trying to find out about this stuff, you tend to end up on reddit and who knows what redditors actually know...

We have light switches in the bathroom and power outlets in the bathroom too and no-one burns their house down because of it. Also helps when you're offing yourself by throwing a toaster into the bath you're sitting in. No need to find a really long extension cord.

We don't have power outlets or light switches in the bathroom - against building regs.
You either have a pull cord for the light, or a switch on the outside.

No plug sockets.

I was never able to observe this as I only stayed in a hostel in London and not a hotel. Great experience regardless!

[Armistice]

Go to Europe (and possibly the UK - @JD01 and @muttley will be able to straighten me out on this) and you'll often find bathrooms have light switches outside, and no power outlet inside. Or sometimes there's a pull cord for the light switch inside. Something to do with how house wiring was done back in the day before they invented RCDs, I believe, but when trying to find out about this stuff, you tend to end up on reddit and who knows what redditors actually know...

We have light switches in the bathroom and power outlets in the bathroom too and no-one burns their house down because of it. Also helps when you're offing yourself by throwing a toaster into the bath you're sitting in. No need to find a really long extension cord.

We don't have power outlets or light switches in the bathroom - against building regs.
You either have a pull cord for the light, or a switch on the outside.

No plug sockets.

How do you charge your toothbrush?

[muttley]

Go to Europe (and possibly the UK - @JD01 and @muttley will be able to straighten me out on this) and you'll often find bathrooms have light switches outside, and no power outlet inside. Or sometimes there's a pull cord for the light switch inside. Something to do with how house wiring was done back in the day before they invented RCDs, I believe, but when trying to find out about this stuff, you tend to end up on reddit and who knows what redditors actually know...

We have light switches in the bathroom and power outlets in the bathroom too and no-one burns their house down because of it. Also helps when you're offing yourself by throwing a toaster into the bath you're sitting in. No need to find a really long extension cord.

We don't have power outlets or light switches in the bathroom - against building regs.
You either have a pull cord for the light, or a switch on the outside.

No plug sockets.

You can but very rarely. There are zones which dictate the type of outlet and the distance from shower heads, baths, sinks etc. and what you are allowed to fit. Generally people just have the switch outside by the door or as JD says' a pull chord. We have them outside the door and my kids when they were younger took great delight in plunging you into darkness when you hit the shower. I now have motion sensor switching in the family bathroom and the ensuite. Most cabinets will have a shaver socket which is independently fused. These days with LED low power lighting and extraction fans, etc, regs are being changed all the time. It is very very rare to find a plug socket in a bathroom as it would have be a pretty large room and generally you just don't need one as all your electrical gear is hard wired in under regs or is designed for use on a shaver socket.

[Greg_L]

There's like six switches and four outlets in each of our bathrooms. Yall living in the stone ages.

[Armistice]

We have two double outlets in the ensuite and one double in the main bathroom - which is actually smaller than the ensuite. Light switches on the inside.