Lemlux
The only way you`d have 24 volt lighting is if there were MR16s being fed from a step down transformer - and then, they`re usually 12 volts. Possibly a central-battery maintained emergency lighting system but you don`t find those in domestic houses.
Electric Storage Heaters - I remember those, vaguely. When we moved into this house back in 1985, I was only a kid but remember the big heaters full of bricks. Only four of them in the whole place. They`d be nice and warm at 7AM but by about lunch time the whole place was cold again! Gotta love that gas-fired central heating we had installed the very next year
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I tend to believe that the UK electrical system is one of the safest in the world, but also the most over-engineered. It has been like it for over 50 years - yeah, in the olden days some things didn`t have grounds/earths, there were about 20 different configurations of plugs and outlets, some stuff was powered from the light sockets
. But it was OK, and not everything needs grounding anyways. Like you USAnians with your 2 prong plugs. Why fit a ground wire and extra plug prong to a double-insulated plastic bodied TV or table lamp? We don`t have a choice - all our plugs have 3 pins and integral fusing. Sure, you don`t need to use the ground if it`s not necessary, but it`s there.
Serves two other purposes too - firstly acts as polarization. We have a defined neutral conductor that is always on the same side (left side looking at the outlet, with the earth pin at the top - over here the earth always goes at the top), marked in the 3 pin plugs. Buy a multiway adaptor or extension cord and the neutral always comes out the same side too. The Earth pin`s second duty, at least in a lot of outlets, is to open the integral safety shutters that are required by British Standards. Most are released by the longer earth pin as it goes in first. Some rely on equal pressure in both holes from the Live (hot) and Neutral pins - poke a screwdriver in one side only and it`ll stay shut but the correct sized pins pressing equally will open them. Most use the Earth-pin release though.
Our plugs also have part-sleeved pins. Ever notice how a US 2 prong plug makes contact with the power before it`s pushed all the way in? See the bare brass prongs? They`re live! In this country, outer plastic sleeves moulded over the top half of the Live/Neutral brass pins prevent live pins from being exposed when the plugs aeren`t pushed all the way in. Old ones don`t have the sleeves, but all new ones, for about the last 15 years or so, do. The Earth pin isn`t sleeved, but it doesn`t really need to be.
Now, I`m not saying the US electrical system is bad, far from it. I hate the fact that we have to have these huge 3 prong plugs on everything, when only 2 pins are needed. Adaptors and power bars are enormous! You should see things under the bench here....And they`re so damn expensive to buy, not that that`s a bother much these days as every appliance you buy has a plug prefitted.
If you want a wierd electrical system, go visit Europe! Now they *don`t* usually have a designated side for Neutral, at least not in France. I have several French electrical cords here, adapters too, and on some of those, the Neutral/Live(hot) pins are transposed on opposite sides of the adapter or cord! These are 3 pin grounded cords! No markings in their re-wirable plugs either. I can only guess that somewhere, one of them is Neutral-ized like the rest of the world does, and they just rely on double pole switches everywhere to ensure that the live bit does get switched off when required.
But I could be wrong.....hope not though