What is the best style electrical outlet?

The Brits have undoubtedly the best outlets from a safety perspective, despite their size. North American outlets are garbage by basically all measures. European plugs are weirdly round, but very functional.

My two (€/100)s

The main thing that should get adopted everywhere is having fuses or breakers in the plugs themselves. That would eliminate a lot of fires caused by putting too much current through small wires.

I also like the outlets (like in the UK and probably other places) that won't unlock the mains slots until there's a ground pin in place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuko

I've used many plugs and in my opinion, the schuko plug is the one that makes the most sense.

• Reverse Polarity (can't use it the wrong way, and you can turn it in case some power adapted is in the way)

• also the symmetry makes it look more pleasing

• only 2 pins stick out (the ground is in the body, 2 pins are a reduced area of failure in case you drop it.

• very good and secure fit

I am going to argue Swiss type J.

It’s compact, safe, and easy to use.

Before anyone says UK I’m going to say they’re too bulky to be worth it. A usb charger for a UK plug is just so big and bulky that it’s not worth it. The Schuko plug falls into the same category.

If we are allowing future potential plugs I would argue for IEC 60906-1. It’s basically the same as Swiss type J but with very minor changes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60906-1

can we make a new thing? ie, i love what weve been able to do with USB-c as far as standardization... could we make a higher voltage, single plug 'thing'?

If you don't feel pain when stepping on Legos for whatever reason, the UK plug is easily the best one.

Hey did you get that idea from the coffee shop thread? Someone was asking about weird outlets shown in a picture.

My answer for the question is obviously the UK standard.

There are so many well thought out features to UK plugs and sockets there is no contest.

I just wanted to throw the AU/NZ plug into the mix since nobody is really talking about it. I don't have enough knowledge about this kind of thing to really have a take on it, but I'm interested to get an international perspective.

ANZ/NS3112

I'm always up for a bit of controversy. I like the basic ungrounded American plug (NEMA 1-15).

It has no safety features. Just about every American has shocked themselves with it once, but very few have done it twice. I like it because it's compact, and that leads to some conveniences:

• It works great in folding designs for portable power supplies. I've seen folding implementations of Europlug and even British plugs, but they're not as compact.
• It works great for ultra-compact splitters and many-outlet power strips. Yes, you can be dumb and overload these, but we have a whole lot of low-power electronics in the modern world such that it's not hard to have a dozen devices each pulling less than an Amp. Multi-port USB power supplies are starting to mitigate this a bit.
• It doesn't have shutters (by default), so it's easy to plug things in. Every plug type I've encountered with shutters takes a lot of force and sometimes binds.

The British style is the best for ELECTRICAL safety, but stepping on a plug barefoot will make you wish you carpeted your bedroom in Lego. You will vomit out your pelvis from the pain.

The European ones are overall better imho. Just because of the plugs that go in them.

Seriously I have both stepped on a British plug and been hit by a car and the car definitely did more damage, and the pain was worse in the long term. But the initial moment of impact was worse when I stepped on the plug.

I'd go UK then NZ/AUS (Type I plugs). I may put our NZ/AUS ones above the UK ones on the size difference. and of cause they should all have RCD protection

IEC C13 socket with C14 locking plugs. Already ubiquitous in data center facilities. Rated for voltages between 110 and 250, so it works for any country’s common household current.

IEC 60906-1 (Type N). It was designed to be an international standard. It has no reverse polarity and is small but secure. It comes with all the important safety features and is also compatible with Europlugs.

However, the EU has sadly recommended against switching to this plug, citing plastic waste concerns from all our current plugs. However, Type N plugs have less than half the plastic of a Schuko plug. Someone should do the math and see if it would be worth it plastic waste wise to transition to Type N. Perhaps within 10 years, the savings that come with a smaller plug outweigh the plastic waste of older plugs.

Honestly USB-C. It is getting added to electrical outlets. Super small, basically impossible to get electrocuted being low voltage DC.

Works in every country.

The smallest is the best. I don't know which one is the smallest, but I want that one.

I may be skewed by the fact its the plug of my country; but i like the type L plug (its the no 1 in the photo) mostly because its modular: you dont need to get a specific faceplate to have a certain arrangement of plugs, switches etc... You just take the brace plate off and you can rearrange the fruits in the box to your hearts content. Eg: you pass an ethernet cable and need to put a keystone in the wall; you just buy the fruit and put it in the place of a blanking plate. What i dont like is the almost total lack of shielding for the live and neutral.

L5-20 and L6-30

Nema SS2-50P

eu is good