I just got paid to design and prototype an adapter for one to plug their appliance into, then into the wall. If you think your fused monsters are ugly, you should see what it takes to thermally interrupt the AC line in the case of a poor connection in the receptacle. The client wanted visible indication of overheat and positive interruption of service. They feel they will automatically sell millions of these by getting insurance compnies behind them. Imagine that there are so many old apartment buildings in the US with wiring that is literally falling apart and with aluminum wiring. For several years during the '70's, Aluminum was to code w/o any anti-ox goop when connected to copper terminals....that's scary. I also wrote a re-cert standard for residential-re-connects for the city of Homestead FL immediately after Hurricane Andrew destroyed the place back in '92, I think. Houses were lireally ripped apart - lot's of wet wiring from rain through what used to be a roof in some cases, ground water rising in others. The real need was to certify that a house was free of ground faults before re-connecting the service. During the couple of days I was given to survey the situation, I saw horrors that I could not imagine. Some brand spanking new homes had wiring done in all different colors. Others had no ground bond, others yet had connections made with black tape. The older homes were worse. It was pretty neat that there were linesmen from many different states working to get electrical service back to the city, but it was even more scary to see several of these guys drunk as skunks while doing so. My favorite was the skeleton of a rat in one panel box that had chewed through a feed wire's insulation. In any case, the older homes were a little better. It was certainly a surreal experience, like the old Max Headroom TV show. Tt's to my amazement that the entire state of Florida doesn't just burn down. And, yes, by order of law (the U.S. participates in the ISO program through a number of sanctioned agencies, and while it's pretty common knowledge that ANSI and ISO standards are being harmonized - many UL standards are being re-labeled as ANSI/UL - all products commercially sold in the us are SUPPOSED to be in compliance with ANSI/UL safety standards. There is a major effort ongoing to harmonize these standards until there can be agreement on one set, such as ISO, as if that will ever happen...It's starting to smell like international law making) we'll all be seeing the same color wires - inside devices, but I wouldn't look for much change in structure wiring any time soon. I don't recall seeing anything about GRN/YE grounds in my latest copy of the NEC...and the NFPA that publishes it isn't about to let anyone tell them what to write.... I don't know for sure, perhpas this is a good thing - today if your US product doesn't cut it according to one standard, you simply try to pass the next. As long as you comply with something, your insurance company will cover you, so who cares, burn the planet down... Too much stinking politics... Sorry for the long post...It's just a subject close to my heart (Grrrr..) Chris -----Original Message----- From: pic microcontroller discussion list [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Jon Baker Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 5:29 AM To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Subject: Re: [EE]: Newbie Q. re: electrical outlet and SSR > so long as the English plug gets ruled out at the first selection board > meeting. These horrible monster things with fuse are ...................... > (fill in your own swear words) I quite like the english plugs.. After living in the US and Australia for a couple of years and being scared to death that there were no fuses and hardly and sockets actually had grounds on them (US) let alone switches - give me the stupid chunky heavy awkward british plugs any day !! Jon -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics