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RCA student radically improves the UK plug | ICON MAGAZINE ONLINE

[Apologies for the fact that most of the links in this post are to Wikipedia - it’s simply the best collation of these standards in a publicly accessible format]

This looks great and all, but lets not be too quick to diss the BS1363 plug just because it’s not as thin as a Macbook Air.

It’s been a stable specification since 1947; it includes mandatory safety shuttering (unlike the German Schuko), ground continuity (not guaranteed with the CEE 7/5 plug found in France, which can be plugged into German sockets and not be earthed) and because it guarantees polarity (unlike Europlug), fused plugs will always blow on the live side.

In fact, referencing the main AC power plugs article on Wikipedia shows that the BS1363 is the only plug to be grounded, polarised and fused.

From a practical point of view, the leads generally always drape down (except on annoying wall-wart transformers), and the physical connection is very resistant to accidental removal (unlike American plugs and even data-centre cables like IEC C13)

IEC 60906-1 looks to be the darling of the standardised power world, but it’s only been adopted in Brazil, it doesn’t support fuses in-plug and it looks just as easy to pull out as the IEC 60320 connector series.

Long live the 13A plug.