Europe
News and information from Europe πͺπΊ
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
- Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.
(This list may get expanded as necessary.)
Posts that link to the following sources will be removed
- on any topic: Al Mayadeen, brusselssignal:eu, citjourno:com, europesays:com, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Fox, GB News, geo-trends:eu, news-pravda:com, OAN, RT, sociable:co, any AI slop sites (when in doubt please look for a credible imprint/about page), change:org (for privacy reasons), archive:is,ph,today (their JS DDoS websites)
- on Middle-East topics: Al Jazeera
- on Hungary: Euronews
Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com
(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)
Ban lengths, etc.
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the admin that applied the rule (check modlog first to find who was it.)
view the rest of the comments
They also can pose a risk for linemen and electricians. A circuit can remain powered even if the breaker or load break switch is disconnected. That is, unless they have a feature which disables power output automatically when grid power is lost?
They are specifically designed so that this does not happen.
BTW part of the UKs standards for household wiring comes from a time where the idea was to heat with electricity from nuclear power. Which is one reason why each appliance also has an extra fuse in their respective wall plug - not a bad design.
That is not why UK plugs have a fuse in them. UK plugs have a fuse in them because the wiring standards date from a time when the UK was trying to save money and copper because of the war, so they allow for the fuse in the breaker panel to be higher rated than the actual wiring in the wall.
The fuse in the plug is to prevent a broken device, or overloaded power strip, drawing the full current the breaker will allow, causing the in-wall wiring and/or appliance cables to burn.
It's a terrible design.
The UK plug is one of the best around. It's only downside is that it's chunky. By putting the fuse in the plug, the protection can be customised to what is attached.
It also is designed to be almost impossible to fall out of a wall socket. As well as mandating the pin connection order and safety shielding. The sockets are also gated, stopping children sticking stuff into them.
Even internally they are well designed. The live wire is the weakest link. If pulled, that will tend to fail first. It will, however be held internally by the neutral and earth wires. The earth will be the last to fail.
The side entry also means that the plug locks into place when the cable is pulled. If the plug or socket fails catastrophically, the earth pin will be the last to pull loose.
Nuh-uh - it can land pointy-side up, that's a big downside for someone as clumsy as I am.
I would call that a feature! It means we can use them as caltrops if the French ever invade!
/s
You might even stand a chance against the Danish!
Based on my electrical engineering course the UK has one of the weirdest wiring standards in the world, having some of the shittiest baseline wiring and subsiquently trying to make up for it with some of the most stringent regulations around protection devices such as RCDs and additional fuses.
They are also weirdly patriotic about their plugs. Suggesting that BS1363 was driven by necessity of poor wiring standards rather than being a gift from God to her chosen people is tantamount to standing in the street and pissing on the Union Jack.
(Source: Am British. Well, was. BS1363 plugs are very nice. But honestly, Schuko is fine as well. They're just plugs.)
Wouldn't it be easier to have several fuses at the breaker panel?
Easier, but more expensive. The driver for the ringmain system was to save money (& copper) by using less & cheaper cable in the walls than an equivalent radial layout (as used everywhere else in the world.) It has half as many fuses and uses less wire than radials, with the only downsides being risk of fire and some horrible undetectable failure modes - what's not to love?
(e.g. Undetectable failure: if there is a break in the cable in the wall (bad DIY, say,) everything still works - because although you broke the ring, the other end of each half is still connected, and all your appliances still work. So now you have two 24A radials in your walls, connected to a 32A breaker, and nothing stopping one of those cables being overloaded (if the break is nearer one end than the middle, it's practically guaranteed that the longer half is overloaded.) Horrible design.)
All of these "balkonkraftwerke", as they are called in germany, are grid bound, meaning they instantly disconnect and stop working without the grid. There is zero danger to them.