Would it be handy? Maybe. Is it safer? Can't see how. Oh, and about that arcing - yeah, you don't want that happening a lot because it damages the contacts but again - that only happens when you plug in the odd thing like a popcorn popper without its own switch. Which A) you don't do a whole lot and B) ain't gonna kill you. Besides, no arcing happens at all when you plug in something which is shut off with its own switch. I just don't get it!
in the UK its mostly out of being overly safe, our plugs and sockets are already impossible to zap yerself with whilst plugging stuff in, but the switch is there so that the socket is dead during plug insertion which is arguably over the top but whatever they can be useful however! I'm an electrician and I used to do EICR's which are safety condition reports done in the UK, and when testing a circuit we put 500V DC through the cables to measure the insulation resistance, this test can kill things which are plugged in. so instead of unplugging 50 things, I need only switch the sockets off, which saves me having to reach behind things like tumble dryers where the plug would otherwise drop behind it and be a pain to reach
The only reason I use them is lighting. I have an LED strip that's plugged in the kitchen that runs the entire length of my counters. So the switch is super convenient. Nothing else makes sense to me. But hey, if it doesn't cost me anything, might as well have it - but I definitely wouldn't install it myself if one doesn't already exist
My favorite No Effort November tradition is the inevitable off-the-cuff video that always gets put out and always has a follow up video because people got annoyed
Yes, but... It only takes one device without a switch to make the outlet switch useful. There's also the times when you can't pull the plug. There's also the times when the switched device only switched one line, and it happens to be the neutral. Also, people who grew up with switched sockets, are used to switching them off. When i go on holiday I'd like to just switch off the outlets, instead i have to unplug everything and then struggle to plug everything back in again when I'm back. Most cases are just relatively rare edge cases but, when one of those cases hits, you'll wish you had a switched outlet.
@@1960acr you switch off all of your outlets when you leave for a vacation? Why? That's definitely in the category of "paranoid about electricity" that he was talking about.
I love how the last minute devolves into exasperation, cat meowing, toaster oven dinging and the culinary ware clanging. Appreciate the no effort effort!
I can just imagine how many retakes and editing it took to get it to all come out that way. Truly the work of a master. And moving the teleprompter around so it's always out of camera shot, that must take an incredible amount of time.
Australian who's been living in Canada for 10 years here. I grew up with switches on powerpoints (outlets, as you call them) and I think a big part of their perceived safety is that it was drilled into us from a young age to switch them to off if they weren't in use. Since moving to Canada I did miss them for a time, but nothing about my electrical habits actually changed. There *are* a handful of items that benefitted from having a powerpoint switch: Christmas tree lights, hot glue guns, clothing iron. And I think I remember some early hair dryers, fans, lamps, Sandwich makers, popcorn makers, Jaffle irons, and electric skillets didn't have their own switch. But most modern devices have now. I also remember being told to 'turn it off at the wall if you're not using it' for devices that drew power even when off. Tv's, VCR's, Radios, Chargers, Power adapters. Stuff with either a standby mode, or a AC to DC power converter that do draw some power even when a device isn't plugged in. TLDR; -We grew up with them so it's weird when they're not there. -It was taught from a young age that they were a key part of being safe around electronics, so it's weird when they're not there -At one time they catered for a small subset of devices, most of which now have switches on device. -Yeah, you can navigate life perfectly fine without them.
Thank you for the thorough and well considered explanation with solid examples. It seems that you are the only one in these comments providing good insight into the situation!
Also, in places when electricity fluctuates or cuts off, the switch protects the devices that have stand by current or are powered on indefinitely ( like fridges, freezers, etc.) from inrush currents, potentially damaging them.
My apartment surprised me when I found out that all the top plugs were always powered but the bottom plugs were switch controlled. It makes sense for my apartment because I have 3 overhead lights: one in my bathroom, one in my kitchen, and one in my entryway. Everything other area in my one bedroom apartment needs lamps to be illuminated. So you plug the lamps into the bottom plugs and viola you have switch controlled lighting. All the while, things like my phone charger and computer have uninterrupted power. Rather ingenious actually.
It's unusual for multiple switched outlets to be in one room - here it's usually one per room, so you can plug a lamp into it. All my bedrooms and my living room have this, though I've since added overhead lighting to all. This is a different idea to what they do in the UK, where all outlets have switches in them. Their plugs all have fuses, also.
It’s not exactly the same thing but yeah some outlets in the US are switch controlled from afar and it’s very useful. The one in Britain that he is talking about have switch’s on every outlet right next to the plug, it’s weird.
I'm Australian, my popcorn maker has a switch on it. Here are some reasons why I like having a switch on the outlet: 1. Reduced arcing. I think you made a video a while back about how the reason light switches have a decisive click is to quickly break any arc that forms. Australia is a 240V country. Sometimes I'm lazy and unplug things without toggling the switch, and at times this can pull some noticeable arcs. I've never seen an arc make it out of the socket, but they are bright and I expect cause increased wear. In theory we are supposed to turn our outlets off before plugging/unplugging things. 2. Easier to turn off than unplug in tight spaces. We have plug designs that are flat and have the cable come out the side. In particular, these are often found on power boards. These allow us to plug things in behind sofas, beside beds, and behind shelving/cabinets. In these situations there's often enough room to get your hand in to operate the switch, but not enough room to remove the plug. 3. Some appliances don't have switches. In my home, this is our Christmas lights, and our fish tank's air pump. We turn both of these off at night, and it's nice to not have to unplug them. Overall I agree that the switches provide only minor advantages, but since they're standard here already idk why we'd want to get rid of them. Sometimes they are nice to have.
Also, the arcing, if say you're unplugging a device whose plug is a bit sticky, can be quite repetitive, and that's going to cause many voltage and current spikes, which has the potential to damange the device. Especially if it's cheaply made, or is inrush-protected by PTCs (since they'll still be warm and not acting as protection anymore).
How often would you unplug a device that had a hard-to-reach plug if there was no switch on the outlet? Approximately never, right? And how often would you reach down to the hard-to-reach outlet to switch it off? Also never. Hard to reach outlets are not for things that you need to reach more than once or twice in a year
Having recently moved to a country using the British system: Those plugs and sockets sit so damn tight, I understand why you'd put in an extra switch just to avoid having to unplug them ever again :o
I'm sorry you had to live your previous life with substandard sockets 😉😁 I'm invariably horrified when I go abroad and I have to draw several amps of 230v through a plug which wobbles in a light breeze!
It's safer, quicker, easier... I genuinely still don't see the downside. The best part is, if you're against using switched sockets, you could just leave the switches in the "on" position on every socket. Everybody wins.
Another good reason you're better off leaving UK style plugs in their sockets whenever you can is that accidentally standing on a stray plug without shoes is ridiculously painful - they invariably lay prongs up. Hopefully that's not something you've experienced yet...good luck! :)
Parasitic draw would be a good topic for an episode. With energy prices going up and all the newer nicer stuff having digital displays. Also to everyone who responded how little it is a year. Why not add that up over the average 80 to 100 year lifetime also?
I already did the calculation, with our currently abnormally high Finnish electricity prices. If an electrical appliance draws 1 W while idle/standby (which would be an extremely high power draw for a standby mode, they're usually in the milliwatts), the total cost of that for a whole year would be about 2€ (about $2).
Yup, but what about the stuff with internal clocks, timers, memory settings etc, I guess they need those miniscule currents to not suck the batteries dry?
Check your local library system. Mine has power meters like the one he used in the video. I've checked one out a few times for months on end. My roommate was worried about how much it cost to hibernate or sleep a computer instead of shutting it down. It's been weeks and the computer will probably burn it's first penny of electricity sometime this week. It's been like tenths of a cent per week since I put the meter on a few weeks ago, because it's been asleep or hibernated. I used the library's power meter last year on my space heater and it's $30 a month extra in electricity to run the space heater to heat my basement bedroom with a space heater to catch up to the upstairs room temps. Love that electric blanket@! I haven't blown frost out my mouth like my mom did as a poor kid, but I do sometimes wear a stocking cap when my bedroom is in the 60's F. (like 17C. 20C with the heater cranked way up). I wear gloves, indoors, in the winter to keep my hands warm.
You've answered it right there yourself! 1. The voltage is much lower so it's less of an issue to just grab the plug and pull than a 230V outlet. 2. As you said, the USA plugs are quite easy to unplug. This is not always the case for Au/NZ & UK plugs. 3. You didn't mention this, but AU/NZ appliances often have (and all or most UK appliances) have an angled plug that requires you to properly grip the plug, not the plug and cable as the USA plugs. If I'm in a kitchen and I need to turn off waffle iron in a hurry, with potentially damp hands, I really don't want to have to get a good grip on the cable. Much easier to flick a switch.
There is another reason, especially catering to US plug sockets. If the switch is on (or non existant) you could poke something into the socket and get direct contact with live mains voltage. Even UK plugs can have this issue, as you can just press in the ground to reveal the live and neutral wires. Another thing specifically for me is that some of my appliances have silly lights on them when they are powered, even if they are not switched on at their end
As I commented on the other video, I think the reason we have switches in the UK is because our chunky plugs are less easy to whip out of the wall at a moment's notice. You have to get quite a firm grip on it around the edges (since the cable projects downwards rather than outwards specifically to discourage pulling it), and if the socket's a bit stiff and depending on the angle you're reaching from you might have to brace your fingertips against the outlet a little. It can take a couple of seconds to do, and if it _were_ an emergency situation (whatever that would be - and however unlikely) it wouldn't be as easy as it is for you in this video, particularly if for example the user has less grip strength (arthritis etc.). So the upshot is that the argument for having outlet switches in the UK _doesn't_ apply to somewhere like the US, because of the difference between the two plug types. Whether we should have these great big individually-fused plugs is another discussion, but given that we do, and that that makes them less easy to yank out of the wall, I think socket switches make sense _for these plugs._
This! Our plugs require a fair bit of force perpendicular to the wall to remove. There's no cheating by pulling at an angle. And often, furniture like TV units are pressed up close enough to the plug to make unplugging difficult. So, just reach down and hit the switch. I think @TechnologyConnextras is overthinking this. It's a convenience to help with our large plugs. Nothing more.
And of course, your plugs were designed to double as caltrops, so it's vitally important they stay plugged in, where stepping on an unplugged American plug isn't that bad :P
I’m not even from the UK, but this has always been my understanding as well, and I’ve always kind of wondered why the recessed CEE 7 plugs used in most of the rest of Europe don’t have switches on the outlet, given that it’s not unusual for those to be as hard (or harder) to unplug quickly as the chunky BS 1363 plugs used throughout the UK.
There's one thing that doesn't have a switch and likes to arc when I plug it in: my laptop charger. And I'm not afraid of the arc hurting me, but it's definitely hurting the plug (in just a month of use, it accumulated some pretty bad-looking melts -- I do plug it in and out a lot). So I got myself a plug switch that I carry with it all the time, and arcing solved! For this single case, it would be more convenient if all outlets had switches (in my part of the world they don't have; and neither are light-switched outlets a thing).
@@wubbledub In this case, I have to reach the outlet with my hand anyway, because I have to plug in the charger. Having a "remote" switch would be OK too, but we don't have those either.
Lots of appliances (particularly entertainment devices as you call out) in Australia often have some form of standby power draw when when set to "off" by whatever switches or controls are on the device. This became most notable when living off-grid on solar with battery storage, turns out standby kitchen and entertainment devices were a noticeable drain if not switched off at the plug.
If the timer was digital it'd have power draw. Or a normal usb charger. Some newspapers keep doing eco pieces for people to plug stuff out. Say in finland for example. But finland has never switches on the outlets.
American Electrician here. For the most part, it's not needed. I installed switches for my garage outlets because I have a huge bank of chargers for various things (tools, rc cars/drones, e bike, etc). Its nice to turn that stuff off without unplugging them. Especially since it's all set up in a specific way. Whoever gets my house when I die is totally going to be able to tell an electrician lived here lol.
I grew up in a household where the kids had to unplug the toaster, coffee maker, and electric kettle [mom was a tea drinker], when you were done with them (I am 40 - so boomer parents). When I asked my parents, it was because they heard stories of people's houses burning down. Of course if you try to find out who, it was one of those, "friend of a friend" type of stories. And of course, as soon as I moved out I was a rebel and left things plugged in.
I wonder if this is a hold over from unpolarized plugs on toasters where the heater elements could be live even though the unit was "off". Anything that fell or was put into the toaster could bridge to the chassis ground and cause some trouble. With unpolarized appliances, unplugging, or a switch on the receptacle are the only ways to 100% guarantee that there isn't something live exposed to the user.
My GenX wife insists on unplugging everything too. She does it because she's afraid of fires (and has OCD). This is why we've never had a nice coffee maker, because if I have to unplug it there's no point in having a fancy one with a clock and timer in it since I can't ever use it anyway (for some reason she isn't worried about the Microwave).
I recall hearing stories from my father of 1960s-70s vintage TVs with "instant on" circuitry that drew power while the TV was off to reduce the warmup time when the TV was switched on, presumably by heating the cathode or some such thing--he blamed a house fire that happened in our neighborhood on one of these, and I'm not sure if this was something he definitely knew or not. But I still never heard of anyone unplugging their TV whenever they turned it off.
Ha Ha Ha.. I love that this causes so much consternation on both sides. I think it's a perfect example of seeing benefits to your normalcy bias. I'm from Australia, and I see the benefit of having switches at the outlet, but that's because I live with it, and come across situations almost everyday where I see the benefit. However, for those who haven't lived in the same situation, they've created other work-arounds that either answer those concerns, or address the conveniences. Love your videos, and just ignore the haters.
A sandwich press is the main appliance I've found this useful for. It's used often enough that it stays on the countertop, and it doesn't have a switch.
I have the identical rice cooker to that in the video. It annoyed me enough that I took it apart and added a switch (fortunately the plug was polarized so I didn't need to replace that to avoid switching the neutral).
Ah yes - but a panini press is pretty much just a waffle iron (which Alec mentioned) with a different die. And speaking of irons, he also didn't mention the _clothes_ iron. Another thing you generally don't leave out in the open anyway, though.
The key thing here as I understand it is in the UK (as you pointed out) the plug can not be pulled out by the cord, so in an emergency situation a switch is quicker. I also have found it very useful to switch a device on and then immediately off again when testing something.
Most USA appliances say to never pull from the cord either. Also for those hard to reach areas being able to turn off the outlet while you blindly feel the plug and receptacle… switched outlets = one more convenience option.
@@AmKoz I think his first point is more so about the design of the plug. For US plugs, the cord comes out from the centre of the plug, parallel to the prongs. This makes it easy to yank it out of the wall quickly. For UK plugs, the cord comes out from the bottom of the plug, perpendicular to the prongs. Pulling it out might still be possible, but it'd take a lot more force.
@@Rats136 _Some_ North American plugs are straight, but definitely not all. Right angle plugs are extremely common, particularly on high power appliances but also most plugs with inbuilt transformers.
@@Rats136 If you have a nice long cord/cable, you can pull it moderately tight, then flick it near the appliance and see a wave of cable movement travel towards the receptacle, and see the plug come flying out. Quite amazing how a plug which seems almost un-removable one minute can come out that easily the next. VERY much NOT recommended.
I have a wall switch right by the door in my bedroom, to an outlet that's under my bed. Your recent video on wall switches made me finally move my lamp from the outlet on the other side of the room (that I would have to stumble through said room to turn on/off) to the outlet by my bed. The lamp is still on the other side of my room, but now I'm turning it on and off from switch.
I'm so, so, so, so verry sorry nobody ever explained the purpose of that switched outlet to you when you were younger. Un-Fucking the switched outlet that had been disconnected was literally the first repair we requested in our current rental. There is so much "handywork" that was done wrong in this place, but getting that lamp switch working again was priority number 1. I said I was on "team lamp switch" on the other video, and I fucking mean it. There's ALLLLLLLLL sorts of dumb illegal shit my landlord did to this house, but getting that electric switch fixed was the first priority.
I have had popcorn poppers and waffle irons with power switches. And higher end rice cookers also have switches/digital controls. I have had some strange parasitic draws from kitchen appliances. The one that comes to mind is a bread machine that had a crazy draw while literally doing nothing.
As a kid in the UK I remember being told in school and PSA's about turning off sockets before bed and if you went out because of fire. So it's probably ingrained. There was also a period before my time when PSA's were put out to switch stuff off to conserve power. I know my Mum is always going on about that. As far as she is concerned something plugged in and on at the wall is using some, no matter how little, amount of power.
Also from the UK. Until a few years ago, the standby power consumption argument was totally legit - some devices really did slurp the power even in standby mode. More recent EU directives (2014 I think?) require devices now to draw
Iain, I learnt fairly early on to only buy extension leads without little neon lights otherwise mum would go round constantly turning the ruddy things off. Chris, agreed, but it's still a bit eye opening to go round and measure the actual power being drawn by appliances you leave on - including some which shouldn't really be drawing anything much.
@@MinotaurUK I don't mean in Standby I mean like off off. Back in the days before Standby was even a thing. Like the toaster in the video. If it's off there is no circuit so no power draw.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video. And the only single time I have ever wished we had switches on our outlets was indeed with an air popcorn popper. The cord had gotten so hot that when I grabbed the molded on plug to disconnect it, the softened plug simply slid down the wires. A dangerous situation to be sure, but more of an argument for a switch on the device than a switch on the outlet, as reaching to the outlet to turn it off still puts you dangerously close to the hazardous wire. I resolved the problem by bodily yanking the popper itself away from the wall, causing the copper wire itself to pull out of the outlet, and then cutting the cord off and depositing both components of the popper in the trash where it belonged. Switched outlets are a convenience, but I see a switch on the device as being the safer and more convenient option.
I had that happen with a toaster, and I wasn't going anywhere near that burning cord. Ran down the basement and flipped the main breaker. The toaster cord is still arcing and burning away. Also the lights are still on in the house. Went back down the basement and flipped off every circuit since they were unlabeled. That actually worked. The breakers in that house were not reliable, I did replace the main breaker though. Probably should have replaced the whole panel, but it was Dad's house and he wasn't spending the money.
The only purpose I see for switched receptacles is for circumstances where you want to avoid phantom power use, such as with newer electronics, chargers, etc. The switch makes it easier to turn these devices completely off since you don't have to unplug them and re-plug them in. However, in North America we can easily get this functionality by using either a power bar or surge protector. And honestly when it comes to devices that would use phantom power in the first place, having them on a surge protector is the right move.
@@HesderOleh Same in the UK, although I generally buy the ones with switches. If I have a few items plugged in to a multi-way block, I prefer to leave them plugged in but switched off rather than unplugged and trailing across the floor.
Certainly in the UK, the point of the switch on the socket was to allow the plug to be inserted into a "dead" socket. Before sleeved pins were a thing, to ensure you didn't have the risk of live pins that could be accessed while the plug was inserted, you always ensured the switch was off while plugging in or unplugging the device. Yes, these days there is no need for them, as sleeved pins (certainly in the UK) is the normal, and gfci/rcd units are the norm too, but we are used to them, so we keep them. It's completely automatic to switch off before unplugging and plug in "dead" and then switch on. It's safe. And yes, the UK has the safest electrical system in the world. We like to keep it that way.
About the safest system: Isn't it that you run a ring with 32A and it has to be a ring to handle the full load? Isn't it that if the ring is disconnected somewhere, it goes undetected and you could potentially overload the wires in the wall and cause a house fire?
I think plug shape is a big aspect wrt UK/Type-G plugs. The fact that it comes out at an immediate downward right-angle and has an otherwise very flush profile with the wall, it makes it very common to have thing pushed really far back in front of the socket making a switch way easier than 'just unplugging' whatever appliance it is.
I think this is the main reason to have them, in South Africa we have type M which also isn't as easy to pull out as the US plugs seem to be because the outlet grips the pins pretty tightly and the wire comes out at a right angle
@@WoodByWright more complex electronics that have AC/DC converters and/or anything with a standby mode will naturally draw power when not in use so turning them off can save money
For those appliances that don't have a power switch, I prefer to just have an unswitched outlet and have to plug in and remove the cable manually. It gives a much better visual on whether it's powered on or not, and you also are not at risk of accidentally turning on your rice cooker, grill or whatever by flipping the switch when you bump something against it.
UK plugs can actually be difficult to remove, it's part of the reason they introduced the shrouded power pins, people would wrap their fingers around the back to get a better grip. They make plugs with a finger loop to help people with restricted hand strength, or you can buy stick on loops. I have many appliances running on multiway extension cords, you know, the ones with a fuse in the plug with an appropriate rating for the cable. I use the outlet switch to turn off all the loads at once.
UK plugs have a lot going against them. Ungainly, difficult to plug in and remove, do not fit in places nearly all other types fit in, can be stepped on in a rather painful way, are far larger than necessary, no one besides the islands use them, and I could go on. However, they do have a great big fuse in them which hopefully will protect you in the event you are using very old outlets or breakers like the 1980's vintage in the home my parents own. But in typical UK fashion, they've even made it difficult to tell if the fuse is good as it is opaque. I suspect whomever were on this design team hated everyone in the UK, but wanted them to at least not be electrocuted by ancient appliances and electrical wiring.
I could see it being mildly useful for the rice cooker. I keep mine on the counter. But I also wouldn't be surprised to find that folks who make rice enough to leave them on the counter, also make rice enough to want a slightly fancier model (which are still dirt cheap)
Even the "expensive" rice cookers are still cheaper than the next more expensive appliance by quite a margin. And those DO have dedicated on/off switches.
This rice cooker has an on off switch. Asian-style rice cookers sometimes have no power switch, because they have a handle and automatic cord winding. Living spaces are so small all their customers unplug and put away the rice cooker between uses. It's a non issue. I have one of these. Vampire loads - yeah use a "real" switch. Having your whole entertainment center on a switch means you can kill vampire loads, or if you're worried about a brownout, click, disconnected. Beautiful. It's great.
@@alliejr But in Asian-American households it's common for them to be either cooking, warming, or sitting on the counter still plugged in just like every other American appliance. I have a Tiger (Japanese-made) rice cooker and it's designed to be left plugged in. It has a delay timer so you can set the exact time you want the rice to be ready. I will say that unlike most American appliances it has a battery backup for the clock and would tolerate being regularly unplugged, but there's no real reason to, it draws basically just enough power to keep the LCD on.
Just imagine Alec on a trip, staying at an AirBnB only to discover that there's a switch on the wall which-when flipped-sends power to the electrical outlets on the back wall of the kitchen, each of which has its own UK-style built-in switch...
@@ilajoie3 I bet the house probably has a relay you can switch off too. And a transformer of the street that can shut off. And a power plant somewhere that needs to be connected. Insane
I lived in the ME where we use the British switched outlets for half my life, and the other half in Europe without switched outlets, and TBH, I do miss the switched outlets. For most appliances, it is indeed like you say, they have integrated on-off switches, but for some, it adds some piece of mind. For things like an iron, a switch provides a very easy way to make sure it's turned off regardless of setting. I can leave my iron on the board, set to the temperature I use to do my shirts, and not have to worry about whether it's on/off or whether I left it on the cloth part or the iron stand part. Most accidents happen due to human error, and the lower the mental effort, the less chance of an accident due to mental lapse. Another would be a computer or laptop, where shutting down the device doesn't turn off the power supply. The switch itself adds a few pennies/cents to the cost of the outlet. If you don't need it, you don't have to use it. It's really about having the option to use it if you want to.
For microwaves I like the switch too - mine doesn't seem to be able to switch off whilst plugged in, just goes into standby. And as the socket is in an awkward spot to unplug and plug in the plug, a switch is really handy. A little anecdotal, but there we are.
@@awesomestuff9715 Never occurred to me to use the microwave clock, oven is right next to it and the unsatisfaction of 2 clocks showing slightly different times is too much to bear 😂
When I used to be an electrician, I had to wire up some apartment blocks where you could switch off all outlets in the kitchen. Turns out it was elderly housing and they needed one single switch that was guaranteed to turn everything off in the kitchen.
Brit who now lives in the US. We were brought up and taught that we have switches on plugs, so it’s weird not to see it. We are currently having energy prices increasing 400%+ so reducing vampire loads has become steadily more mentioned by ‘money saving’ shows on TV and in consumer media. I had never seen as many remote control and timer receptacles until I went to Home Depot at Xmas, so culturally turning off the Christmas lights before night time is normal. We iron our clothes, they don’t have switches on them (well they have a dial but maybe it’s just me but I switch it off at the wall). When we went on holiday for more than a few days we’d turn off all the plugs of things with heating elements to reduce risk (again fear driven by media reports). All in all to say - we were brought up to culturally turn stuff off. Do I do it now in the US, nope. Most stuff is designed to not switch and most vampire loads are for a reason.
ah yes, the 1 watt vampire load will explode your electric bill. god forbid youre gonna have to pay a dime extra when the general electric prices are going 400%. maybe its to keep you distracted from the real problem which is them increasing prices just from fear instead of actual cost of energy production
You can buy outlets with switches in N. America, but they're considered specialty items and not too popular. They look like a regular duplex outlet, but with a switch in one half and a single outlet in the other. You may have seen a bin full of them at Home Depot. They also sell duplex switches that fit a regular outlet box, like an outlet, but two switches instead.
I've lived in the UK all my life and the only thing the switched plug sockets have ever been told to me it's useful for (aside from safety which is debatable) is for like you mentioned, thing that drain a small amount of power at all times, and as you say, it's inconvenient to do it every time you use it, but if you're going on holiday for 2+ weeks it's not that big a deal to turn certain things off at the plug to save yourself some money while you're away and not using it anyway. Yes I see you could just unplug, but especially for hard to reach plugs, a switch is easier to press with a finger shoved down the back of a unit than moving the unit entirely.
This is it for me. I grew up in the noughties and there was still lots of reminders to turn the TV with the button on the TV rather than putting it to standby on the remote to not waste electricity. It's also useful working on computers. Just plug the PC in but turn off the switch, you've got a path to ground on the PSU itself, just keep yourself grounded to the PSU to avoid static discharge. Especially on extension leads for things like Christmas decorations (especially pre-RF remote switches) you could leave it all plugged in because it's a pain to plug it all in manually each time, when instead you flip 1 switch and it's all on. But ultimately it comes down to reducing energy usage from my era growing up, which at the time likely came from the frugal attitude of treating resources as scarce not abundant during rationing, and these days as just doing a few small things to lower energy usage to help the environment. I remember the ads about how recycling one 330ml drink can can power a TV for however long or whatever.
@@itskdog It seems pointless to me because power plants are running at the same speed all the time regardless. Only if there's a significant load will the governing systems introduce more steam/water/fuel to the engine or turbine.
In Ireland (we use UK plugs), if you yank on the wire it won't just come out of the socket. You need to pull on the handy grip on both sides of the plug so you don't accidentally unplug something by stepping on a wire or moving a chair, so in an emergency **for our plug design specifically** a switch is a necessity in an emergency and is much faster to press than fiddling with the grips on the side of the plug. US plugs practically fall out of the socket so pulling the plug is probably just as easy if not easier to do. Also about the arcing, my laptop charger doesn't come with its own switch, and neither do most appliances I can think of (fridge, PC, printer, scanner, copier, DVD player, TV, landline phone) Either way, ignoring various unlikely hypothetical scenarios, the reason a switch on the outlet is that handy for us is probably because unplugging devices is more difficult for us than for you due to the flat plug design and large amount of friction and contact points between the plug and the receptacle, which makes it way more difficult to unplug a device than to simply flick a switch. Also many devices (notably the cable TV box, and other things that attach to your television) use a lot of power on standby so flipping the switch leads to great energy savings
Im gonna add to your comment as an australian with our funny frowning plugs. Our plugs are like the us plugs being we can just yank them out of the wall by the chord, in most cases, the flat plugs that go vertically flat against the wall make this less effective but our standard plugs can just be pulled out. And here we have switches on our power points so while we can still unplug with yanking the chord in an emergency we can also just flick the switch to disconnect power to the socket then unplug the device preventing a fire starting at the socket in the event the problem is socket side rather than with the appliance But the exact reason we have them im not sure since half the time we dont turn off the outlet if something is plugged in and if we do its because we are unplugging the device anyway so half of us just dont turn the socket off anyway Half of us turn them off when bot in use and the rest dont and the emergency case we can just yank most of the time though give our arid climate its nice to know the spark wont light up the inside of the wall if its hot and dry enough and gives that extra layer of safety due to it being pretty easy to start a raging fire here But still seems the switch is more optional here than required but we still got them
There are definitely some devices that don't have power switches on them in the UK that normally would in the U.S., including computers! For example, neither the Sinclair ZX81 nor the Sinclair ZX Spectrum have power switches -- fine in the UK where everyone has switched outlets, but rather inconvenient when the ZX81 was sold here in the States as the Timex-Sinclair 1000. But when the Spectrum was heavily modified for the U.S. market to try to make it more competitive with machines like the C64 and Atari 800XL, and sold here as the Timex-Sinclair 2068, they did add a power switch.
Even these days, many cheaper PC PSUs don't come with power switches, especially those in SFF office PCs. These things are rated 100V-240V, so I can't imagine they are unique to the UK/Australian market. I assume if you look at the back of some modern Dell Optiplexes, HP Slims, etc, in the U.S. you won't find switches on them either.
@@mclamby At least in the U.S., the power supply shipped with Timex/Sinclair computers did not have its own power switch. The only way to turn it off was to unplug it or use a switched power source.
@@vwestlife makes you wonder if it was penny pinching or a complete oversight. makes no difference if your flicking a switch or pulling a plug , it gets tedious crawling under a deck or behind a TV to reach the socket every time you want to reboot.
I’m from the UK. I always assumed the main point of the switch was for safety when plugging in or out. Generally, people in the UK will switch a socket off before unplugging something. Whether this is pointless or not, I don’t know (after all, UK sockets are extremely safe already). My main use of the switch is for when something crashes - like the printer or set top TV box. It is so easy to switch on and off at the socket to get the item to reboot.
@@JessmanChicken86 On a lot of devices, the power button is not actually a power button, but a standby button. If my scanner crashes (which it does a lot, I need to replace it) there ain't nothing the standby button can do. Gotta turn it off at the wall.
@@AgentOrange96 Most people have their router plugged into a power strip for the surge suppression, and the switch on it is easier to reach than the wall outlet.
fancy rice cookers have on/off switches as well, it's just the cheap ones that don't. which makes sense like you said, if you got a cheap rice cooker chances are you don't use it often enough to keep it on the counter anyway. as where a fancy one you likely cook rice very often and so you would keep it on the counter plugged in.
There are lots of non-emergency reasons to want to turn things off at the wall. Power tools on my workbench with easy to bump switches I don't want turning on by accident when I knock things around on my bench, kitchen appliances when I want to stick my hand inside them to clean them, and so on. It's reassuring to flick an appliance switch on and off a few times and know for sure that the supply to it is dead. A counterpoint is cheap multi-outlet "powerboards" sold in Australia (similar to multi-outlet extension cords in the USA, but running at 240V avoids the problem of too many amps). These often DON'T have switches on their outlets. But they're so cheaply made that it often takes a few tries to get the plug to slot into the internal socket contacts properly, and if I don't turn off the whole power board at the wall I often hear the socket arcing inside as I try to repeatedly jam the blades of the plug into the socket so they go in properly.
Hello! UK here. I’m not unhappy with your take on them but I like the switches. A socket switch has actually saved my a55 once when I was using an eBay appliance that was supplied with a very cheap and nasty Chinese adapter. It was a poor fit and was tight in the socket. The plastic literally disintegrated in my hand as I went to unplug it and I was left with a handful of wires and pins that would have been live had it not been for the switch. This is unusual as most plugs here are tough but I was glad of the switch on that day. Finally, to answer your question, most of our appliances have switches on them too. We love a switch 😊 Keep up the great videos, I’ve been enjoying them for years now and I’m always excited to see one pop up!
@@travcollier No, they didn’t teach it and I’m coming up on 50. I was man of the house from 7 though so I asked a neighbour to show me. He taught me slowly and carefully and I learnt well. First solder iron at 8 though so I was odd 😬
As an Australian who has lived in the US for about 10 years, I have a few points about using switches on outlets. For convenience I have arranged them into an ordered list. 1. Switch off = unplug but quicker/easier. If there is any situation where you would unplug a device and leave the plug next to the outlet, that is a situation that would be easier with a switch. Such as your rice cooker if you used it a lot and wanted to leave it on the counter. 2. Off switch designed correctly/ safely. Most devices have an off switch on them. However, this relies on each product individually doing this correctly and safely. As you have shown, some devices don't have them. And I imagine there is also variability about how well they are designed even when they do have them. One example would be like the old toaster you showed that if you plugged in backwards would switch the neutral instead of the line voltage, so the heating element of the toaster was connected directly to 120V. Some devices now may do something similar, even with the correct polarity. But you don't need to worry about each individual device if you know it's not getting power in the first place. 3. Device may be broken. Also about switching on the device. You assume the device and off switch for it are not broken, which may not be the case. Some badly made products would be a lot more likely to break than your outlet switch, so it's safer to just not supply any power. 4. Less power usage. (Vampire loads) Many devices still consume power in standby mode and plugged in. TVs, monitors, computers, etc. So shutting it off may be slightly more energy efficient, without needing to unplug it. 5. Kid safety. A switched outlet adds another layer of protection for any children who might try to shove a fork in an outlet. 6. American plugs are loose. It's even easier to use a switch compared to unplugging in other countries. Some American plugs I have seen fall out if you look at them the wrong way, so I could see how it's easier to plug and unplug outlets in the US. On the other hand, perhaps frequent plugging/unplugging leads to loosened outlets, idk. 7. Reduce the penny challenge. It would also reduce the chance of accidently touching the two partially exposed prongs of the plug when putting it in the outlet. If you are in the habit of shutting off the switch before unplugging it (as people who live in countries with outlet switches usually are) then this is less of an issue. Still an issue, but mitigating risk is still a good thing. 8. Arcing. Now this is more speculation as I am not sure of the specifics. You mention unplugging the plug when it has current damages the outlet pins. I am curious whether there is less damage if you shut off a switch while there is current versus unplugging. From my experience unplugging 240V in America, there seems to be less damage to the plug if I shut off the breaker first, and then unplug it, and I have seem some pretty bad arcing and burnt pins without doing that. 9. Surge protection? I also suspect there may be additional surge protection for fragile devices with a switch. Like if you switch off the outlet to your PC when not in use, it would reduce the chance of it getting fried. Again, I am not certain if the outlet switch would completely protect it (compared to fully unplugging it) but I think it would at least help for some range of power surges. Overall I realize a lot of the these points could be replaced with "unplugging it" instead of "switching it off", but the biggest point there is that flipping a switch is easier than unplugging something. That's why we use a light switch and not a light plug. I see outlet switches as a net positive, and if they were implemented it would not even reduce compatibility with plugs and appliances, so I don't see much of a reason not to use them in new constructions.
The best part? If you're someone who's completely anti-switch and still unplugs the devices, the switch isn't stopping you!! Why take away an option people clearly want and use, when that option is easily ignoreable by the people who don't want it?
re: 8. Arcing: Yes, a switch is designed to open or close the circuit as quick as possible (no matter how slow you actuate the switch), to reduce arcing. Switching off the outlet would mean there's 0 arcing on the plug/socket, and the arcing would be limited to the switch contacts, which are designed to handle it - largely by moving as fast as possible, but also having a wide surface area make contact at the same time.
From a safety perspective, devices shouldn’t have exposed voltage under any circumstance, so I can’t really see the safety benefit of a switch, re: polarity of AC plugs or the like. If there’s no ground pin protecting the device’s (metallic) casing, the device is supposed to be double insulated, such that there is NO a chance of user contact with anything at mains potential. Everything propping up an argument with “well sometimes things are broken or designed incorrectly” strikes me as a synonym for “sometimes people use things that are a death trap” and I don’t see “because of the switch, only _sometimes_ are they a death trap” as more comforting. We have laws to prevent consumer products from requiring preventative measures to keep from killing people. Re: Convenience, again, we just don’t do that. There are things in my house that stay plugged in always, and things that are put away when not in use. Very rarely anything between. I’ve given this thought, and it’s just not a feature I miss having. I don’t think I would use it, unless trained to use it for ... reasons ... that clearly don’t apply given the things I use and the ways I use them. Arcing: Still happens. Just now it’s slowly destroying the switch, so you eventually have to replace your outlet. Regardless how good the switch is at switching, unless it’s a solid state switch with zero-crossing detection, it’s being pitted every time it has to break a live circuit. My advice? Don’t do that. :-) Vampire loads. Yep. Though, the likelihood of me taking the time to individually power off my sleeping devices to save 4W is pretty slim. Unless I’m going to be gone for weeks at a time, in which case it’s marginally less slim. And for that, the devices in question are probably on a power strip anyway. With a switch. So, I’m with Alec on this one. I don’t mind that part of the world has them, and uses them (apparently.) But I don’t get it either. It seems more likely to be another part to fail or something that will get accidentally hit with an errant toe or knuckle. Their loss is rarely noticed, and when it is, it’s cured by a $20 power strip that I probably needed anyway, because who only has two things to plug in at any given outlet??
@@nickwallette6201 1st and 2nd paragraphs: I don't see how this strawman of an argument even backs up your claim. "Supposed" and "shouldn't" aren't a good alternative to "can't" and "won't." Even if these straw-people you're arguing against exist and _do_ use "deathtrap" devices, it's still safer _with_ a switch, and laws won't magically save people from that just because there... isn't a switch on the socket? What a mangled sentiment. That isn't even the main reason; convenience is. Slightly more saftey is just a cool side benefit. 3rd paragraph: "I don't have room in my routine for switched sockets and therefore nobody could ever need one" is such a baffling fallacy, I don't know where to start; so I won't. If all sockets were switched and you were still adament about not using them... then just leave all of the switched sockets set to "on"??? Easy peasy. 4th paragraph: Weird how there _isn't_ an epidemic of switched sockets failing due to arcing all across the parts of the world that use them. Switches are _designed_ to do this singular task quickly and reliably a whole crapton of times; how is that better than slowly dragging the plug in and out whenever you want something turned off? It isn't, it's worse. Plus, Ameriplugs are much skinnier and flimsier (and more dangerous, and less repairable, and less sturdy, and... I could go on.) and so the added wear of dragging them in and out of sockets is doing them no favours, especially compared to chad Britplugs with their thicc prongs, insulation and 3-prong design (triangles are stronk). 5th paragraph: Same as paragraph 3, except even sillier because it just lends more credit to the have-switches side of the argument, where vampire loads are only on when you need them in exchange for a marginal effort of reaching for a switch. Are Americans really that lazy? 6th paragraph: Funny how that 'accidental switch-off' never happens. Like, actually never. It's physically easier to rip a terrible Ameriplug out of the wall than to (somehow accidentally?) switch a socket (what, do you just sit on the floor near sockets all day?) If you don't like switches, then allow switches to be standard, and then just don't use them. I thought Yanks were all about freedom of choice; why take that choice away from us Switch-chads?
@@caramelldansen2204 OK, first... calm down, man. Nobody's taking away your switches. I even said as much in the closing of my argument -- I don't mind they exist, I just don't see the point. Nobody's forcing me to have them, and nobody's forcing you not to. The way I see it is this: Alec: "Here's an outlet in America." Other Countries: "You have no switch on there! That is incorrect!" Alec: "Why?" Other Countries: "Because! Convenience! Safety! Fealty to the queen! Protection from vAMpIrEs!" Alec: "Not really an issue here." Other Countries: "HERETIC!" Alec: "REALLY, guys?" Me: "Yeah, I don't get it either." You say the primary reason is convenience, not safety, but the OP's (well thought-out) arguments listed point numbers 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 as safety concerns. #1 was convenience, and #4 was reduction of waste. So, there are all these supposed safety benefits, that I think boil down to: If you're using a device that is so janky that you find the inclusion of a switch to be beneficial, you shouldn't be using that device at all, and US consumer safety laws probably prohibit the sale of that appliance anyway. Yes, it still happens that they show up -- particularly if you order that kind of garbage online from a place that is willing to fake the safety certification logos. There are a few points in there re: safety that aren't the fault of widow-maker appliances, like #5, Kid Safety, and #7 The Penny Challenge. That's a reasonable point, although I would argue that a kid curious enough to start putting things into outlets is going to fiddle with the switch, too. We've made it obligatory to use child-safety shutters, which are dreadfully annoying, but probably for the best. The question of arcing is probably a moot point either way, TBH. By the time the switch wears out on a Euro or Aussie outlet, it's probably time to replace the whole outlet anyway. I'll grant that. But, I'm also going to push back on the "it saves those poor plugs from damage!" argument, because I have never... not once... ever... replaced a plug due to arcing damage. It's just not a real issue. There's in-rush current for some switching PSUs, but that's never been enough to damage a plug, IME. Not even close. REALLY high-current stuff, where damage is likely, is almost certainly NOT MEANT to plug/unplug while under load. The device will almost certainly have some means of removing its own load which negates the need for external switching. Everyone has their own threshold for vampire loads. For me, the devices that consume power while "off" are doing so for a reason -- usually, to be remote-controlled, or to act on some event that happens periodically. Generally, I want those things to continue being available, so I'm not going to disconnect them (by switch or other means) unless I'm not going to use them for a very long time -- which is hardly ever the case. I don't love the aggregate waste of standby power, but I intend to counter that by augmenting my grid power with solar. That energy was just going to bounce off the earth near me and turn into heat anyway, I might as well convert it to heat via some useful function instead. Finally, enough with the nationalist BS, OK? I mean just as a general rule. "You Americans" this and "Yanks" that. Bah. The whole of UK is just East America anyway. (Or vice versa, if you just cannot stomach the idea of being in someone else's shadow, even only for the sake of an analogy.) The two are so entirely identical it's almost a farce. Yes, American plugs are not designed that well. It's legacy, and it never changed, and OH WELL. It could definitely be better, but it gets the job done. When an outlet is so wrecked that things fall out of it, that outlet has served its useful life and needs to be replaced. The Brit plug, which would stay seated in that situation, is doing so on account of being a tripod. But if the contacts were so worn out that it couldn't hold its own weight, it would STILL be a fire hazard due to poor contact. So look at it this way: The US plug is doing you a favor by telling you, "I need to be replaced, because my contact resistance is through the roof right now. Therefore, I spit your plug back at you. P-TUH!" A healthy outlet will grip that plug just fine, even if it's a 5lb linear supply with a mains-frequency transformer in a wall-wart package. It isn't going anywhere. And it ought not to for a good 20-30 years, unless you've exceeded its cycle count first by needlessly unplugging every appliance you're not actively using.
Many devices do actually have a bright, backlit lcd screen or at least some indicator led that's not only a vampire load but also just really annoying in the dark. And my induction hotplate has been accidentally bumped on a few times recently which is annoying, although I didn't install a switch about it or anything. I might do that so I can plug lights into that outlet and switch them, though.
The solution there, at least in regards to the backlit LCD screen, is to simply have it timeout and shut off. It's not really that difficult to implement. Beyond that, the only thing that can really benefit from being disconnected in terms of vampire loads is maybe your microwave or stove oven, but then you have to deal with a blinking screen because it was reset, at least on my oven, and you also have to deal with incorrect time too and constantly resetting it back to the correct time.
Brit here; think a drawback of our socket and plug design does make it harder to plug in and unplug devices from the socket, so switch does make it easier for things without a switch. Especially when sockets are often behind furniture in our tiny houses. But you're right, I can't think of many things do that for nowadays, except timely connextra - Christmas lights
if you watched the original video, he actually has a lot of praise for switched outlets where the switch is *away* from the outlet (as would be useful for the cases you described). This is specifically for switches that are ON the outlet.
@@antonliakhovitch8306 Even more so with british plugs, you *dont* want to just leave those things unplugged, and having the ability to switch the plug off lets you leave the plug in the wall, where the plug isnt a G#d(*&n caltrop just waiting to send you to the hospital, and still not have power going to it without having to inspect and verify every single device that enters your home for quality and safety, (also keep in mind, a LOT of people dont have the foggiest idea of how power works) The way I see it is the switched outlet is a peace of mind feature, much easier to trust the one plug, rather than the 100someodd things that might go into that plug over its lifetime
He makes the point in the video about phantom loads, and then says 'but they are in difficult to access areas' - which is EXACTLY why switches are beneficial! It may not be easy to reach behind and switch it off/on, but its FAR easier than having to reach behind and then exert enough levearge to pull it out the wall. Things get worse when you want to plug it back in and the plug is now on the floor out of reach!
A lot of devices nowadays have internal "power bricks". Printers are a good example. These are always drawing power because the on/off switch isn't really a "power" switch. USB chargers are another thing that are always on as long as they are plugged in, even if they are not in use. The switch on the receptacle is great for all these types of things.
@@EndOfLineTech Oh no! $2 x 10 appliances per household x 130,000,000 households only equals $2,600,000,000 worth of wasted energy per month in the US alone!
After hollering at the video for the first 4:39, Alec finally gets to what I was thinking of. VAMPIRE LOADS. So I put those on a powerstrip that is more convenient to access than the receptacle itself, or I put them on a... SWITCHED OUTLET!
@@hayuseen6683 I usually find that the electrical socket''s switches are easier to get at than those on a power strip... but that's because the sockets here are positioned with the assumption that you'll want to get at the switch, where as the powerstrips always seem to end up awkwardly behind or under things because, well, that's how long the cords were (or weren't).
Spending a year with UK plugs made me appreciate them a lot. The plugs are flat/flush with the wall and can go behind things like couches and wardrobes w/o issue. Having nice sturdy switches on the outlets with red (ON) indicators was less fiddly than in America where I need to unplug or search for switches along the length of cord. Who wants to fiddle with a cord? The consistency, uniformity, and instantaneousness of the switches is nice and I found myself using them a lot. That isn't to say you can't 'make it work' with American plugs. I just think the preference for these outlet switches doesn't make sense until you experience it first hand.
US midwest here. I have two outlets with switches directly on them. They are switched NOT to the outlets they are built into but INSTEAD control two outside outlets so I can turn holiday lights on and off from inside. 🎉😊
Once you’ve stepped on a UK plug on the floor of dark room in the middle of the night you’ll get it! :-D In all seriousness, there aren’t many scenarios in which I’ve found switched sockets to be necessary, but it’s nice to have when you do need it and it doesn’t really get in the way when you don’t.
@@shabba182 In America, we *also* have right-angle plugs. More common to find them on good power strips, or appliance-rated extension cords. Stepping on one of _those_ will ruin your day. Not trying to downplay the potential pain of stepping on a UK plug, never had the misfortune myself, but I think it's safe to say that all right-angle plugs have a tendency to be evil when they're left on the floor.
In the UK we sleeve the live pins on our plugs and have the contacts in the socket set back, so the pins can't be touched when they're in contact with the live parts of the socket. But sockets featuring switches predates this, so people being taught that you plug in before switching on would've reduced risk of shock once upon a time. I'd imagine they just stayed part of the standard because people don't usually like it when features they may find useful get taken away, I'm still bitter that my phone lacks a headphone jack. It is a feature that I have found useful of some occasions, it's good for shutting off devices with an obnoxiously bright displays, I also used to switch off certain things that were plugged in overnight when my dog was a puppy in case she went on a late night chew. Sure, I could just unplug things to isolate them, but in the UK if you leave your plugs laying around, your foot will pay the price for it.
Yeah, as an Aussie kid born in the 80s, it was drilled into us to switch off before unplugging / plugging in. There's not only the risk of arcing, but we used to have the same issue with inadvertently touching the contacts on the plug during insertion (before partial insulated contacts were required by law). Also, the switch is required under most circumstances in our electrical standard (exception is for hidden sockets like downlights, etc).
It's always good to have redundancy to kill power in my opinion. In the real world accidents happen. There can be water leaks, pets poking around, toddlers poking around, your hands could be slightly wet, etc. Yes a switch may be pointless to some people but having it really doesn't get in your way, if you hate them just leave them on and ignore them lol
@@unitedstatessc What are you even talking about? We have circuit breakers, guns and no covid camps in Malta too lol. In fact we were the first country in Europe to scrap the pandemic measures completely almost a year ago and had the loosest restrictions during 🤷♂
If you unplug the device when the device is turned on, then there will be a spark from the plug to the outlet. If you switch it off at the outlet first, there won't be any arcing. So basically, trusting the device is off before unplugging is not perfect. You must assume that the circuit is closed when unplugging.
Switches are another SPF. Having a switch on each outlet is a good way to add more surprise failures over time. Switches also arc, so all you're doing is moving the arc causing failures from one place to another if you turn your outlet off when plugging/unplugging. The contacts of the outlet will probably outlive the switch.
@@LokiScarletWasHere In all my 26 years I've never seen a switch or a plug fail tbh it's pretty unheard of in general unless you literally take a hammer or a blowtorch to it. Almost all sockets in our house were installed back in the 70s and the only one we replaced was one that was last year because the outer plastic casing failed
If you really want a switched socket in North America, you can install a combination device (half switch half socket). In the case of "vampire" loads (such as at a home entertainment center) you can plug the devices into a power bar, which has a switch on it.
Also, when it comes to modern "somewhat" smart electronics, like TV sets, or any streaming devices or for example your network router, there is no point in switching them of completely if they are used somewhat regularly. The take ages to boot, and with some devices, over time, you may even cause harm to them. And powering down your inernet connection these days, ... do I really have to continue? that would render half of the smart stuff useless until internet is back up again. Otherwise, Instead of having a switch at the outlet, I could understand if they put the switch in the plug, for whatever reason. Actually, I am just thinking of the switches and sockets we use here in Germany. I think you can get switched sockets, but those usually are like outdoor wall mount (inside switches and sockets usually are in the wall not in a case on the wall) socket and switch combinations. And for outdoor applications, I actually may see some use for those. but then, those are more or less just a switch and a socket in one box. so you can build something like that, but with our regular form factor (square somewhere around 70 mm) those would look weird. Those combinations usually are used where one is the light switch and the other is an independent socket right next to it, for conveniently plugging in a vacuum (or in a basement, as all outlets and switches have to be at a certain hight in case of some flooding.) I tried to find a socket with an integrated switch, but I couldnot find any from you regular brands. I found some that looked like it, but actually they were just a separate switch and socket in a more compact housing, with the switch beeing rated at 10 A, while the socket is 16 A (peak). There are however, sort of adaptor plugs which plug into the socket, have a switch, and a socket. But those are to be used with caution, as they often skimp on wires and they cannot handle the full possible load.
I've thought about installing some of those light switch on top outlet on the bottom things in a two gang box and wiring each outlet to it's respective switch.
They even have "power bars" with a control outlet that shuts the whole bar off when the device goes into low power mode. You can set the shut off point with a rotary switch.
I think the main thing for the UK is that the plugs do take a fair amount of force to unplug, so it can be easier to use the switch than unplug. There are only a few things that really need them, like maybe irons or Christmas lights, but if you are used to switches, it does feel a lot more convenient than unplugging things, even if it’s not something you need to do a lot. Also, sockets with no switch do exist in the UK, they’re just not very common. Possibly when the electrical standards were originally designed in the ‘40s it may have made more sense, due to more of the appliances being high power and also that our sockets are generally on 32 amp breakers due to ring mains, so you are relying on the fuse in the plug to stop your house burning down in case of a faulty appliance. And I have seen a few cases where that fuse has not blown in an overcurrent situation…
Yes I was going to mention the UK. Seems many of the households have switches on the outlets because they like to keep their hot water kettle [without their own switches] plugged in for tea. Saw it in a British TV series anyway. From the 60s.
Plus it really hurts if you unplug them, leave them lying on the floor pointy-side-up and then stand on them in the middle of the night! Much easier to just flip the switch off.
You made me want switches in my kitchen outlets because of those few items that always stay on. I have a sandwich press that is basically just a waffle iron that is on as soon as I plug it in and I see it arc when I unplug it everytime and now I know I'm probably slowly damaging my outlets lol
You could get a "smart" power strip that you can control with Alexa, Google, etc., that will shut off power unless you tell it to turn it on. I have several and they're not only convenient for having another switch, but you can easily control it remotely or set a schedule.
Yes you are burning the plug and spiking the power on that circuit. Hopefully your microwave or other electronics will survive such trauma to the power.
You technically slowly damage your switch every time you use it. Alltought switch connection point are likely more robust. They sell external outlet switch so get one and you safe 2sec of your life every day because you can leave your devices plugged in 😀 Or even better get a 15min timer switch so you can't forget to turn it off 😎
"However, where you're gonna have the most vampire-loads [is] places where it's really inconvenient to reach down to that switch, like an entertainment-system, where you might have everything in front of the switch, so it's not convenient anyway." And, in those places, what is even _less_ convenient than pressing the switch one way or the other? Unplugging stuff and plugging it back in!
We don't have switches on the sockets where I live, but one thing we would have used them for if we had them were Christmas lights back when they were using incandescent bulbs rather than leds. Sure, you _could_ just pull the plug (and that's what we'd do), but it would have been easier to just flip a switch (particularly if the socket ended up _behind_ the tree.) Also, the switches might be very convenient for people with arthritis and similar issues.
It is easier to have a floor switch on the lead in power cord. Step on it to turn it on and off....easier than reaching behind the tree for the plug (switch or not).
We always had a Christmas light special extension cord with this big red button in the middle of it. It was a stopper switch so you could just come by and stomp on it to light up the tree. It was very neat
@@WillTheBassPlayer Probably have a couple of the exact same one (green plug/cord). Not sure the cords were up to code for the full load of incandescent bulbs but we now have an artificial tree with LEDs so no big deal.
My experience from living in Australia and New Zealand for 12 years was that practically all wall switches were left on as long as something was plugged in and people didn't unplug or use the wall switch to turn stuff off. I don't remember using any appliance or tool that didn't have its own on/off switch. The only time I found switched sockets handy was for the odd application where I wanted to completely unpower or power up something like a string of lights or a battery charger or something for safety reasons (mostly workshop kinda scenarios). Now that I'm back in Canada I kind of resent having to pay extra to buy a socket-with-switch on the odd occasion where this comes up. I do remember one appliance that didn't have a switch and that was the 'electric jug' (kettle). They had a power cable that plugged in to the wall and to the jug. When the water boiled it tripped a spring loaded device that spit the plug out of the back of the jug. Scared the crap out of us the first time we used one. You reset the little ejection device when you pushed the plug back in.
That definitely is the case 99% of the time. For my case though I turn shit off if I don’t need it on as you never know when a storm might come and cause a power serge or whatever happens. Wouldn’t want to wake up one morning to a dead device due to a power serge. Sure it could be considered annoying to a lot of people but buying a heap of serge protectors for every device would be costly
Did none of the Aussies you met have anything plugged into a power board? Or anything that would stay on permanently while plugged in (common for some older devices and appliances) or in a sleeping mode rather than having a proper off mode (very common nowadays esp among anything advertised as smart)? Did none of them have chargers of any kind? People use switches mate. An off button or mode on a device doesn't always mean it's not drawing power, not everything has one, and sometimes it's easier to switch off a bunch of things on a powerboard in one go.
Hey, about the whole safety thing, in the UK i was told switches on appliances aren't guarenteed to isolate when switched off, where as the switches on the sockets are! I had a fire safety discussion many years ago where there was a famous fire in a kitchen for an office from a toaster that was actually off but on at the wall. what had happened was that the room cooled off during the morning, just before their first shift, the moisture in the air hit it's dew point and reduced the ability for the switch in the toaster to isolate the 240, it arced over, which melted the pastic then the melted plastic allowed a path for current to flow and a thermal runaway in the toaster, causing a fire. i fully expect 110 to be a fair bit safer in this way, as i imagine it's a lot harder for it to arc like that, but certainly, general advice here is if it's not designed to 'standby' then to use the socket to isolate because they can isolate the full 13A and are much stricter than some of the switches used on certain things, certainly devices designed to only use maybe 5amps as they are only really have switches certified for "running" current, not failure current.
How could they even determine that was the cause of the fire? It sounds to me like the fire investigator determined that the fire started in the vicinity of the toaster, when nobody was around to activate it, and then guessed at the root cause.
That type of thing usually happens on old appliances, though I can't say it's absolutely impossible on newer ones. If that happens on a modern UL certified device, I'll consider changing my stance.
@@MikePerreman @codmariowarfare for all the safety stuff in the uk electrical system, we can get a lot of "chinese grey market" 220v goods that don't have the same safety stuff that native devices should have and they have an absolutely stellar reputation for sticking to specifications /s so i would hazard a guess that there's a lot of crap floating around that really shouldn't be used. RCDs are a blessing but a lot of houses just don't use them.
@@CODMarioWarfare I would link something but i can't, if you look up "belsize-park-flat-fire-caused-faulty-toaster" you'll see it's not unheard of here, this is one example but not quite the same one. plus the fire safety stuff i did was using material from the 90s where RCDs weren't common in the uk, so it probably wasn't so much a switched live-neutral but live earth or similar. i'm sure there's a lot more safety now but it does make you think.
i always considered it handy for things like phone chargers, electronic equipment that have high standby consumption, my soldering station etc. it is also nice if you have pets that could chew on cords and so on
@@pjeaton58 "I'd say, let nature do its work and select 'em out. The more we depend on electricity the more our pets should learn to stay away from cables." My dad used to say.
(UK) One thing to note is that there are more digital kitchen devices these days such as my microwave, air fryer and coffee machine (which does have a switch, but at the back) and in the past I’ve known someone who was scared about relying on the onboard switch for certain appliances e.g. chip fryer because they feared they would accidentally turn it on because the slider based control was on the front, something I’m sure is snark bait ‘just don’t accidentally hit it LOL’. Also, the sockets are not necessarily inconveniently located, for example, the switched plugs in my living room are easily accessible and I even recently had to move the plug for the sat TV box because unplugging it was inconvenient for the (older) user for when the box needs a hard reset…..and before you say ‘they could do this instead’, I already suggested it. There are also times when switching is easier than unplugging due to things like furniture placement not giving enough clearance, for example, very occasionally I need to hard reset something mostly static and the switch is the easiest method rather than moving things around to unplug it.
As I’m sitting in bed i am next to a lamp who’s plug is jammed between the wall and bed. So (provided this wasn’t a dumb appliance with an obvious switch) switching it off from the wall would be really handy.
Some devices overseas don't always have a power switch. A 120 volt arc has nothing on its 230 volt cousin 😈 Switches on outlets seem to be mostly in countries that have or had ties to the UK...saw lots of them in Malaysia and Singapore (which uses the UK system lock, stock, and barrel last time I checked). From what I understand, old clothes irons and vacuum cleaners from the post-war era in the UK didn't have switches.
From malaysia - Never seen a vacuum that came without a power switch, but irons definitely exist without them (and those arcs really are something when they do appear). Not having plugs lying about when we want to curb vampire drain is also a nice thing to have. the three pronged plugs we use sit facing up like turbo-legos; you do not want to step on them.
Well if there is no load there won't be any spark and it depends on where in the cycle it is pulled if it's near 0v it won't spark but also at 60hz vs 50hz it will be back at 0 sooner so the spark won't last as long
@himanbam well i don't think you are fast enough and you'd would need an oscilloscope and it does cross zero 120 times a second which is why the sparks don't last long
On the subject of vampire draw, a lot of kitchen appliances these days do have a needless vampire draw. I just checked our “Griddler” which we have plugged in all the time, and it draws 0.75 watts “off” without the screen glowing, and “on” with the screen glowing (but not heating) it draws 0.75 watts. Our toaster oven also needlessly has a clock and a soft-touch on-off button. It's not a big deal, but it's something. Also, when it comes to unplugging something that has a problem, without a fuse in the outlet, an appliance with a short could be trying to draw 15A on the cable, and possibly melting it. In that context, having to grab the hot plug and pull it out is less fun that turning off a switch, even if switch is nearby. But mostly a switch is just an extra bonus. Rarely needed, but sometimes useful. It's like saying “does a car need heated seats”, no, you can be fine without them, but if you have them, sometimes it's nice.
The only time that would happen if there's a short directly in the plug that draws the perfect amount of current to heat up to dangerous temperatures but not enough to trip the breaker. I'd say probably not likely enough to be considered an actual safety benefit.
You make the point that you can touch the pins of the plug while they are still connected to the outlet, potentially getting shocked. This used to be the case in the UK before legislation required sleeved plug pins. The outlet switches are a throwback to that time. You switched the outlet off before plugging or unplugging to prevent getting a shock from unsleeved pins.
I'll admit that I rarely use any of the outlet switches in my Australian home. With the exception of one beside my kitchen table if I'm using my sandwich maker (one of the few appliances that does not have its own power switch). However, in my retail business, I have a number of lighted display cabinets, both wall-mounted and freestanding. Those are all turned on and off via the wall outlet switches which is a heck of a lot easier than individually plugging and unplugging them all every morning and afternoon. Another point is that some plugs are a very tight fit in the socket and need more than your thumb and index finger to insert or remove them. A flick of a switch with one finger is so much easier. Other than that, yes, they're generally pointless these days.
for the UK, our plugs can be annoying to remove, it's a side effect of their safety but it's still annoying to plug stuff in and out often. I also once had a lamp with a switch where you'd push a bit of plastic in and out under the lampshade which was annoying to reach so switching the outlet on and off was more convenient. Most things do have off switches now, but it's nice to have a universal "I'm certain this thing is not receiving electricity" toggle though not necessary
Those are one of the "original" types of lamp switch - usually found on old lamps these days. Thankfully nowadays you can reduce the risk of burning your finger somewhat by using an LED bulb.
Yes, but _why_ are you plugging stuff in and out often? Unless you're moving something into place or taking it away, in which case the switch doesn't help?
@@jyrinx I have a toastie maker which I use often enough that it stays on the counter top and doesn't get put away after being used. It doesn't have it's own power switch, so when turning it off an outlet switch is easier to use then unplugging it, and it makes the kitchen look tider because there isnt a loose plug visable. It's niche, but the switch is a nice to have for those rare uses
@@icetanker8062 That's the point, though. The switch on the outlet is only necessary because of the appliances that depend on it. So really it comes down to whether you'd rather have the switch on the outlet or on the device.
I love the energy in this video. It reminds me of your old video where you just explained over and over again how an oil heater and an electric heater, rated at the same power, will heat the room in the same way/same amount of time. Never stop explaining to people how their thoughts make no sense.
@@therackstar I use these switches daily to turn off my entire work benches. I have multiple devices plugged in and the easiest way to kill everything it to use these switches. Fuck unplugging everything each day. Fuck going around each device and switching them off. One switch does it all.
@@debochchSee thats a usecase thats not standard though. We unplug literally nothing here cause either everything has a switch on it or theres a main switch near the door that just shits everything off at once in the room
As someone who spent the first 25 years of their life in the UK, switched outlets can be useful in areas where appliance cords could become damaged or wet, e.g. kitchens or work benches. Imagine pushing a hot saucepan up against a plastic appliance cord, the cord insulation then melting, potentially making the entire saucepan live (and in the UK at 240V). That could be pretty bad. Yes some cords are sheathed in robust material, but not all - and the appliances in your video seem to have cheap plastic cords, with little to no heat protection. Same scenario with, say, a soldering iron at a workbench, with several other equipment cords. If most of the switched outlets are switched off then the risk is reduced.
Well, I think it's because people hear about 'Phantom Power' draw, when an appliance is off. For example, in later years, the CRT style televisions would keep the tube heater on to get an 'instant on' feature out of a TV (rather than wait for the tube to heat up). Other appliances also these days have a certain amount of phantom draw, and I would say some people just aren't mechanically or electrically inclined, and don't understand that a simple device like a toaster oven doesn't have any phantom draw. As you pointed out, there's a physical switch that breaks the circuit, and there's no phantom draw. Chalk it up to people who don't know what they're talking about, but like to repeat what they heard before but don't realize NOT EVERYTHING has a phantom draw. In any case, phantom draw or not, I leave everything plugged in.
When you look in to it, there's actually quite a bit of power being used by all the plugged in stuff that has a light or a clock or some kind of sensor to feed. Not a kettle that's just plugged in and turned off, but those digital TV things...
though some things have indicator lights even when they're "off"... in which case it's pretty much got to be drawing some power. I'm not sure this is as common anymore but it definitely used to be pretty common... probably mostly on CRTs as you said :P
@@soroh0062255 If by "quite a bit of power" you mean the equivalent of a light bulb, or less, then it's really a non-issue, unless your utilities rates are sky high. For most people, putting things into standby or sleep mode is perfectly fine. Unless it runs on batteries, you never really need to turn it completely off.
@@PongoXBongo digital TV things are more than a light bulb! Up to 25 euros a year for us, and while that's not a huge cash amount in the grand scheme of things it's electric spending you might not need unless you're recording a lot during the day or so
A few more things you might want on a switched socket that don't have switches themselves: Foreman grills and the like, some sandwich presses, some nightlights, a bunch of different fragrance dispersal devices, and most chargers.
sandwich presses fall into that category of "items plugged in only in use" -- which if you have a gigantic counter I can see leaving them out and the switch having value. All the nightlights I've ever used have a light-sensor on them, so they're only on when it's dark -- so IDK why you'd use the switch?
The list is endless… Irons, hair straighteners, any step-down power adapter etc etc I believe the reason non-British people don’t understand the usefulness is mainly a cultural one.
@@mazzgr of the things you listed, 2 of them fall under "you only take it out when you need it, so it's not really plugged in when not in use", and the step down power adaptor doesn't exist in 120 volt countries, and also doesn't draw power if the thing that's plugged into it isn't. The only thing I own where I would maybe benefit from an outlet switch is my Christmas lights, and I only need that for 1 month of the year. And I can just use the extension cable I own with a switch built-in to do that.
In the UK, it's a safety thing so that appliance flexes are not permanently live when plugged in, but it's also common for appliances to be distant from the outlet and using the outlet switch is sometimes more convenient.
Incidentally, George Foreman grills also lack a built-in power switch. Thankfully, you can get little 1-foot extension cords with inline switches pretty easily (one assumes you'd buy something appropriately-rated).
I would love to see a video about popcorn poppers. I've never understood why they don't have switches. As much as I LOVE the arcing when I pull the plug out, I'd rather not have to replace it because the plug eventually melted.
It's mostly the cheap ones that don't, I think it's because they're so cheap, and there's no reason to leave kernels in there before turning it on, and no reason to leave it on after they are popped. Thus, there's no reason to not just unplug it. That's my thinking anyway. Power switches add up when your goal is to make an appliance as cheap as possible.
There are not-cheap popcorn poppers? I love air-popped popcorn and we probably make it at least once a week (with 'spike' and nutritional yeast so we can pretend it's a meal), but ever since our air popper of two decades gave up the ghost, I haven't been able to find one that lasts for more than a couple of years - not to mention having a strong enough fan to not burn kernels!
Switches are expensive and the popper is built to a cost. The arcing in the socket when you plug and unplug stuff isn't going to do substantial damage. The mechanism that retains the plug is going to wear out long before the arcing from normal use erodes away enough of the socket for it to become a problem.
I find the Australian switched outlets and power boards extremely useful for setting up Sound systems for events where speakers can be far apart and up on stands and all the components need to be powered in a certain order
@@HyperSarcasticAvocado If you're constantly moving from venue to venue probably not much (it does technically mitigate some wear due to arcing and there could technically be some power fluctuations when plugging/unplugging things but both are pretty minor). When I used to work sound at my old church we had a device that would power on and off various devices in the right order and with the right timings (it was programmable of course) but that device wouldn't need to be plugged into a switched outlet as it was effectively a very smart switched outlet itself.
@@HyperSarcasticAvocado if it's 6 speakers all on a 4 metre stands 20 to 30 metres apart that are all loaded in, set-up and patched in before power has been supplied at the job site, the difference is about 30 minutes of effort
@@grn1 We actually do stuff like that in the states sometimes. My old chruch just had a bunch of outlets that had power interrupted by switches in the wall. Really convenient to control nearly all the power for the av equipment from one oversized wall panel.
@@duncanwilliams2350 I also live State side though I don't think I've ever seen outlets with switches actually on them. I think the device my old Church had did run through the walls to specially marked outlets (it's been a hot minute). The device itself sat in our sound booth at the back of the auditorium next to some amps and the sound board thing (I'm blanking on the name of the dang thing but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about). Some things I have seen include power strips that have individual switches, and I used to have a weird sort of power strip thing that was designed to sit under an old CRT monitor and manage power for computer, monitor, printer, and I think a couple other things. It used to be more important to fully kill power to computer devices due to fire risk with the old PSUs (far less common now though I still hear stories from time to time).
240v switched country here(UK) . I grew up with public safety films that unplugging or turning of switches was all about safety. You know small kids turning things on that were just barely within their reach. We certainly had a lot of safety films re big old tube crt TV's causing house fires. Probably a legacy thing.
The UK sounds like a "Nanny State" where big daddy government thinks its citizens should not have any responsibility for their own safety. Sounds like tyranny through safety to me. Good luck with that
In kitchens, one of the risks the switch on the socket mitigated was spilt water on to the counter top getting into an appliance. If it's off at the wall socket, and water gets split onto an appliance, all is still safe. Unplugging achieves the same thing, it's just the switch on the socket is easier. For my TV in the living room, the socket is slightly offset set to the right of the TV. So I can just turn everything off/on with my toe, which is very convenient, for killing vampire loads.
The number of people who are electrocuted in their homes each year in the U.S. is around 300. That's not 300 thousand, that's just 300. And that number includes electricians and contractors that are at risk of such while doing their job. I'm sure that that number is equally low in the UK.
@@RetroBytesUK I'm having a hard time figuring out how I could possibly spill water onto an appliance in a way in which it would cause a short circuit. Maybe dropping a toaster into the sink? In any case, outlets near the sink are required by code to be GFCI, so in that case the switch shouldn't matter.
@@vortec4253 As an example my wife dropped the kettle after filling it while trying to place it back on its base. Most the water ended up getting spilt through the cooling slats of the motor housing for the blender. However it was turned off at the wall socket so no big deal. The on/off switch built into the blender just had metal crimp connectors for the wires, and is of course in the motor housing. If it was not off at the wall, things could have been worse. People can be clumsy, they can spill large quantities of water, in places where handling large quantities of water is normal. So the less live appliances on the counter tops the better.
I'm from the UK, home of the switched outlets! And most of the outlets sold are switched nowadays, but it wasn't always that way, I remember when I was a kid switched outlets being "fancy", something people would pay extra for, but with reduced manufacturing costs today its just as cheap to buy a switched outlet as a unswitched, kind of like how all cars have AC now when it used to be a luxury. For myself there is one very specific use case where switched sockets are more convenient, side table lamps! There is no switch on the lamp, the inline switch is buried in a mess of charging cables down the back of the unit, but the switched outlet is 6 inches above the height of the table just behind the light, these are the only switched outlets I regularly use the switch on
I've always assumed it was to eliminate the risk of shock while plugging/unplugging, if your fingers accidentally touch the prongs of the plug when energized. As this video and another one of your good videos notes US plugs are energized when the prongs are still exposed, so switches could be a good feature in the US. Perhaps redundant for UK plugs which have other safety features to prevent you from touching live prongs.
When I was a kid I accidentally touched one prong of a plug while plugging something in. It buzzed and I dropped the plug. No pain, no burns, the house didn't burn down, and I learned a lesson about making sure I didn't touch the prongs.
I have a George Foreman grill that doesn't have a switch (it's a very old model). I normally toggle it on and off so that the outside of the sandwich doesn't burn before the cheese melts. That's quite useful to have the switch, especially as the UK plugs are harder to pull out than US ones. Another use I can think of are Christmas lights (though I use a smart light plug to toggle it on and off with Phillips Hue) so you can turn them on and off as needed. I guess I am young enough that I've never thought about safety or arcing as one of the reasons for the switches. In short, most of the time they aren't needed but it can be handy for a few devices.
Also for lamps. A switch is a bit more convenient than the one on the lamp itself that you have to reach under the shade and then rotate. For someone disabled, this could be a very big deal.
Having used switched outlets my whole life, I do find they are very occasionally mildly more convenient. What is much more convenient are individually switched outlets on a power strip, as the force required to unplug from the power strip is usually more than enough to pick up the whole board, even if it has all its outlets full. Having a switch for that one outlet on the power strip means I can easily turn off the water heater in my aquarium without having to use both hands in a hard to reach place to hold the power strip down while pulling the plug out.
I still think having switches on the outlets themselves wouldn't be a terrible idea, even if you never use them. Perhaps they could be combined with GFCI/RCD somehow. Either way, there are worse things in life than redundant switches.
Problem with combining it with GFCI is that you can run a wire from a single GFCI to multiple other (regular) outlets to have them all be GFCI-protected... so your switch for one outlet would also knock out all the rest. (My dad's house has one GFCI in each bathroom and one in the garage, even though they have like 2-4 outlets in each)
You could test/reset the GFCI/RFD to shut it off/on if you wanted a switch on the outlet. *That's really jank and could result in damaging the protection capabilities of the outlet but it would /technically/ work. There's probably someone out there doing this now that I think about it oh no.....
I’ve found switches in outlets to be very frustrating when traveling, because large power adapters that plug directly into the outlet (think wall warts or USB adapters) can actually be big enough to hit the switch on the outlet.
Another use case would be dark-activated nightlights which don’t have switches on them. Would be convenient to turn them off without having to unplug them.
Lots of those in the US have switches in them. Though so do not, but I imagine they'd likely cover the outlet switch anyway, so still not ideal. I think buying a switched one if you want that is the better bet.
definitely agree, cheap rice cookers (there are much more high-end and high-capacity ones with more advanced controls and an on/off switch), popcorn poppers, and waffle irons might be assumed to be temporary presences on your countertop, while coffee machines and toaster ovens are probably assumed to be permanent fixtures on the countertop and need to be dead in order to be rated as safe to leave alone
Add Hot Glue Guns and Irons to the mix. I hate that I can not leave them plugged in safely when I am done using them. I get that it seam to be very cheap and basic items cut out switches to cut cost, these item all seem to be just heating elements in a specific form factor. So i end up using a power strip to easily turn them on and off.
@@smuckerst8355 yeah. from what I can tell, the situations where it might be handy to have one seem pretty rare. everyone is mentioning outlier situations.
I always thought those switches were like a mini-circuit breaker, so if something went wrong, it would automatically trip rather than the entire circuit going. This comes in handy if your circuit-breaker is in an inconvenient place (mine is outside the house).
They kinda are like a mini circuit breaker. They just work a little differently and are absolutely important where water could potentially con into contact with anything plugged in.
I live in the EU, specifically the part that uses full fat Schuko plugs, so we don't have switches generally on our outlets, but they would be bloody useful. My kitchen has almost nothing in it with a proper on/off switch, most of my stuff is always on from the moment it's plugged in, my toaster, my mixer, etc. . The other stuff is, that Schuko plugs can sometimes require stupid amounts of force to pull out, that coupled with the fact that you can't know how securely the outlet is attached to the wall means, that we're taught from a young age to use two hands to pull those plug: one hand keeps the outlet in the wall, the other pulls the plug, so it's not just a one hand yoink. (And thats not just a myth here, I personally had pulled multiple shoddily attached outlets out of walls, because i had the sheer audacity to try to unplug something.) A switch would make it easier. But I get the logic still, in an optimal world, those switches should make no sense.
I use extension cords with switches, handy. And no, they aren't flimsy kind of extension cords. With the electricity prices we have now, it feels prudent.
@@nesnioreh Nope, but the LCD/LED panels on them are constantly on, so the internal electronics are powered. Same with my bread maker now that i think of it. So they won't use a shitload of electricity if i don't use them actively, but still, why waste, especially now that electricity is stupid expensive here.
Australian here, one additional thing I like about switches on outlets is that it is very easy to teach children, universally, how to make sure devices are off.
and it means that young children can turn things off/on without having the additional risk of them plugging/unplugging the device and inviting the whole what if i stick a non plug thing in the hole child curiosity
..and if the kids are inquisitive little squirts like I was, when they stick something* in the outlet they have a 50% chance of it being dead. --- *Oh, like pipe cleaners with metal wire in them...
It is basically an extra safety measure. Apart from that, it also eliminates the arcing when plugging something in, thereby reducing any potential damage to a device. The point is turn off at the wall, unplug, plug back in turn on at the wall.
yes, that paranoid. It's just an extra level of protection. Kettle and Microwave are the main things I use the switch on the wall for every day. I was taught to always turn off the switch before plugging or unplugging anything (less important these days due to the extra insulation required on all plugs)
I live in the UK and I do the same. I think it's because people running 120V at the outlet don't seem to think electricity is that dangerous compared to those running 220-240V (I don't know, maybe they are correct? I wouldn't like to try. Even 120V @ 32A is probably not a great time...). It was drilled into me as a child to be careful around electricity. Even as you say, modern plugs are safer than they were when I was a child I still turn it off at the socket before unplugging anything.
As an American that's super weeeeeird turning off your microwave Microwaves function as kitchen clocks in the US so turning off a microwave seems very odd my American brain and a lot of the times our microwave also function as ventilators above the stove so the plug is obfuscated behind a cabinet it's just not practical to US.
i feel like this is a holdover from older electrical circuits when not every appliance came with an off switch. i still have a working vaporizor from the 50s that has no off switch, pug it in and its immediately on.
A lot of those devices have a standby mode for a reason though. You'll save maybe 10 cents over a year for the amount of power they use in standby by turning off the outlet, and in turn have to replace the battery that you've worn out that stores the saved settings of the device, or worse the device will reset entirely as it has no battery to store settings in.
@@robmausser It's for safety reasons. More active circuits means more points of failure. One of those appliances could heat up, be covered by something or get wet. A loose neutral contact could make one's apartment effectively connected to 400V.
@@sekrasoftIf it’s drawing a very low amperage (as devices do when in standby) why would it be heating up? Also where are you getting 400v from? We have 120v in the US, not 240v
@@Roomsaver I imagine the heating up when getting wet is probably not an intended feature of whatever device, but a short. Which would not happen if the outlet was unplugged or switched off.
Turning the outlet off with the switch before unplugging something or plugging it in prevents arcing or possibly touching the prongs and being shocked, as you said. It's better to have a feature that's universal so you can use it for the few things that benefit from it. You can leave the switches on and plug/unplug on hot switches still.
@@m8e Not always. Many appliances (especially those with a power brick) have always on circuits inside them. Relying on getting the plug orientation perfect and pushing in or pulling out fast enough every time is a poor system when you can just flick a switch and know it's not live. And then you can slowly and carefully insert the plug, instead of hammering it in or yanking it out which surely causes far more stress on both parts than doing it when the circuit is off.
@@m8e sure, removing load also prevents arcing. But as has already been stated, not everything, including the rice cooker shown in the video, has a zero load setting. Same again with anything that has a light to show power status, like entertainment devices and charging devices. Most power tool chargers, for example, have a light that is red when charging or no battery is connected, or green when charging or no battery is connected. Most screens only have standby or on, where standby still has circuits under load searching for a source of awaiting instruction. Computer power supply units have a switch for this reason also: many computerised circuits will always be under load. I know when I unplug my computer personally, I always make sure it's at its lowest load setting, turn off the power supply, turn off the wall, then disconnect it because that's the safest process. So, once more, it's better to have a safety feature that you are by no means required to use, that is useful sometimes for some applications, than to not have it ever because it isn't needed for a lot of applications.
Pretty much all our devices in the UK are switched too. I think it's just an occasionally convenient thing, that some people have interalised too much to the point of being anxious when it's not there
My understanding is that one main purpose of the switch is so that the device is isolated when the plug is being connected/disconnected as the prongs on the plug are not really designed to be the make/break when under load - a switch is designed to do this and includes the springy part to avoid arcing etc (technical description). Perhaps this is less of an issue with a lower voltage? People being paranoid and switching things off at the socket is certainly a 'thing' here though (especially the older generation)! Of course, as Alec noted it's actually more relevant now with phantom/standby than it ever was before. It amazes me how paranoid some people are their toaster or other random appliance might burn down their house if it's not switched off/unplugged, yet everyone trusts their fridge and freezer when they go away on holiday :D
@@BastetFurry Schuko wouldn't be safe in the UK as it lacks fuse protection which is needed due to our ring-based wiring model. A single socket could dray 32A+ before a circuit breaker would kick in, so that local protection is important.
Switches are common in Europe, I think, in places where they have 208 or 240 volts. That would do some more serious damage and be more likely to arc than a 120v appliance would be. Not needed on 110v circuits.
There are many reasons why there are still switches on sockets. The main one being: you dont know what someone is going to plug into it. Maybe it'll have some kind of switch, maybe it won't; so it gives you the option. A big number two is that the swiches used on some of those timers and similar aren't held to the same safety and compliance specs as other kinds of switches and triggers are. So it's best to have a backup.
I have never had a cheap appliance switch fail to on as the are normally open switches. It would be safer to turn off the gas when I wasn't using the stove, and shut off the water fo the night after brushing my teeth. There is a point where it is a bit much
The power switch (to the heating element) is in the appliance. Like you pointed out, MANY appliances nowadays do that "always on" nonsense with vampire power draw for the computer brain that drives it. Also, as you've previously shown, pulling the plug while stuff is running at maximum power, you can get a rather sizable arc, which may be dangerous. A fast clicky switch (as you've also demonstrated previously) would reduce arcing in a situation where you're turning something off in your example emergency. Overall: a switch on the outlet is possibly neat, possibly slightly convenient in a few edge cases, but probably not really worth the trouble.
I guess it's just whatever you happen to be used to. Here in the UK most outlets do have switches, but it's by no means unusual to come by ones that aren't fitted with switches. I have some wall outlets that are in awkward places, such as behind furniture etc., and so extension cables are plugged in to them permanently, with say, six outlets at the other end, so all the items in the sound system (for example) can be isolated in one go, as the switch is not too hard to reach, but unplugging our big and awkward (but safe) UK plug, and later having to plug it back in IS much more hassle than throwing a switch!
My first 49 years were spent in the UK, I now live in the Mythical Land of Australia, you think the UK square pin plugs are a pain to to plug back in? the Oz blade pin ones are so much worse.
When we lived in England and we were about to leave home for a trip, going around and 'unplugging' things to reduce the risk of damage from lightning (or any other electrical peril) was as easy as pushing the outlet switches so that they were flush with the wall-plate (as opposed to sticking out at an angle, with red tops, to let us know they were live). This was especially nice for things plugged in behind big pieces of furniture and whatnot: you reach down behind the loveseat and push a little switch in-you don't try to get a grip on the plug, pull it out, and risk dropping it to the floor, so that you may have to move furniture to plug it back in.
There is no need to go around the whole apartment and turn off each outlet separately, climb behind some cabinets, feel something somewhere and similar unnecessary things. Just turn off the circuit breaker when you leave.
@@Thales_WH , I ask you to use your imagination and think a little more deeply. Suppose that both your refrigerator and your microwave-oven are plugged in to the same circuit, and that you want to preserve your frozen and refrigerated food while you're out of town but you also want to eliminate the risk that a lightning-strike will damage the appliances that you don't need to keep electrified during your absence. Will turning off the breaker for that one circuit help in such a situation?
@@smadaf There are about 20 individually fused circuits in my house, so it's no problem to leave the fridge and freezer on and the others off without having to bend or go around the rooms. I have a switchboard with circuit breakers right outside the door. However, if my microwave oven is not working, it is completely disconnected from the network with the switch that is located directly on it. It is an older product of the AEG brand, where it has been that way since production.
@@Thales_WH , two things: 1. Is your house the only house, and are you the only householder; or can you imagine other houses with other occupants and other degrees of physical mobility (e.g., ability to reach certain things with their arms) and other preferences and other circuit-designs and other appliances? 2. For at least forty years, most microwave-ovens have been made so that, when they are plugged in, they are on. The magnetron, fan, and light are not always on-but the appliance is, because there's a clock. The list of modern appliances that have a closed circuit as soon as they are plugged in is plenty long.
@@smadaf 1. I don't prevent anyone from solving things in their own way, that's everyone's business. I just pointed to another solution, which in my view is not only more convenient, but better all round. Is there something wrong with it? Don't you do the same? We're just exchanging views on the matter, it's not a conflict. 2. My microwave oven is not really 40 years old :DD In fact, it is completely disconnected from the mains when it is turned off. I don't have a clock on it on purpose - I don't need any timing functions. The stop button is a massive switch, not a microswitch that would control the electronics. I know it very well, I'm an electrical engineer and I've already taken it apart once. You are right, however, that many devices have some quiescent consumption even when they are in stand-by mode. I try to avoid ones that I suspect have a greater tendency to fail. Some equipment is good to check inside every once in a while as part of prevention. It won't solve everything, but it's a good starting point. It's not possible to monitor everything anyway, it's more likely that the switch will blow one day. To turn off every device with an extra switch after every use is too convenient for me. But as I said - let everyone deal with it according to their needs. But thanks for your opinion.
The benefit I see is reduced receptacle wear from plugging into and unplugging commonly used devices, such as power supplies for electronic devices or electronics that have some measurable standby power draw. This allows you to kill power without physically wearing out the outlet. Switches tend to have far more cycle life than receptacles.
I have a vacuum sealer that doesn't have a power switch, you have to unplug it to power it off. Apparently it's designed under the assumption that I have switched outlets. I've read that this is common for stuff that's designed for European markets and reworked for 110.
Alec, I personally installed switches in all of my US kitchen receptacles because I got super annoyed by plugging things in/out for stuff that doesn't have their own switch like many of Hamilton Beach appliances. I don't wanna receptacles falling out from the wall after having sex with plugs so many times.
Hadn't considered that's yet another reason why the US plugs have such awful retention. If the only way to cut power is to yank it in and out, of course you're going to be over stressing the connection. Especially the way I see most people do it by simply yanking the cord, no matter what angle they pull from. Adding torque stress to an already poor design.
On safety, a quick google of various government data sites suggests that there were about 1000 electrical-related deaths in the US last year, compared to just 30 in the UK. Electricity is dangerous, especially if the voltage is at 240v like the UK. I know Americans have a fairly lax attitude when it comes to dangerous, potentially fatal things (guns being the obvious one), but it strikes me that the more convenient failsafes you can build into something, and the less you have the make physical contact with the live plug and/or socket, the better. And that doesn't even cover the benefits of switches when you are dealing with stuff that have standby lights, like TVs, drawing low power constantly.
Things to take into account for the UK - its tradition, its required by safety rules/laws, vampire power draws as you mentioned, older appliances were not always as safe as nowadays so being able to cut off quickly when our plugs can be harder to remove as grips on the prongs when plugged in can be quite strong depending on the model, age - by this I mean that plugs can be harder to remove for the older generation and our plugs are designed to be harder to remove from sockets - some OAPs get kits to replace the back of uk plugs with a loop in the body that can be hooked and pulled instead of trying to grip, 120v vs 240v safety concerns plus lastly idiots - you can try to make something as foolproof as possible but the universe is always working to create a greater fool. A recent example of why they are handy would be my father doing some DIY - he was using an older more powerful disk cutter that went out of his hands and cut a groove in the concrete floor as he had to let go of it and jump back - there was no way to safely reach to switch on it but could easily and safely hit the switch on the wall to kill it.
Switches on outlets are not required by any rules or laws in the UK and never have been. It's only been 'tradition' since the 1980s, prior to that unswitched outlets were common with switched being an optional choice.
The switches are really nice if you have stuff plugged in that's out of the way, like a lamp or radio on top of the shelf. It's also nice to turn off things that have an always-on display even when "off".
same with power-strips that have an on/off switch, it's usefull for things that don't so much turn 'off' as much as they go into 'standby'. Except those would mostly be things like TV's, computer screens, hifi setups etc... Those tend to be on powerstrips anyway, because they usually involve more than one appliance that all turn on/off together.
I love those, I have one on my workbench which essentially turns on all my lamps, dremel and soldering iron, which does have its own switch anyway. But I like just shutting down the whole lot with one switch when I finish
Would it be handy? Maybe. Is it safer? Can't see how.
Oh, and about that arcing - yeah, you don't want that happening a lot because it damages the contacts but again - that only happens when you plug in the odd thing like a popcorn popper without its own switch. Which A) you don't do a whole lot and B) ain't gonna kill you. Besides, no arcing happens at all when you plug in something which is shut off with its own switch. I just don't get it!
hi alec, switched outlets are weird
It’s an absolutely consistent way to ensure things are off.
in the UK its mostly out of being overly safe, our plugs and sockets are already impossible to zap yerself with whilst plugging stuff in, but the switch is there so that the socket is dead during plug insertion
which is arguably over the top but whatever
they can be useful however! I'm an electrician and I used to do EICR's which are safety condition reports done in the UK, and when testing a circuit we put 500V DC through the cables to measure the insulation resistance, this test can kill things which are plugged in.
so instead of unplugging 50 things, I need only switch the sockets off, which saves me having to reach behind things like tumble dryers where the plug would otherwise drop behind it and be a pain to reach
Just because you turn something off doesn't means it's off.
The only reason I use them is lighting. I have an LED strip that's plugged in the kitchen that runs the entire length of my counters. So the switch is super convenient. Nothing else makes sense to me. But hey, if it doesn't cost me anything, might as well have it - but I definitely wouldn't install it myself if one doesn't already exist
My favorite No Effort November tradition is the inevitable off-the-cuff video that always gets put out and always has a follow up video because people got annoyed
That's how they get you. It's like yo-yo dieting - cut down on effort in November but double down on it in December.
It's hilarious, my favourite time of the year :D
Yes, but... It only takes one device without a switch to make the outlet switch useful. There's also the times when you can't pull the plug. There's also the times when the switched device only switched one line, and it happens to be the neutral. Also, people who grew up with switched sockets, are used to switching them off. When i go on holiday I'd like to just switch off the outlets, instead i have to unplug everything and then struggle to plug everything back in again when I'm back. Most cases are just relatively rare edge cases but, when one of those cases hits, you'll wish you had a switched outlet.
@@1960acr you switch off all of your outlets when you leave for a vacation? Why? That's definitely in the category of "paranoid about electricity" that he was talking about.
@@isaacwakefield5915 I do that as well. If you grew up with the kind of PSAs we had on TV in the 70's and 80's, you would too :D
I love how the last minute devolves into exasperation, cat meowing, toaster oven dinging and the culinary ware clanging. Appreciate the no effort effort!
"It's not gonna hurt you..." DING! "...(sigh)" was a sublime comic moment.
I can just imagine how many retakes and editing it took to get it to all come out that way. Truly the work of a master. And moving the teleprompter around so it's always out of camera shot, that must take an incredible amount of time.
@@2ndfloorsongs Best part is it's no effort November so I assume no editing other than mixing, and probably all in one take!
@@D1EHARDTOO my calendar says december.
@@RemcovanZuijlen Also no effort was taken to fit it all into one month.
Australian who's been living in Canada for 10 years here.
I grew up with switches on powerpoints (outlets, as you call them) and I think a big part of their perceived safety is that it was drilled into us from a young age to switch them to off if they weren't in use. Since moving to Canada I did miss them for a time, but nothing about my electrical habits actually changed.
There *are* a handful of items that benefitted from having a powerpoint switch: Christmas tree lights, hot glue guns, clothing iron. And I think I remember some early hair dryers, fans, lamps, Sandwich makers, popcorn makers, Jaffle irons, and electric skillets didn't have their own switch. But most modern devices have now.
I also remember being told to 'turn it off at the wall if you're not using it' for devices that drew power even when off. Tv's, VCR's, Radios, Chargers, Power adapters. Stuff with either a standby mode, or a AC to DC power converter that do draw some power even when a device isn't plugged in.
TLDR;
-We grew up with them so it's weird when they're not there.
-It was taught from a young age that they were a key part of being safe around electronics, so it's weird when they're not there
-At one time they catered for a small subset of devices, most of which now have switches on device.
-Yeah, you can navigate life perfectly fine without them.
My hot glue gun has a power switch, funnily enough.
Thank you for the thorough and well considered explanation with solid examples. It seems that you are the only one in these comments providing good insight into the situation!
@@Fs3i mine doesn't
I love that your TLDR made your post 50% longer.
Also, in places when electricity fluctuates or cuts off, the switch protects the devices that have stand by current or are powered on indefinitely ( like fridges, freezers, etc.) from inrush currents, potentially damaging them.
My apartment surprised me when I found out that all the top plugs were always powered but the bottom plugs were switch controlled. It makes sense for my apartment because I have 3 overhead lights: one in my bathroom, one in my kitchen, and one in my entryway. Everything other area in my one bedroom apartment needs lamps to be illuminated. So you plug the lamps into the bottom plugs and viola you have switch controlled lighting. All the while, things like my phone charger and computer have uninterrupted power. Rather ingenious actually.
It's unusual for multiple switched outlets to be in one room - here it's usually one per room, so you can plug a lamp into it. All my bedrooms and my living room have this, though I've since added overhead lighting to all.
This is a different idea to what they do in the UK, where all outlets have switches in them. Their plugs all have fuses, also.
It’s not exactly the same thing but yeah some outlets in the US are switch controlled from afar and it’s very useful. The one in Britain that he is talking about have switch’s on every outlet right next to the plug, it’s weird.
I'm Australian, my popcorn maker has a switch on it.
Here are some reasons why I like having a switch on the outlet:
1. Reduced arcing. I think you made a video a while back about how the reason light switches have a decisive click is to quickly break any arc that forms. Australia is a 240V country. Sometimes I'm lazy and unplug things without toggling the switch, and at times this can pull some noticeable arcs. I've never seen an arc make it out of the socket, but they are bright and I expect cause increased wear. In theory we are supposed to turn our outlets off before plugging/unplugging things.
2. Easier to turn off than unplug in tight spaces. We have plug designs that are flat and have the cable come out the side. In particular, these are often found on power boards. These allow us to plug things in behind sofas, beside beds, and behind shelving/cabinets. In these situations there's often enough room to get your hand in to operate the switch, but not enough room to remove the plug.
3. Some appliances don't have switches. In my home, this is our Christmas lights, and our fish tank's air pump. We turn both of these off at night, and it's nice to not have to unplug them.
Overall I agree that the switches provide only minor advantages, but since they're standard here already idk why we'd want to get rid of them. Sometimes they are nice to have.
Also, the arcing, if say you're unplugging a device whose plug is a bit sticky, can be quite repetitive, and that's going to cause many voltage and current spikes, which has the potential to damange the device. Especially if it's cheaply made, or is inrush-protected by PTCs (since they'll still be warm and not acting as protection anymore).
How often would you unplug a device that had a hard-to-reach plug if there was no switch on the outlet? Approximately never, right? And how often would you reach down to the hard-to-reach outlet to switch it off? Also never. Hard to reach outlets are not for things that you need to reach more than once or twice in a year
Having a switch doesn't reduce arcing. It just makes the arcing occur in the outlet switch instead of on the contacts on the plug.
Having recently moved to a country using the British system: Those plugs and sockets sit so damn tight, I understand why you'd put in an extra switch just to avoid having to unplug them ever again :o
I'm sorry you had to live your previous life with substandard sockets 😉😁
I'm invariably horrified when I go abroad and I have to draw several amps of 230v through a plug which wobbles in a light breeze!
This answer wins.
+
It's safer, quicker, easier... I genuinely still don't see the downside.
The best part is, if you're against using switched sockets, you could just leave the switches in the "on" position on every socket. Everybody wins.
Another good reason you're better off leaving UK style plugs in their sockets whenever you can is that accidentally standing on a stray plug without shoes is ridiculously painful - they invariably lay prongs up.
Hopefully that's not something you've experienced yet...good luck! :)
Parasitic draw would be a good topic for an episode. With energy prices going up and all the newer nicer stuff having digital displays. Also to everyone who responded how little it is a year. Why not add that up over the average 80 to 100 year lifetime also?
I already did the calculation, with our currently abnormally high Finnish electricity prices. If an electrical appliance draws 1 W while idle/standby (which would be an extremely high power draw for a standby mode, they're usually in the milliwatts), the total cost of that for a whole year would be about 2€ (about $2).
@@vurpo7080 yeah but try explaining that to my 70yo Grandpa. Something short circuits in his brain and it just doesn't compute.
@@vurpo7080 A system isn't losing charge over time. The system literally has no electricity in it till you complete the circuit.
Yup, but what about the stuff with internal clocks, timers, memory settings etc, I guess they need those miniscule currents to not suck the batteries dry?
Check your local library system. Mine has power meters like the one he used in the video. I've checked one out a few times for months on end.
My roommate was worried about how much it cost to hibernate or sleep a computer instead of shutting it down. It's been weeks and the computer will probably burn it's first penny of electricity sometime this week. It's been like tenths of a cent per week since I put the meter on a few weeks ago, because it's been asleep or hibernated.
I used the library's power meter last year on my space heater and it's $30 a month extra in electricity to run the space heater to heat my basement bedroom with a space heater to catch up to the upstairs room temps. Love that electric blanket@!
I haven't blown frost out my mouth like my mom did as a poor kid, but I do sometimes wear a stocking cap when my bedroom is in the 60's F. (like 17C. 20C with the heater cranked way up). I wear gloves, indoors, in the winter to keep my hands warm.
You've answered it right there yourself!
1. The voltage is much lower so it's less of an issue to just grab the plug and pull than a 230V outlet.
2. As you said, the USA plugs are quite easy to unplug. This is not always the case for Au/NZ & UK plugs.
3. You didn't mention this, but AU/NZ appliances often have (and all or most UK appliances) have an angled plug that requires you to properly grip the plug, not the plug and cable as the USA plugs.
If I'm in a kitchen and I need to turn off waffle iron in a hurry, with potentially damp hands, I really don't want to have to get a good grip on the cable. Much easier to flick a switch.
There is another reason, especially catering to US plug sockets.
If the switch is on (or non existant) you could poke something into the socket and get direct contact with live mains voltage. Even UK plugs can have this issue, as you can just press in the ground to reveal the live and neutral wires. Another thing specifically for me is that some of my appliances have silly lights on them when they are powered, even if they are not switched on at their end
As I commented on the other video, I think the reason we have switches in the UK is because our chunky plugs are less easy to whip out of the wall at a moment's notice. You have to get quite a firm grip on it around the edges (since the cable projects downwards rather than outwards specifically to discourage pulling it), and if the socket's a bit stiff and depending on the angle you're reaching from you might have to brace your fingertips against the outlet a little. It can take a couple of seconds to do, and if it _were_ an emergency situation (whatever that would be - and however unlikely) it wouldn't be as easy as it is for you in this video, particularly if for example the user has less grip strength (arthritis etc.).
So the upshot is that the argument for having outlet switches in the UK _doesn't_ apply to somewhere like the US, because of the difference between the two plug types. Whether we should have these great big individually-fused plugs is another discussion, but given that we do, and that that makes them less easy to yank out of the wall, I think socket switches make sense _for these plugs._
This! Our plugs require a fair bit of force perpendicular to the wall to remove. There's no cheating by pulling at an angle. And often, furniture like TV units are pressed up close enough to the plug to make unplugging difficult.
So, just reach down and hit the switch.
I think @TechnologyConnextras is overthinking this. It's a convenience to help with our large plugs. Nothing more.
And of course, your plugs were designed to double as caltrops, so it's vitally important they stay plugged in, where stepping on an unplugged American plug isn't that bad :P
I’m not even from the UK, but this has always been my understanding as well, and I’ve always kind of wondered why the recessed CEE 7 plugs used in most of the rest of Europe don’t have switches on the outlet, given that it’s not unusual for those to be as hard (or harder) to unplug quickly as the chunky BS 1363 plugs used throughout the UK.
240 volts was a consideration, although I think it's uniformly 220V these days.
@@anonUK not in the UK
There's one thing that doesn't have a switch and likes to arc when I plug it in: my laptop charger. And I'm not afraid of the arc hurting me, but it's definitely hurting the plug (in just a month of use, it accumulated some pretty bad-looking melts -- I do plug it in and out a lot). So I got myself a plug switch that I carry with it all the time, and arcing solved! For this single case, it would be more convenient if all outlets had switches (in my part of the world they don't have; and neither are light-switched outlets a thing).
Even with this I would think it would be more convenient to have a separate switch for the outlet mounted in an easier to reach location.
@@wubbledub In this case, I have to reach the outlet with my hand anyway, because I have to plug in the charger. Having a "remote" switch would be OK too, but we don't have those either.
Lots of appliances (particularly entertainment devices as you call out) in Australia often have some form of standby power draw when when set to "off" by whatever switches or controls are on the device.
This became most notable when living off-grid on solar with battery storage, turns out standby kitchen and entertainment devices were a noticeable drain if not switched off at the plug.
After the toaster dinged, I expected, "Well, this video's done" cut.
If the timer was digital it'd have power draw. Or a normal usb charger.
Some newspapers keep doing eco pieces for people to plug stuff out. Say in finland for example. But finland has never switches on the outlets.
American Electrician here. For the most part, it's not needed. I installed switches for my garage outlets because I have a huge bank of chargers for various things (tools, rc cars/drones, e bike, etc). Its nice to turn that stuff off without unplugging them. Especially since it's all set up in a specific way.
Whoever gets my house when I die is totally going to be able to tell an electrician lived here lol.
I grew up in a household where the kids had to unplug the toaster, coffee maker, and electric kettle [mom was a tea drinker], when you were done with them (I am 40 - so boomer parents). When I asked my parents, it was because they heard stories of people's houses burning down. Of course if you try to find out who, it was one of those, "friend of a friend" type of stories. And of course, as soon as I moved out I was a rebel and left things plugged in.
I wonder if this is a hold over from unpolarized plugs on toasters where the heater elements could be live even though the unit was "off". Anything that fell or was put into the toaster could bridge to the chassis ground and cause some trouble. With unpolarized appliances, unplugging, or a switch on the receptacle are the only ways to 100% guarantee that there isn't something live exposed to the user.
But what about energy vampires, we keep hearing about on the evening news (clutches pearls)?
My GenX wife insists on unplugging everything too. She does it because she's afraid of fires (and has OCD). This is why we've never had a nice coffee maker, because if I have to unplug it there's no point in having a fancy one with a clock and timer in it since I can't ever use it anyway (for some reason she isn't worried about the Microwave).
But did your house burn down?
I recall hearing stories from my father of 1960s-70s vintage TVs with "instant on" circuitry that drew power while the TV was off to reduce the warmup time when the TV was switched on, presumably by heating the cathode or some such thing--he blamed a house fire that happened in our neighborhood on one of these, and I'm not sure if this was something he definitely knew or not. But I still never heard of anyone unplugging their TV whenever they turned it off.
Ha Ha Ha.. I love that this causes so much consternation on both sides.
I think it's a perfect example of seeing benefits to your normalcy bias.
I'm from Australia, and I see the benefit of having switches at the outlet, but that's because I live with it, and come across situations almost everyday where I see the benefit. However, for those who haven't lived in the same situation, they've created other work-arounds that either answer those concerns, or address the conveniences.
Love your videos, and just ignore the haters.
A sandwich press is the main appliance I've found this useful for. It's used often enough that it stays on the countertop, and it doesn't have a switch.
I have the identical rice cooker to that in the video. It annoyed me enough that I took it apart and added a switch (fortunately the plug was polarized so I didn't need to replace that to avoid switching the neutral).
Yeah, I thought of something like a toastie maker, but ours comes out so rarely that we just unplug it when we're finished with it
@@disorganizedorg What if it wasn't. With neutral switched is still OFF... Really OFF.
Yep, but that is also what makes them so cheap… but a few cents for a switch…
Ah yes - but a panini press is pretty much just a waffle iron (which Alec mentioned) with a different die.
And speaking of irons, he also didn't mention the _clothes_ iron. Another thing you generally don't leave out in the open anyway, though.
The key thing here as I understand it is in the UK (as you pointed out) the plug can not be pulled out by the cord, so in an emergency situation a switch is quicker. I also have found it very useful to switch a device on and then immediately off again when testing something.
Most USA appliances say to never pull from the cord either. Also for those hard to reach areas being able to turn off the outlet while you blindly feel the plug and receptacle… switched outlets = one more convenience option.
@@AmKoz I think his first point is more so about the design of the plug. For US plugs, the cord comes out from the centre of the plug, parallel to the prongs. This makes it easy to yank it out of the wall quickly. For UK plugs, the cord comes out from the bottom of the plug, perpendicular to the prongs. Pulling it out might still be possible, but it'd take a lot more force.
@@Rats136 _Some_ North American plugs are straight, but definitely not all. Right angle plugs are extremely common, particularly on high power appliances but also most plugs with inbuilt transformers.
@@Rats136 If you have a nice long cord/cable, you can pull it moderately tight, then flick it near the appliance and see a wave of cable movement travel towards the receptacle, and see the plug come flying out. Quite amazing how a plug which seems almost un-removable one minute can come out that easily the next.
VERY much NOT recommended.
I have a wall switch right by the door in my bedroom, to an outlet that's under my bed. Your recent video on wall switches made me finally move my lamp from the outlet on the other side of the room (that I would have to stumble through said room to turn on/off) to the outlet by my bed. The lamp is still on the other side of my room, but now I'm turning it on and off from switch.
I'm so, so, so, so verry sorry nobody ever explained the purpose of that switched outlet to you when you were younger. Un-Fucking the switched outlet that had been disconnected was literally the first repair we requested in our current rental. There is so much "handywork" that was done wrong in this place, but getting that lamp switch working again was priority number 1. I said I was on "team lamp switch" on the other video, and I fucking mean it. There's ALLLLLLLLL sorts of dumb illegal shit my landlord did to this house, but getting that electric switch fixed was the first priority.
@@DonOblivious Consider you would be accepted for better rentals with better landlords if you didn't have such a potty mouth.
I have had popcorn poppers and waffle irons with power switches. And higher end rice cookers also have switches/digital controls.
I have had some strange parasitic draws from kitchen appliances. The one that comes to mind is a bread machine that had a crazy draw while literally doing nothing.
My air fryer is the same.
My popcorn maker has a power switch and it's not even some expensive fancy model.
My air popper that I bought for $8 a decade and a half ago has a switch, it makes a big ol spark every time you switch it off but at least it's there?
Conversely, a lot of cheap slow cookers only have LO and HI, no OFF.
@@ZGryphon Weird. It costs next to nothing to add an OFF function to that switch
As a kid in the UK I remember being told in school and PSA's about turning off sockets before bed and if you went out because of fire. So it's probably ingrained. There was also a period before my time when PSA's were put out to switch stuff off to conserve power. I know my Mum is always going on about that. As far as she is concerned something plugged in and on at the wall is using some, no matter how little, amount of power.
To be fair, it does add up.
Also from the UK. Until a few years ago, the standby power consumption argument was totally legit - some devices really did slurp the power even in standby mode. More recent EU directives (2014 I think?) require devices now to draw
Iain, I learnt fairly early on to only buy extension leads without little neon lights otherwise mum would go round constantly turning the ruddy things off.
Chris, agreed, but it's still a bit eye opening to go round and measure the actual power being drawn by appliances you leave on - including some which shouldn't really be drawing anything much.
@@MinotaurUK I don't mean in Standby I mean like off off. Back in the days before Standby was even a thing. Like the toaster in the video. If it's off there is no circuit so no power draw.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video. And the only single time I have ever wished we had switches on our outlets was indeed with an air popcorn popper. The cord had gotten so hot that when I grabbed the molded on plug to disconnect it, the softened plug simply slid down the wires. A dangerous situation to be sure, but more of an argument for a switch on the device than a switch on the outlet, as reaching to the outlet to turn it off still puts you dangerously close to the hazardous wire. I resolved the problem by bodily yanking the popper itself away from the wall, causing the copper wire itself to pull out of the outlet, and then cutting the cord off and depositing both components of the popper in the trash where it belonged. Switched outlets are a convenience, but I see a switch on the device as being the safer and more convenient option.
I had that happen with a toaster, and I wasn't going anywhere near that burning cord. Ran down the basement and flipped the main breaker. The toaster cord is still arcing and burning away. Also the lights are still on in the house. Went back down the basement and flipped off every circuit since they were unlabeled. That actually worked. The breakers in that house were not reliable, I did replace the main breaker though. Probably should have replaced the whole panel, but it was Dad's house and he wasn't spending the money.
Jesus christ
The only purpose I see for switched receptacles is for circumstances where you want to avoid phantom power use, such as with newer electronics, chargers, etc. The switch makes it easier to turn these devices completely off since you don't have to unplug them and re-plug them in.
However, in North America we can easily get this functionality by using either a power bar or surge protector. And honestly when it comes to devices that would use phantom power in the first place, having them on a surge protector is the right move.
In Australia you can buy power bars/surge protectors without switches on them, because the assumption is you have one at the socket.
@@HesderOleh Same in the UK, although I generally buy the ones with switches. If I have a few items plugged in to a multi-way block, I prefer to leave them plugged in but switched off rather than unplugged and trailing across the floor.
Certainly in the UK, the point of the switch on the socket was to allow the plug to be inserted into a "dead" socket. Before sleeved pins were a thing, to ensure you didn't have the risk of live pins that could be accessed while the plug was inserted, you always ensured the switch was off while plugging in or unplugging the device.
Yes, these days there is no need for them, as sleeved pins (certainly in the UK) is the normal, and gfci/rcd units are the norm too, but we are used to them, so we keep them. It's completely automatic to switch off before unplugging and plug in "dead" and then switch on. It's safe. And yes, the UK has the safest electrical system in the world. We like to keep it that way.
Also, sometimes those dodgy phone chargers from eBay don't have sleeved pins
If you are careful enough to use the switch you are careful enough not to stick your fingers into the prongs. I have never found that to be an issue.
So it's just a habit from the old days and it would confuse people if sockets would have no switch anymore?
About the safest system: Isn't it that you run a ring with 32A and it has to be a ring to handle the full load? Isn't it that if the ring is disconnected somewhere, it goes undetected and you could potentially overload the wires in the wall and cause a house fire?
@@mankysalad350 indeed. And they do not comply with BS1363.
I think plug shape is a big aspect wrt UK/Type-G plugs. The fact that it comes out at an immediate downward right-angle and has an otherwise very flush profile with the wall, it makes it very common to have thing pushed really far back in front of the socket making a switch way easier than 'just unplugging' whatever appliance it is.
But why would you even need to unplug it? The only reason I unplug something is if I'm moving it. And in that case a switch wouldn't help me.
I think this is the main reason to have them, in South Africa we have type M which also isn't as easy to pull out as the US plugs seem to be because the outlet grips the pins pretty tightly and the wire comes out at a right angle
@@WoodByWright more complex electronics that have AC/DC converters and/or anything with a standby mode will naturally draw power when not in use so turning them off can save money
But if something is all the way against the plug isn't it going to be covering the switch as well?
For those appliances that don't have a power switch, I prefer to just have an unswitched outlet and have to plug in and remove the cable manually. It gives a much better visual on whether it's powered on or not, and you also are not at risk of accidentally turning on your rice cooker, grill or whatever by flipping the switch when you bump something against it.
UK plugs can actually be difficult to remove, it's part of the reason they introduced the shrouded power pins, people would wrap their fingers around the back to get a better grip. They make plugs with a finger loop to help people with restricted hand strength, or you can buy stick on loops.
I have many appliances running on multiway extension cords, you know, the ones with a fuse in the plug with an appropriate rating for the cable. I use the outlet switch to turn off all the loads at once.
I think this might be an important point. In case of an emergency I could imagine a UK plug being quite difficult to remove quickly.
@@OliverBrown True, but that still doesn't justify those who think outlets *need* switches.
@@Owen_loves_Butters Absolute _philistine_
Same with side entry AUS/NZ plugs, they aren't easy to remove in an emergency
UK plugs have a lot going against them. Ungainly, difficult to plug in and remove, do not fit in places nearly all other types fit in, can be stepped on in a rather painful way, are far larger than necessary, no one besides the islands use them, and I could go on. However, they do have a great big fuse in them which hopefully will protect you in the event you are using very old outlets or breakers like the 1980's vintage in the home my parents own. But in typical UK fashion, they've even made it difficult to tell if the fuse is good as it is opaque. I suspect whomever were on this design team hated everyone in the UK, but wanted them to at least not be electrocuted by ancient appliances and electrical wiring.
I could see it being mildly useful for the rice cooker. I keep mine on the counter. But I also wouldn't be surprised to find that folks who make rice enough to leave them on the counter, also make rice enough to want a slightly fancier model (which are still dirt cheap)
Even the "expensive" rice cookers are still cheaper than the next more expensive appliance by quite a margin. And those DO have dedicated on/off switches.
In Asian households with rice cookers, there is always rice either cooking or warming. Otherwise the rice cooker is unplugged and put away.
@@alliejr Yep, my wife indeed always has the rice cooker either cooking or warming, or unplugged.
This rice cooker has an on off switch. Asian-style rice cookers sometimes have no power switch, because they have a handle and automatic cord winding. Living spaces are so small all their customers unplug and put away the rice cooker between uses. It's a non issue. I have one of these.
Vampire loads - yeah use a "real" switch. Having your whole entertainment center on a switch means you can kill vampire loads, or if you're worried about a brownout, click, disconnected. Beautiful. It's great.
@@alliejr But in Asian-American households it's common for them to be either cooking, warming, or sitting on the counter still plugged in just like every other American appliance.
I have a Tiger (Japanese-made) rice cooker and it's designed to be left plugged in. It has a delay timer so you can set the exact time you want the rice to be ready.
I will say that unlike most American appliances it has a battery backup for the clock and would tolerate being regularly unplugged, but there's no real reason to, it draws basically just enough power to keep the LCD on.
Just imagine Alec on a trip, staying at an AirBnB only to discover that there's a switch on the wall which-when flipped-sends power to the electrical outlets on the back wall of the kitchen, each of which has its own UK-style built-in switch...
Each with an appliance plugged in with a switch on the appliance
@@ilajoie3 and within each appliance, a smarty pants computer button that illuminates a GAUDY BLUE LED
I want to play a game...
@@StrokeMahEgo I don't think that tiny bit of blue led matters much. Its has been changed to two small white light dots on my recent HP laptop.
@@ilajoie3 I bet the house probably has a relay you can switch off too. And a transformer of the street that can shut off. And a power plant somewhere that needs to be connected. Insane
I lived in the ME where we use the British switched outlets for half my life, and the other half in Europe without switched outlets, and TBH, I do miss the switched outlets.
For most appliances, it is indeed like you say, they have integrated on-off switches, but for some, it adds some piece of mind.
For things like an iron, a switch provides a very easy way to make sure it's turned off regardless of setting. I can leave my iron on the board, set to the temperature I use to do my shirts, and not have to worry about whether it's on/off or whether I left it on the cloth part or the iron stand part. Most accidents happen due to human error, and the lower the mental effort, the less chance of an accident due to mental lapse.
Another would be a computer or laptop, where shutting down the device doesn't turn off the power supply.
The switch itself adds a few pennies/cents to the cost of the outlet. If you don't need it, you don't have to use it. It's really about having the option to use it if you want to.
For microwaves I like the switch too - mine doesn't seem to be able to switch off whilst plugged in, just goes into standby. And as the socket is in an awkward spot to unplug and plug in the plug, a switch is really handy. A little anecdotal, but there we are.
@@yellow326 the problem is that the clock on the microwave needs power
@@awesomestuff9715 Never occurred to me to use the microwave clock, oven is right next to it and the unsatisfaction of 2 clocks showing slightly different times is too much to bear 😂
@@yellow326 that's true lol
When I used to be an electrician, I had to wire up some apartment blocks where you could switch off all outlets in the kitchen. Turns out it was elderly housing and they needed one single switch that was guaranteed to turn everything off in the kitchen.
Weirdly I don’t think he’s ranting about wall switches rather the reset buttons on GFI
@@shinanon This was a follow-up video on one about wall switches on outlets. You should check it out. More ranting. 😆
Brit who now lives in the US. We were brought up and taught that we have switches on plugs, so it’s weird not to see it. We are currently having energy prices increasing 400%+ so reducing vampire loads has become steadily more mentioned by ‘money saving’ shows on TV and in consumer media. I had never seen as many remote control and timer receptacles until I went to Home Depot at Xmas, so culturally turning off the Christmas lights before night time is normal. We iron our clothes, they don’t have switches on them (well they have a dial but maybe it’s just me but I switch it off at the wall). When we went on holiday for more than a few days we’d turn off all the plugs of things with heating elements to reduce risk (again fear driven by media reports). All in all to say - we were brought up to culturally turn stuff off. Do I do it now in the US, nope. Most stuff is designed to not switch and most vampire loads are for a reason.
ah yes, the 1 watt vampire load will explode your electric bill. god forbid youre gonna have to pay a dime extra when the general electric prices are going 400%. maybe its to keep you distracted from the real problem which is them increasing prices just from fear instead of actual cost of energy production
You can buy outlets with switches in N. America, but they're considered specialty items and not too popular. They look like a regular duplex outlet, but with a switch in one half and a single outlet in the other. You may have seen a bin full of them at Home Depot. They also sell duplex switches that fit a regular outlet box, like an outlet, but two switches instead.
@@dougbrowning82 AFAIK those half-outlet half-switches are mostly used where you only have a switch but also want to add an outlet.
@@eDoc2020You can still wire them to the outlet though, right? You would just need to connect the switch terminal to the outlet.
@@LoganT547 Yes you can.
I've lived in the UK all my life and the only thing the switched plug sockets have ever been told to me it's useful for (aside from safety which is debatable) is for like you mentioned, thing that drain a small amount of power at all times, and as you say, it's inconvenient to do it every time you use it, but if you're going on holiday for 2+ weeks it's not that big a deal to turn certain things off at the plug to save yourself some money while you're away and not using it anyway.
Yes I see you could just unplug, but especially for hard to reach plugs, a switch is easier to press with a finger shoved down the back of a unit than moving the unit entirely.
This is it for me. I grew up in the noughties and there was still lots of reminders to turn the TV with the button on the TV rather than putting it to standby on the remote to not waste electricity.
It's also useful working on computers. Just plug the PC in but turn off the switch, you've got a path to ground on the PSU itself, just keep yourself grounded to the PSU to avoid static discharge.
Especially on extension leads for things like Christmas decorations (especially pre-RF remote switches) you could leave it all plugged in because it's a pain to plug it all in manually each time, when instead you flip 1 switch and it's all on.
But ultimately it comes down to reducing energy usage from my era growing up, which at the time likely came from the frugal attitude of treating resources as scarce not abundant during rationing, and these days as just doing a few small things to lower energy usage to help the environment. I remember the ads about how recycling one 330ml drink can can power a TV for however long or whatever.
If i'm going on a holiday for 2+ weeks I'll shut off all the power in my apartment using the main circuit braker
@@sconosciuto don’t forget to clean the fridge I’ve made that mistake before lol
If you're scared about phantom power just turn off the circuit breaker on your power strip/surge protector.
@@itskdog It seems pointless to me because power plants are running at the same speed all the time regardless. Only if there's a significant load will the governing systems introduce more steam/water/fuel to the engine or turbine.
In Ireland (we use UK plugs), if you yank on the wire it won't just come out of the socket. You need to pull on the handy grip on both sides of the plug so you don't accidentally unplug something by stepping on a wire or moving a chair, so in an emergency **for our plug design specifically** a switch is a necessity in an emergency and is much faster to press than fiddling with the grips on the side of the plug. US plugs practically fall out of the socket so pulling the plug is probably just as easy if not easier to do. Also about the arcing, my laptop charger doesn't come with its own switch, and neither do most appliances I can think of (fridge, PC, printer, scanner, copier, DVD player, TV, landline phone)
Either way, ignoring various unlikely hypothetical scenarios, the reason a switch on the outlet is that handy for us is probably because unplugging devices is more difficult for us than for you due to the flat plug design and large amount of friction and contact points between the plug and the receptacle, which makes it way more difficult to unplug a device than to simply flick a switch.
Also many devices (notably the cable TV box, and other things that attach to your television) use a lot of power on standby so flipping the switch leads to great energy savings
Im gonna add to your comment as an australian with our funny frowning plugs.
Our plugs are like the us plugs being we can just yank them out of the wall by the chord, in most cases, the flat plugs that go vertically flat against the wall make this less effective but our standard plugs can just be pulled out. And here we have switches on our power points so while we can still unplug with yanking the chord in an emergency we can also just flick the switch to disconnect power to the socket then unplug the device preventing a fire starting at the socket in the event the problem is socket side rather than with the appliance
But the exact reason we have them im not sure since half the time we dont turn off the outlet if something is plugged in and if we do its because we are unplugging the device anyway so half of us just dont turn the socket off anyway
Half of us turn them off when bot in use and the rest dont and the emergency case we can just yank most of the time though give our arid climate its nice to know the spark wont light up the inside of the wall if its hot and dry enough and gives that extra layer of safety due to it being pretty easy to start a raging fire here
But still seems the switch is more optional here than required but we still got them
There are definitely some devices that don't have power switches on them in the UK that normally would in the U.S., including computers! For example, neither the Sinclair ZX81 nor the Sinclair ZX Spectrum have power switches -- fine in the UK where everyone has switched outlets, but rather inconvenient when the ZX81 was sold here in the States as the Timex-Sinclair 1000. But when the Spectrum was heavily modified for the U.S. market to try to make it more competitive with machines like the C64 and Atari 800XL, and sold here as the Timex-Sinclair 2068, they did add a power switch.
were the power supplies they used switched though? my Amiga didn't have a switch but the transformer did .
Even these days, many cheaper PC PSUs don't come with power switches, especially those in SFF office PCs. These things are rated 100V-240V, so I can't imagine they are unique to the UK/Australian market. I assume if you look at the back of some modern Dell Optiplexes, HP Slims, etc, in the U.S. you won't find switches on them either.
@@mclamby At least in the U.S., the power supply shipped with Timex/Sinclair computers did not have its own power switch. The only way to turn it off was to unplug it or use a switched power source.
@@vwestlife makes you wonder if it was penny pinching or a complete oversight. makes no difference if your flicking a switch or pulling a plug , it gets tedious crawling under a deck or behind a TV to reach the socket every time you want to reboot.
I’m from the UK. I always assumed the main point of the switch was for safety when plugging in or out. Generally, people in the UK will switch a socket off before unplugging something. Whether this is pointless or not, I don’t know (after all, UK sockets are extremely safe already).
My main use of the switch is for when something crashes - like the printer or set top TV box. It is so easy to switch on and off at the socket to get the item to reboot.
Surely, the printer has a power button?
@@JessmanChicken86 Oddly, through watching quite a bit of British TH-cam, many small appliances don't seem to have a power switch on them there
@@JessmanChicken86 On a lot of devices, the power button is not actually a power button, but a standby button. If my scanner crashes (which it does a lot, I need to replace it) there ain't nothing the standby button can do. Gotta turn it off at the wall.
That does seem pretty useful. Especially in a world where home networking equipment is garbage.
@@AgentOrange96 Most people have their router plugged into a power strip for the surge suppression, and the switch on it is easier to reach than the wall outlet.
fancy rice cookers have on/off switches as well, it's just the cheap ones that don't. which makes sense like you said, if you got a cheap rice cooker chances are you don't use it often enough to keep it on the counter anyway. as where a fancy one you likely cook rice very often and so you would keep it on the counter plugged in.
There are lots of non-emergency reasons to want to turn things off at the wall. Power tools on my workbench with easy to bump switches I don't want turning on by accident when I knock things around on my bench, kitchen appliances when I want to stick my hand inside them to clean them, and so on. It's reassuring to flick an appliance switch on and off a few times and know for sure that the supply to it is dead.
A counterpoint is cheap multi-outlet "powerboards" sold in Australia (similar to multi-outlet extension cords in the USA, but running at 240V avoids the problem of too many amps). These often DON'T have switches on their outlets. But they're so cheaply made that it often takes a few tries to get the plug to slot into the internal socket contacts properly, and if I don't turn off the whole power board at the wall I often hear the socket arcing inside as I try to repeatedly jam the blades of the plug into the socket so they go in properly.
Hello! UK here. I’m not unhappy with your take on them but I like the switches.
A socket switch has actually saved my a55 once when I was using an eBay appliance that was supplied with a very cheap and nasty Chinese adapter. It was a poor fit and was tight in the socket. The plastic literally disintegrated in my hand as I went to unplug it and I was left with a handful of wires and pins that would have been live had it not been for the switch.
This is unusual as most plugs here are tough but I was glad of the switch on that day.
Finally, to answer your question, most of our appliances have switches on them too. We love a switch 😊
Keep up the great videos, I’ve been enjoying them for years now and I’m always excited to see one pop up!
Did you learn how to wire plugs in school, or did they stop doing that?
We have breakers here in the US (and so do you), that's the outlet switch in that situation with the melted plug.
You have breakers, we have breakers. Your example is an edge case were I wouldn't be inconvenienced to go to the breaker panel and flip the breaker.
@@misterhat5823 Don't pretend that pulling a breaker is a convenient way of disconnecting a device. It just is not.
@@travcollier No, they didn’t teach it and I’m coming up on 50. I was man of the house from 7 though so I asked a neighbour to show me. He taught me slowly and carefully and I learnt well. First solder iron at 8 though so I was odd 😬
As an Australian who has lived in the US for about 10 years, I have a few points about using switches on outlets.
For convenience I have arranged them into an ordered list.
1. Switch off = unplug but quicker/easier.
If there is any situation where you would unplug a device and leave the plug next to the outlet, that is a situation that would be easier with a switch. Such as your rice cooker if you used it a lot and wanted to leave it on the counter.
2. Off switch designed correctly/ safely.
Most devices have an off switch on them. However, this relies on each product individually doing this correctly and safely. As you have shown, some devices don't have them. And I imagine there is also variability about how well they are designed even when they do have them. One example would be like the old toaster you showed that if you plugged in backwards would switch the neutral instead of the line voltage, so the heating element of the toaster was connected directly to 120V. Some devices now may do something similar, even with the correct polarity. But you don't need to worry about each individual device if you know it's not getting power in the first place.
3. Device may be broken.
Also about switching on the device. You assume the device and off switch for it are not broken, which may not be the case. Some badly made products would be a lot more likely to break than your outlet switch, so it's safer to just not supply any power.
4. Less power usage. (Vampire loads)
Many devices still consume power in standby mode and plugged in. TVs, monitors, computers, etc. So shutting it off may be slightly more energy efficient, without needing to unplug it.
5. Kid safety.
A switched outlet adds another layer of protection for any children who might try to shove a fork in an outlet.
6. American plugs are loose.
It's even easier to use a switch compared to unplugging in other countries. Some American plugs I have seen fall out if you look at them the wrong way, so I could see how it's easier to plug and unplug outlets in the US. On the other hand, perhaps frequent plugging/unplugging leads to loosened outlets, idk.
7. Reduce the penny challenge.
It would also reduce the chance of accidently touching the two partially exposed prongs of the plug when putting it in the outlet. If you are in the habit of shutting off the switch before unplugging it (as people who live in countries with outlet switches usually are) then this is less of an issue. Still an issue, but mitigating risk is still a good thing.
8. Arcing.
Now this is more speculation as I am not sure of the specifics. You mention unplugging the plug when it has current damages the outlet pins. I am curious whether there is less damage if you shut off a switch while there is current versus unplugging. From my experience unplugging 240V in America, there seems to be less damage to the plug if I shut off the breaker first, and then unplug it, and I have seem some pretty bad arcing and burnt pins without doing that.
9. Surge protection?
I also suspect there may be additional surge protection for fragile devices with a switch. Like if you switch off the outlet to your PC when not in use, it would reduce the chance of it getting fried. Again, I am not certain if the outlet switch would completely protect it (compared to fully unplugging it) but I think it would at least help for some range of power surges.
Overall I realize a lot of the these points could be replaced with "unplugging it" instead of "switching it off", but the biggest point there is that flipping a switch is easier than unplugging something. That's why we use a light switch and not a light plug. I see outlet switches as a net positive, and if they were implemented it would not even reduce compatibility with plugs and appliances, so I don't see much of a reason not to use them in new constructions.
The best part? If you're someone who's completely anti-switch and still unplugs the devices, the switch isn't stopping you!! Why take away an option people clearly want and use, when that option is easily ignoreable by the people who don't want it?
re: 8. Arcing: Yes, a switch is designed to open or close the circuit as quick as possible (no matter how slow you actuate the switch), to reduce arcing. Switching off the outlet would mean there's 0 arcing on the plug/socket, and the arcing would be limited to the switch contacts, which are designed to handle it - largely by moving as fast as possible, but also having a wide surface area make contact at the same time.
From a safety perspective, devices shouldn’t have exposed voltage under any circumstance, so I can’t really see the safety benefit of a switch, re: polarity of AC plugs or the like. If there’s no ground pin protecting the device’s (metallic) casing, the device is supposed to be double insulated, such that there is NO a chance of user contact with anything at mains potential.
Everything propping up an argument with “well sometimes things are broken or designed incorrectly” strikes me as a synonym for “sometimes people use things that are a death trap” and I don’t see “because of the switch, only _sometimes_ are they a death trap” as more comforting. We have laws to prevent consumer products from requiring preventative measures to keep from killing people.
Re: Convenience, again, we just don’t do that. There are things in my house that stay plugged in always, and things that are put away when not in use. Very rarely anything between. I’ve given this thought, and it’s just not a feature I miss having. I don’t think I would use it, unless trained to use it for ... reasons ... that clearly don’t apply given the things I use and the ways I use them.
Arcing: Still happens. Just now it’s slowly destroying the switch, so you eventually have to replace your outlet. Regardless how good the switch is at switching, unless it’s a solid state switch with zero-crossing detection, it’s being pitted every time it has to break a live circuit. My advice? Don’t do that. :-)
Vampire loads. Yep. Though, the likelihood of me taking the time to individually power off my sleeping devices to save 4W is pretty slim. Unless I’m going to be gone for weeks at a time, in which case it’s marginally less slim. And for that, the devices in question are probably on a power strip anyway. With a switch.
So, I’m with Alec on this one. I don’t mind that part of the world has them, and uses them (apparently.) But I don’t get it either. It seems more likely to be another part to fail or something that will get accidentally hit with an errant toe or knuckle. Their loss is rarely noticed, and when it is, it’s cured by a $20 power strip that I probably needed anyway, because who only has two things to plug in at any given outlet??
@@nickwallette6201 1st and 2nd paragraphs: I don't see how this strawman of an argument even backs up your claim. "Supposed" and "shouldn't" aren't a good alternative to "can't" and "won't." Even if these straw-people you're arguing against exist and _do_ use "deathtrap" devices, it's still safer _with_ a switch, and laws won't magically save people from that just because there... isn't a switch on the socket? What a mangled sentiment. That isn't even the main reason; convenience is. Slightly more saftey is just a cool side benefit.
3rd paragraph: "I don't have room in my routine for switched sockets and therefore nobody could ever need one" is such a baffling fallacy, I don't know where to start; so I won't. If all sockets were switched and you were still adament about not using them... then just leave all of the switched sockets set to "on"??? Easy peasy.
4th paragraph: Weird how there _isn't_ an epidemic of switched sockets failing due to arcing all across the parts of the world that use them. Switches are _designed_ to do this singular task quickly and reliably a whole crapton of times; how is that better than slowly dragging the plug in and out whenever you want something turned off? It isn't, it's worse. Plus, Ameriplugs are much skinnier and flimsier (and more dangerous, and less repairable, and less sturdy, and... I could go on.) and so the added wear of dragging them in and out of sockets is doing them no favours, especially compared to chad Britplugs with their thicc prongs, insulation and 3-prong design (triangles are stronk).
5th paragraph: Same as paragraph 3, except even sillier because it just lends more credit to the have-switches side of the argument, where vampire loads are only on when you need them in exchange for a marginal effort of reaching for a switch. Are Americans really that lazy?
6th paragraph: Funny how that 'accidental switch-off' never happens. Like, actually never. It's physically easier to rip a terrible Ameriplug out of the wall than to (somehow accidentally?) switch a socket (what, do you just sit on the floor near sockets all day?)
If you don't like switches, then allow switches to be standard, and then just don't use them. I thought Yanks were all about freedom of choice; why take that choice away from us Switch-chads?
@@caramelldansen2204 OK, first... calm down, man. Nobody's taking away your switches. I even said as much in the closing of my argument -- I don't mind they exist, I just don't see the point. Nobody's forcing me to have them, and nobody's forcing you not to.
The way I see it is this:
Alec: "Here's an outlet in America."
Other Countries: "You have no switch on there! That is incorrect!"
Alec: "Why?"
Other Countries: "Because! Convenience! Safety! Fealty to the queen! Protection from vAMpIrEs!"
Alec: "Not really an issue here."
Other Countries: "HERETIC!"
Alec: "REALLY, guys?"
Me: "Yeah, I don't get it either."
You say the primary reason is convenience, not safety, but the OP's (well thought-out) arguments listed point numbers 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 as safety concerns. #1 was convenience, and #4 was reduction of waste.
So, there are all these supposed safety benefits, that I think boil down to: If you're using a device that is so janky that you find the inclusion of a switch to be beneficial, you shouldn't be using that device at all, and US consumer safety laws probably prohibit the sale of that appliance anyway. Yes, it still happens that they show up -- particularly if you order that kind of garbage online from a place that is willing to fake the safety certification logos.
There are a few points in there re: safety that aren't the fault of widow-maker appliances, like #5, Kid Safety, and #7 The Penny Challenge. That's a reasonable point, although I would argue that a kid curious enough to start putting things into outlets is going to fiddle with the switch, too. We've made it obligatory to use child-safety shutters, which are dreadfully annoying, but probably for the best.
The question of arcing is probably a moot point either way, TBH. By the time the switch wears out on a Euro or Aussie outlet, it's probably time to replace the whole outlet anyway. I'll grant that. But, I'm also going to push back on the "it saves those poor plugs from damage!" argument, because I have never... not once... ever... replaced a plug due to arcing damage. It's just not a real issue. There's in-rush current for some switching PSUs, but that's never been enough to damage a plug, IME. Not even close. REALLY high-current stuff, where damage is likely, is almost certainly NOT MEANT to plug/unplug while under load. The device will almost certainly have some means of removing its own load which negates the need for external switching.
Everyone has their own threshold for vampire loads. For me, the devices that consume power while "off" are doing so for a reason -- usually, to be remote-controlled, or to act on some event that happens periodically. Generally, I want those things to continue being available, so I'm not going to disconnect them (by switch or other means) unless I'm not going to use them for a very long time -- which is hardly ever the case. I don't love the aggregate waste of standby power, but I intend to counter that by augmenting my grid power with solar. That energy was just going to bounce off the earth near me and turn into heat anyway, I might as well convert it to heat via some useful function instead.
Finally, enough with the nationalist BS, OK? I mean just as a general rule. "You Americans" this and "Yanks" that. Bah. The whole of UK is just East America anyway. (Or vice versa, if you just cannot stomach the idea of being in someone else's shadow, even only for the sake of an analogy.) The two are so entirely identical it's almost a farce.
Yes, American plugs are not designed that well. It's legacy, and it never changed, and OH WELL. It could definitely be better, but it gets the job done. When an outlet is so wrecked that things fall out of it, that outlet has served its useful life and needs to be replaced. The Brit plug, which would stay seated in that situation, is doing so on account of being a tripod. But if the contacts were so worn out that it couldn't hold its own weight, it would STILL be a fire hazard due to poor contact. So look at it this way: The US plug is doing you a favor by telling you, "I need to be replaced, because my contact resistance is through the roof right now. Therefore, I spit your plug back at you. P-TUH!" A healthy outlet will grip that plug just fine, even if it's a 5lb linear supply with a mains-frequency transformer in a wall-wart package. It isn't going anywhere. And it ought not to for a good 20-30 years, unless you've exceeded its cycle count first by needlessly unplugging every appliance you're not actively using.
Many devices do actually have a bright, backlit lcd screen or at least some indicator led that's not only a vampire load but also just really annoying in the dark. And my induction hotplate has been accidentally bumped on a few times recently which is annoying, although I didn't install a switch about it or anything. I might do that so I can plug lights into that outlet and switch them, though.
If you go back a ways in the channel, he has some choice words for a particular variety of bright blue lcds
The solution there, at least in regards to the backlit LCD screen, is to simply have it timeout and shut off. It's not really that difficult to implement. Beyond that, the only thing that can really benefit from being disconnected in terms of vampire loads is maybe your microwave or stove oven, but then you have to deal with a blinking screen because it was reset, at least on my oven, and you also have to deal with incorrect time too and constantly resetting it back to the correct time.
Brit here; think a drawback of our socket and plug design does make it harder to plug in and unplug devices from the socket, so switch does make it easier for things without a switch. Especially when sockets are often behind furniture in our tiny houses. But you're right, I can't think of many things do that for nowadays, except timely connextra - Christmas lights
if you watched the original video, he actually has a lot of praise for switched outlets where the switch is *away* from the outlet (as would be useful for the cases you described). This is specifically for switches that are ON the outlet.
@@antonliakhovitch8306 Even more so with british plugs, you *dont* want to just leave those things unplugged, and having the ability to switch the plug off lets you leave the plug in the wall, where the plug isnt a G#d(*&n caltrop just waiting to send you to the hospital, and still not have power going to it without having to inspect and verify every single device that enters your home for quality and safety, (also keep in mind, a LOT of people dont have the foggiest idea of how power works) The way I see it is the switched outlet is a peace of mind feature, much easier to trust the one plug, rather than the 100someodd things that might go into that plug over its lifetime
He makes the point in the video about phantom loads, and then says 'but they are in difficult to access areas' - which is EXACTLY why switches are beneficial! It may not be easy to reach behind and switch it off/on, but its FAR easier than having to reach behind and then exert enough levearge to pull it out the wall. Things get worse when you want to plug it back in and the plug is now on the floor out of reach!
I’ve noticed some things are absolute bollocks to pull out the socket, almost like I glued it in! Switches are so useful here in the UK.
Also the fact that British plugs can really hurt if you stand on them
A lot of devices nowadays have internal "power bricks". Printers are a good example. These are always drawing power because the on/off switch isn't really a "power" switch. USB chargers are another thing that are always on as long as they are plugged in, even if they are not in use. The switch on the receptacle is great for all these types of things.
Oh no!!!! Not all $2 of electricity wasted a month!!!!!! God please! Not that!
@@EndOfLineTech Oh no! $2 x 10 appliances per household x 130,000,000 households only equals $2,600,000,000 worth of wasted energy per month in the US alone!
If there's no circuit from the brick to the appliance because of a power switch is the brick still drawing power?
@@TheSuperGuitarGuy As far as I know, the current drawn by, say, a phone charger when no phone is connected to it is below a milliampere.
Everything sold in the EU in the last eh 10 years or more has to have a standby power
After hollering at the video for the first 4:39, Alec finally gets to what I was thinking of. VAMPIRE LOADS.
So I put those on a powerstrip that is more convenient to access than the receptacle itself, or I put them on a... SWITCHED OUTLET!
Power strips are more convenient imo. Some have protections I don't trust the building to have.
@@hayuseen6683 I usually find that the electrical socket''s switches are easier to get at than those on a power strip... but that's because the sockets here are positioned with the assumption that you'll want to get at the switch, where as the powerstrips always seem to end up awkwardly behind or under things because, well, that's how long the cords were (or weren't).
Spending a year with UK plugs made me appreciate them a lot. The plugs are flat/flush with the wall and can go behind things like couches and wardrobes w/o issue. Having nice sturdy switches on the outlets with red (ON) indicators was less fiddly than in America where I need to unplug or search for switches along the length of cord. Who wants to fiddle with a cord?
The consistency, uniformity, and instantaneousness of the switches is nice and I found myself using them a lot.
That isn't to say you can't 'make it work' with American plugs. I just think the preference for these outlet switches doesn't make sense until you experience it first hand.
I guess I have to go back to the UK because I didn't even really understand your explanation there lol
US midwest here. I have two outlets with switches directly on them. They are switched NOT to the outlets they are built into but INSTEAD control two outside outlets so I can turn holiday lights on and off from inside. 🎉😊
Once you’ve stepped on a UK plug on the floor of dark room in the middle of the night you’ll get it! :-D In all seriousness, there aren’t many scenarios in which I’ve found switched sockets to be necessary, but it’s nice to have when you do need it and it doesn’t really get in the way when you don’t.
Americans are aware of the horror of stepping on lego, not knowing there is something a thousand times more painful in the form of a UK plug.
Again, we usually don't unplug these things! But I can appreciate the sentiment of "nice to have".
@@shabba182 In America, we *also* have right-angle plugs. More common to find them on good power strips, or appliance-rated extension cords. Stepping on one of _those_ will ruin your day.
Not trying to downplay the potential pain of stepping on a UK plug, never had the misfortune myself, but I think it's safe to say that all right-angle plugs have a tendency to be evil when they're left on the floor.
In the UK we sleeve the live pins on our plugs and have the contacts in the socket set back, so the pins can't be touched when they're in contact with the live parts of the socket.
But sockets featuring switches predates this, so people being taught that you plug in before switching on would've reduced risk of shock once upon a time. I'd imagine they just stayed part of the standard because people don't usually like it when features they may find useful get taken away, I'm still bitter that my phone lacks a headphone jack.
It is a feature that I have found useful of some occasions, it's good for shutting off devices with an obnoxiously bright displays, I also used to switch off certain things that were plugged in overnight when my dog was a puppy in case she went on a late night chew. Sure, I could just unplug things to isolate them, but in the UK if you leave your plugs laying around, your foot will pay the price for it.
Yeah, as an Aussie kid born in the 80s, it was drilled into us to switch off before unplugging / plugging in. There's not only the risk of arcing, but we used to have the same issue with inadvertently touching the contacts on the plug during insertion (before partial insulated contacts were required by law). Also, the switch is required under most circumstances in our electrical standard (exception is for hidden sockets like downlights, etc).
Yep and in nz we just us the Ozzy electrical code
@@haydenkay-s1v good ol' AS/NZS
one thing l like about your plugs, is you cant swap the live and neutral around like you can on some 2 pin plugs with yours being at an angle
@@debeeriz yeah but you have to trust that ol' mate stevo who wired your house as a cashie after half a blunt knew what he was doing
Even then technically any downlights sockets are still switched outlets because of the light switch
It's always good to have redundancy to kill power in my opinion. In the real world accidents happen. There can be water leaks, pets poking around, toddlers poking around, your hands could be slightly wet, etc. Yes a switch may be pointless to some people but having it really doesn't get in your way, if you hate them just leave them on and ignore them lol
We have breaker boxes, guns, and no COVID camps. You guys voted away your own redundancy against your government. So it's kinda game over for you.
@@unitedstatessc What are you even talking about? We have circuit breakers, guns and no covid camps in Malta too lol. In fact we were the first country in Europe to scrap the pandemic measures completely almost a year ago and had the loosest restrictions during 🤷♂
If you unplug the device when the device is turned on, then there will be a spark from the plug to the outlet. If you switch it off at the outlet first, there won't be any arcing. So basically, trusting the device is off before unplugging is not perfect. You must assume that the circuit is closed when unplugging.
Switches are another SPF. Having a switch on each outlet is a good way to add more surprise failures over time. Switches also arc, so all you're doing is moving the arc causing failures from one place to another if you turn your outlet off when plugging/unplugging. The contacts of the outlet will probably outlive the switch.
@@LokiScarletWasHere In all my 26 years I've never seen a switch or a plug fail tbh it's pretty unheard of in general unless you literally take a hammer or a blowtorch to it. Almost all sockets in our house were installed back in the 70s and the only one we replaced was one that was last year because the outer plastic casing failed
If you really want a switched socket in North America, you can install a combination device (half switch half socket). In the case of "vampire" loads (such as at a home entertainment center) you can plug the devices into a power bar, which has a switch on it.
He covered this in the first video.
Also, when it comes to modern "somewhat" smart electronics, like TV sets, or any streaming devices or for example your network router, there is no point in switching them of completely if they are used somewhat regularly. The take ages to boot, and with some devices, over time, you may even cause harm to them. And powering down your inernet connection these days, ... do I really have to continue? that would render half of the smart stuff useless until internet is back up again.
Otherwise, Instead of having a switch at the outlet, I could understand if they put the switch in the plug, for whatever reason.
Actually, I am just thinking of the switches and sockets we use here in Germany. I think you can get switched sockets, but those usually are like outdoor wall mount (inside switches and sockets usually are in the wall not in a case on the wall) socket and switch combinations. And for outdoor applications, I actually may see some use for those. but then, those are more or less just a switch and a socket in one box. so you can build something like that, but with our regular form factor (square somewhere around 70 mm) those would look weird. Those combinations usually are used where one is the light switch and the other is an independent socket right next to it, for conveniently plugging in a vacuum (or in a basement, as all outlets and switches have to be at a certain hight in case of some flooding.)
I tried to find a socket with an integrated switch, but I couldnot find any from you regular brands. I found some that looked like it, but actually they were just a separate switch and socket in a more compact housing, with the switch beeing rated at 10 A, while the socket is 16 A (peak). There are however, sort of adaptor plugs which plug into the socket, have a switch, and a socket. But those are to be used with caution, as they often skimp on wires and they cannot handle the full possible load.
I've thought about installing some of those light switch on top outlet on the bottom things in a two gang box and wiring each outlet to it's respective switch.
They even have "power bars" with a control outlet that shuts the whole bar off when the device goes into low power mode. You can set the shut off point with a rotary switch.
@@JDHIII3 that's cool I didn't know that. Makes sense since a lot of smart plugs have integrated watt meters.
I think the main thing for the UK is that the plugs do take a fair amount of force to unplug, so it can be easier to use the switch than unplug. There are only a few things that really need them, like maybe irons or Christmas lights, but if you are used to switches, it does feel a lot more convenient than unplugging things, even if it’s not something you need to do a lot. Also, sockets with no switch do exist in the UK, they’re just not very common. Possibly when the electrical standards were originally designed in the ‘40s it may have made more sense, due to more of the appliances being high power and also that our sockets are generally on 32 amp breakers due to ring mains, so you are relying on the fuse in the plug to stop your house burning down in case of a faulty appliance. And I have seen a few cases where that fuse has not blown in an overcurrent situation…
uk plugs also stab you if you leave them in a place
US outlets have to be replaced much more regularly in part due to the fact they get so worn out from the constant plugging/unplugging over time
Yes I was going to mention the UK. Seems many of the households have switches on the outlets because they like to keep their hot water kettle [without their own switches] plugged in for tea. Saw it in a British TV series anyway. From the 60s.
Plus it really hurts if you unplug them, leave them lying on the floor pointy-side-up and then stand on them in the middle of the night! Much easier to just flip the switch off.
Don't you have 230V in the UK? Why do you need 32 amps? That's an insane amount of power for home appliances.
You made me want switches in my kitchen outlets because of those few items that always stay on. I have a sandwich press that is basically just a waffle iron that is on as soon as I plug it in and I see it arc when I unplug it everytime and now I know I'm probably slowly damaging my outlets lol
You could get a "smart" power strip that you can control with Alexa, Google, etc., that will shut off power unless you tell it to turn it on. I have several and they're not only convenient for having another switch, but you can easily control it remotely or set a schedule.
@@leafbelly yeah but in my small kitchen that takes up too much space and I'd want a physical switch
@@leafbelly Do you really need to wiretap your entire house though?
Yes you are burning the plug and spiking the power on that circuit. Hopefully your microwave or other electronics will survive such trauma to the power.
You technically slowly damage your switch every time you use it. Alltought switch connection point are likely more robust.
They sell external outlet switch so get one and you safe 2sec of your life every day because you can leave your devices plugged in 😀
Or even better get a 15min timer switch so you can't forget to turn it off 😎
"However, where you're gonna have the most vampire-loads [is] places where it's really inconvenient to reach down to that switch, like an entertainment-system, where you might have everything in front of the switch, so it's not convenient anyway." And, in those places, what is even _less_ convenient than pressing the switch one way or the other? Unplugging stuff and plugging it back in!
We don't have switches on the sockets where I live, but one thing we would have used them for if we had them were Christmas lights back when they were using incandescent bulbs rather than leds. Sure, you _could_ just pull the plug (and that's what we'd do), but it would have been easier to just flip a switch (particularly if the socket ended up _behind_ the tree.) Also, the switches might be very convenient for people with arthritis and similar issues.
It is easier to have a floor switch on the lead in power cord. Step on it to turn it on and off....easier than reaching behind the tree for the plug (switch or not).
We always had a Christmas light special extension cord with this big red button in the middle of it. It was a stopper switch so you could just come by and stomp on it to light up the tree. It was very neat
@@WillTheBassPlayer yep
@@WillTheBassPlayer Probably have a couple of the exact same one (green plug/cord). Not sure the cords were up to code for the full load of incandescent bulbs but we now have an artificial tree with LEDs so no big deal.
My experience from living in Australia and New Zealand for 12 years was that practically all wall switches were left on as long as something was plugged in and people didn't unplug or use the wall switch to turn stuff off. I don't remember using any appliance or tool that didn't have its own on/off switch. The only time I found switched sockets handy was for the odd application where I wanted to completely unpower or power up something like a string of lights or a battery charger or something for safety reasons (mostly workshop kinda scenarios). Now that I'm back in Canada I kind of resent having to pay extra to buy a socket-with-switch on the odd occasion where this comes up.
I do remember one appliance that didn't have a switch and that was the 'electric jug' (kettle). They had a power cable that plugged in to the wall and to the jug. When the water boiled it tripped a spring loaded device that spit the plug out of the back of the jug. Scared the crap out of us the first time we used one. You reset the little ejection device when you pushed the plug back in.
Whoa, I've never heard of a kettle that does this. All the ones I've used just have the little flick switch that turns off once boiled
Those spitting plugs are no longer used, as there were too many cases of the plug landing in a sink full of water.
@@mal2ksc Yikes!
That definitely is the case 99% of the time. For my case though I turn shit off if I don’t need it on as you never know when a storm might come and cause a power serge or whatever happens. Wouldn’t want to wake up one morning to a dead device due to a power serge. Sure it could be considered annoying to a lot of people but buying a heap of serge protectors for every device would be costly
Did none of the Aussies you met have anything plugged into a power board? Or anything that would stay on permanently while plugged in (common for some older devices and appliances) or in a sleeping mode rather than having a proper off mode (very common nowadays esp among anything advertised as smart)? Did none of them have chargers of any kind?
People use switches mate. An off button or mode on a device doesn't always mean it's not drawing power, not everything has one, and sometimes it's easier to switch off a bunch of things on a powerboard in one go.
Hey, about the whole safety thing, in the UK i was told switches on appliances aren't guarenteed to isolate when switched off, where as the switches on the sockets are! I had a fire safety discussion many years ago where there was a famous fire in a kitchen for an office from a toaster that was actually off but on at the wall. what had happened was that the room cooled off during the morning, just before their first shift, the moisture in the air hit it's dew point and reduced the ability for the switch in the toaster to isolate the 240, it arced over, which melted the pastic then the melted plastic allowed a path for current to flow and a thermal runaway in the toaster, causing a fire. i fully expect 110 to be a fair bit safer in this way, as i imagine it's a lot harder for it to arc like that, but certainly, general advice here is if it's not designed to 'standby' then to use the socket to isolate because they can isolate the full 13A and are much stricter than some of the switches used on certain things, certainly devices designed to only use maybe 5amps as they are only really have switches certified for "running" current, not failure current.
How could they even determine that was the cause of the fire? It sounds to me like the fire investigator determined that the fire started in the vicinity of the toaster, when nobody was around to activate it, and then guessed at the root cause.
That type of thing usually happens on old appliances, though I can't say it's absolutely impossible on newer ones. If that happens on a modern UL certified device, I'll consider changing my stance.
@@MikePerreman How could you know that before it happens?
@@MikePerreman @codmariowarfare for all the safety stuff in the uk electrical system, we can get a lot of "chinese grey market" 220v goods that don't have the same safety stuff that native devices should have and they have an absolutely stellar reputation for sticking to specifications /s so i would hazard a guess that there's a lot of crap floating around that really shouldn't be used. RCDs are a blessing but a lot of houses just don't use them.
@@CODMarioWarfare I would link something but i can't, if you look up "belsize-park-flat-fire-caused-faulty-toaster" you'll see it's not unheard of here, this is one example but not quite the same one. plus the fire safety stuff i did was using material from the 90s where RCDs weren't common in the uk, so it probably wasn't so much a switched live-neutral but live earth or similar. i'm sure there's a lot more safety now but it does make you think.
i always considered it handy for things like phone chargers, electronic equipment that have high standby consumption, my soldering station etc.
it is also nice if you have pets that could chew on cords and so on
Got myself a timer switch with 15, 30, 60 minutes etc on different buttons. Honestly a great addition to a soldering station.
Any pet that chews cords could still do so if the power is ON, please keep such a pet
safely away from cables.
@@pjeaton58 "I'd say, let nature do its work and select 'em out. The more we depend on electricity the more our pets should learn to stay away from cables." My dad used to say.
@@SmirnovSB So evolution should select
for animals with better electro-receptors !
Do soldering stations not have built-in power switches where you are??? That's a completely standard feature in every model I've seen.
(UK) One thing to note is that there are more digital kitchen devices these days such as my microwave, air fryer and coffee machine (which does have a switch, but at the back) and in the past I’ve known someone who was scared about relying on the onboard switch for certain appliances e.g. chip fryer because they feared they would accidentally turn it on because the slider based control was on the front, something I’m sure is snark bait ‘just don’t accidentally hit it LOL’.
Also, the sockets are not necessarily inconveniently located, for example, the switched plugs in my living room are easily accessible and I even recently had to move the plug for the sat TV box because unplugging it was inconvenient for the (older) user for when the box needs a hard reset…..and before you say ‘they could do this instead’, I already suggested it.
There are also times when switching is easier than unplugging due to things like furniture placement not giving enough clearance, for example, very occasionally I need to hard reset something mostly static and the switch is the easiest method rather than moving things around to unplug it.
All good points, especially resetting.
I just have a switched triple outlet bar that I switch off when I'm not using the stuff (which has its own switch each anyways).
As I’m sitting in bed i am next to a lamp who’s plug is jammed between the wall and bed. So (provided this wasn’t a dumb appliance with an obvious switch) switching it off from the wall would be really handy.
(UK) How would you like to move my washing machine to switch it off?
Although I could always turn off that entire room at the circuit breaker.
Some devices overseas don't always have a power switch. A 120 volt arc has nothing on its 230 volt cousin 😈 Switches on outlets seem to be mostly in countries that have or had ties to the UK...saw lots of them in Malaysia and Singapore (which uses the UK system lock, stock, and barrel last time I checked). From what I understand, old clothes irons and vacuum cleaners from the post-war era in the UK didn't have switches.
From malaysia - Never seen a vacuum that came without a power switch, but irons definitely exist without them (and those arcs really are something when they do appear). Not having plugs lying about when we want to curb vampire drain is also a nice thing to have. the three pronged plugs we use sit facing up like turbo-legos; you do not want to step on them.
Well if there is no load there won't be any spark and it depends on where in the cycle it is pulled if it's near 0v it won't spark but also at 60hz vs 50hz it will be back at 0 sooner so the spark won't last as long
@@james10739 so I just have to time it right, I see
@himanbam well i don't think you are fast enough and you'd would need an oscilloscope and it does cross zero 120 times a second which is why the sparks don't last long
On the subject of vampire draw, a lot of kitchen appliances these days do have a needless vampire draw. I just checked our “Griddler” which we have plugged in all the time, and it draws 0.75 watts “off” without the screen glowing, and “on” with the screen glowing (but not heating) it draws 0.75 watts. Our toaster oven also needlessly has a clock and a soft-touch on-off button. It's not a big deal, but it's something.
Also, when it comes to unplugging something that has a problem, without a fuse in the outlet, an appliance with a short could be trying to draw 15A on the cable, and possibly melting it. In that context, having to grab the hot plug and pull it out is less fun that turning off a switch, even if switch is nearby.
But mostly a switch is just an extra bonus. Rarely needed, but sometimes useful. It's like saying “does a car need heated seats”, no, you can be fine without them, but if you have them, sometimes it's nice.
so just unplug it
The only time that would happen if there's a short directly in the plug that draws the perfect amount of current to heat up to dangerous temperatures but not enough to trip the breaker. I'd say probably not likely enough to be considered an actual safety benefit.
You make the point that you can touch the pins of the plug while they are still connected to the outlet, potentially getting shocked. This used to be the case in the UK before legislation required sleeved plug pins. The outlet switches are a throwback to that time. You switched the outlet off before plugging or unplugging to prevent getting a shock from unsleeved pins.
I'll admit that I rarely use any of the outlet switches in my Australian home. With the exception of one beside my kitchen table if I'm using my sandwich maker (one of the few appliances that does not have its own power switch). However, in my retail business, I have a number of lighted display cabinets, both wall-mounted and freestanding. Those are all turned on and off via the wall outlet switches which is a heck of a lot easier than individually plugging and unplugging them all every morning and afternoon.
Another point is that some plugs are a very tight fit in the socket and need more than your thumb and index finger to insert or remove them. A flick of a switch with one finger is so much easier. Other than that, yes, they're generally pointless these days.
i rarely use them either but its nice to have when you want them. i guess more than anything though i just like the design im used to
for the UK, our plugs can be annoying to remove, it's a side effect of their safety but it's still annoying to plug stuff in and out often. I also once had a lamp with a switch where you'd push a bit of plastic in and out under the lampshade which was annoying to reach so switching the outlet on and off was more convenient. Most things do have off switches now, but it's nice to have a universal "I'm certain this thing is not receiving electricity" toggle though not necessary
Those are one of the "original" types of lamp switch - usually found on old lamps these days. Thankfully nowadays you can reduce the risk of burning your finger somewhat by using an LED bulb.
Yes, but _why_ are you plugging stuff in and out often? Unless you're moving something into place or taking it away, in which case the switch doesn't help?
@@jyrinx I have a toastie maker which I use often enough that it stays on the counter top and doesn't get put away after being used. It doesn't have it's own power switch, so when turning it off an outlet switch is easier to use then unplugging it, and it makes the kitchen look tider because there isnt a loose plug visable. It's niche, but the switch is a nice to have for those rare uses
@@icetanker8062 That's the point, though. The switch on the outlet is only necessary because of the appliances that depend on it. So really it comes down to whether you'd rather have the switch on the outlet or on the device.
I love the energy in this video. It reminds me of your old video where you just explained over and over again how an oil heater and an electric heater, rated at the same power, will heat the room in the same way/same amount of time. Never stop explaining to people how their thoughts make no sense.
That was such a great follow up video.
Except this time he is wrong...
@@debochch how tho
@@therackstar I use these switches daily to turn off my entire work benches. I have multiple devices plugged in and the easiest way to kill everything it to use these switches. Fuck unplugging everything each day. Fuck going around each device and switching them off. One switch does it all.
@@debochchSee thats a usecase thats not standard though. We unplug literally nothing here cause either everything has a switch on it or theres a main switch near the door that just shits everything off at once in the room
As someone who spent the first 25 years of their life in the UK, switched outlets can be useful in areas where appliance cords could become damaged or wet, e.g. kitchens or work benches. Imagine pushing a hot saucepan up against a plastic appliance cord, the cord insulation then melting, potentially making the entire saucepan live (and in the UK at 240V). That could be pretty bad. Yes some cords are sheathed in robust material, but not all - and the appliances in your video seem to have cheap plastic cords, with little to no heat protection. Same scenario with, say, a soldering iron at a workbench, with several other equipment cords. If most of the switched outlets are switched off then the risk is reduced.
Well, I think it's because people hear about 'Phantom Power' draw, when an appliance is off. For example, in later years, the CRT style televisions would keep the tube heater on to get an 'instant on' feature out of a TV (rather than wait for the tube to heat up). Other appliances also these days have a certain amount of phantom draw, and I would say some people just aren't mechanically or electrically inclined, and don't understand that a simple device like a toaster oven doesn't have any phantom draw. As you pointed out, there's a physical switch that breaks the circuit, and there's no phantom draw. Chalk it up to people who don't know what they're talking about, but like to repeat what they heard before but don't realize NOT EVERYTHING has a phantom draw. In any case, phantom draw or not, I leave everything plugged in.
When you look in to it, there's actually quite a bit of power being used by all the plugged in stuff that has a light or a clock or some kind of sensor to feed. Not a kettle that's just plugged in and turned off, but those digital TV things...
though some things have indicator lights even when they're "off"... in which case it's pretty much got to be drawing some power.
I'm not sure this is as common anymore but it definitely used to be pretty common... probably mostly on CRTs as you said :P
Parasite draw
@@soroh0062255 If by "quite a bit of power" you mean the equivalent of a light bulb, or less, then it's really a non-issue, unless your utilities rates are sky high. For most people, putting things into standby or sleep mode is perfectly fine. Unless it runs on batteries, you never really need to turn it completely off.
@@PongoXBongo digital TV things are more than a light bulb! Up to 25 euros a year for us, and while that's not a huge cash amount in the grand scheme of things it's electric spending you might not need unless you're recording a lot during the day or so
A few more things you might want on a switched socket that don't have switches themselves: Foreman grills and the like, some sandwich presses, some nightlights, a bunch of different fragrance dispersal devices, and most chargers.
Also prevents sparks that occur often when plugging various devices into a socket, as they're drawing current even while off.
@@Official-Comments The switch will make a spark instead.......
sandwich presses fall into that category of "items plugged in only in use" -- which if you have a gigantic counter I can see leaving them out and the switch having value.
All the nightlights I've ever used have a light-sensor on them, so they're only on when it's dark -- so IDK why you'd use the switch?
The list is endless… Irons, hair straighteners, any step-down power adapter etc etc
I believe the reason non-British people don’t understand the usefulness is mainly a cultural one.
@@mazzgr of the things you listed, 2 of them fall under "you only take it out when you need it, so it's not really plugged in when not in use", and the step down power adaptor doesn't exist in 120 volt countries, and also doesn't draw power if the thing that's plugged into it isn't.
The only thing I own where I would maybe benefit from an outlet switch is my Christmas lights, and I only need that for 1 month of the year. And I can just use the extension cable I own with a switch built-in to do that.
In the UK, it's a safety thing so that appliance flexes are not permanently live when plugged in, but it's also common for appliances to be distant from the outlet and using the outlet switch is sometimes more convenient.
Incidentally, George Foreman grills also lack a built-in power switch. Thankfully, you can get little 1-foot extension cords with inline switches pretty easily (one assumes you'd buy something appropriately-rated).
I would love to see a video about popcorn poppers. I've never understood why they don't have switches. As much as I LOVE the arcing when I pull the plug out, I'd rather not have to replace it because the plug eventually melted.
It's mostly the cheap ones that don't, I think it's because they're so cheap, and there's no reason to leave kernels in there before turning it on, and no reason to leave it on after they are popped. Thus, there's no reason to not just unplug it. That's my thinking anyway. Power switches add up when your goal is to make an appliance as cheap as possible.
There are not-cheap popcorn poppers?
I love air-popped popcorn and we probably make it at least once a week (with 'spike' and nutritional yeast so we can pretend it's a meal), but ever since our air popper of two decades gave up the ghost, I haven't been able to find one that lasts for more than a couple of years - not to mention having a strong enough fan to not burn kernels!
my popcorn popper has a switch (it's the "west bend air crazy"). super cheap
Switches are expensive and the popper is built to a cost.
The arcing in the socket when you plug and unplug stuff isn't going to do substantial damage. The mechanism that retains the plug is going to wear out long before the arcing from normal use erodes away enough of the socket for it to become a problem.
The hot air popcorn popper I have has a switch on it. It was ~$25, so on the cheaper side.
I find the Australian switched outlets and power boards extremely useful for setting up Sound systems for events where speakers can be far apart and up on stands and all the components need to be powered in a certain order
Whats the difference between going to each to switch them on versus going to each to plug them in, both in the correct order of course.
@@HyperSarcasticAvocado If you're constantly moving from venue to venue probably not much (it does technically mitigate some wear due to arcing and there could technically be some power fluctuations when plugging/unplugging things but both are pretty minor). When I used to work sound at my old church we had a device that would power on and off various devices in the right order and with the right timings (it was programmable of course) but that device wouldn't need to be plugged into a switched outlet as it was effectively a very smart switched outlet itself.
@@HyperSarcasticAvocado if it's 6 speakers all on a 4 metre stands 20 to 30 metres apart that are all loaded in, set-up and patched in before power has been supplied at the job site, the difference is about 30 minutes of effort
@@grn1 We actually do stuff like that in the states sometimes. My old chruch just had a bunch of outlets that had power interrupted by switches in the wall. Really convenient to control nearly all the power for the av equipment from one oversized wall panel.
@@duncanwilliams2350 I also live State side though I don't think I've ever seen outlets with switches actually on them. I think the device my old Church had did run through the walls to specially marked outlets (it's been a hot minute). The device itself sat in our sound booth at the back of the auditorium next to some amps and the sound board thing (I'm blanking on the name of the dang thing but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about). Some things I have seen include power strips that have individual switches, and I used to have a weird sort of power strip thing that was designed to sit under an old CRT monitor and manage power for computer, monitor, printer, and I think a couple other things. It used to be more important to fully kill power to computer devices due to fire risk with the old PSUs (far less common now though I still hear stories from time to time).
240v switched country here(UK) . I grew up with public safety films that unplugging or turning of switches was all about safety. You know small kids turning things on that were just barely within their reach. We certainly had a lot of safety films re big old tube crt TV's causing house fires. Probably a legacy thing.
The UK sounds like a "Nanny State" where big daddy government thinks its citizens should not have any responsibility for their own safety. Sounds like tyranny through safety to me. Good luck with that
In kitchens, one of the risks the switch on the socket mitigated was spilt water on to the counter top getting into an appliance. If it's off at the wall socket, and water gets split onto an appliance, all is still safe. Unplugging achieves the same thing, it's just the switch on the socket is easier. For my TV in the living room, the socket is slightly offset set to the right of the TV. So I can just turn everything off/on with my toe, which is very convenient, for killing vampire loads.
The number of people who are electrocuted in their homes each year in the U.S. is around 300. That's not 300 thousand, that's just 300. And that number includes electricians and contractors that are at risk of such while doing their job. I'm sure that that number is equally low in the UK.
@@RetroBytesUK I'm having a hard time figuring out how I could possibly spill water onto an appliance in a way in which it would cause a short circuit. Maybe dropping a toaster into the sink? In any case, outlets near the sink are required by code to be GFCI, so in that case the switch shouldn't matter.
@@vortec4253 As an example my wife dropped the kettle after filling it while trying to place it back on its base. Most the water ended up getting spilt through the cooling slats of the motor housing for the blender. However it was turned off at the wall socket so no big deal. The on/off switch built into the blender just had metal crimp connectors for the wires, and is of course in the motor housing. If it was not off at the wall, things could have been worse. People can be clumsy, they can spill large quantities of water, in places where handling large quantities of water is normal. So the less live appliances on the counter tops the better.
I'm from the UK, home of the switched outlets! And most of the outlets sold are switched nowadays, but it wasn't always that way, I remember when I was a kid switched outlets being "fancy", something people would pay extra for, but with reduced manufacturing costs today its just as cheap to buy a switched outlet as a unswitched, kind of like how all cars have AC now when it used to be a luxury.
For myself there is one very specific use case where switched sockets are more convenient, side table lamps! There is no switch on the lamp, the inline switch is buried in a mess of charging cables down the back of the unit, but the switched outlet is 6 inches above the height of the table just behind the light, these are the only switched outlets I regularly use the switch on
I've always assumed it was to eliminate the risk of shock while plugging/unplugging, if your fingers accidentally touch the prongs of the plug when energized. As this video and another one of your good videos notes US plugs are energized when the prongs are still exposed, so switches could be a good feature in the US. Perhaps redundant for UK plugs which have other safety features to prevent you from touching live prongs.
Since we use 120V, touching exposed prongs is very unlikely to seriously hurt you. It's still unnecessary danger though.
When I was a kid I accidentally touched one prong of a plug while plugging something in. It buzzed and I dropped the plug. No pain, no burns, the house didn't burn down, and I learned a lesson about making sure I didn't touch the prongs.
@@JohnKelly2 Exact same story with me
Alec: some appliances have switches and some don’t. Why do you need switches?
Us: because some appliances don’t have switches?
I have a George Foreman grill that doesn't have a switch (it's a very old model). I normally toggle it on and off so that the outside of the sandwich doesn't burn before the cheese melts. That's quite useful to have the switch, especially as the UK plugs are harder to pull out than US ones. Another use I can think of are Christmas lights (though I use a smart light plug to toggle it on and off with Phillips Hue) so you can turn them on and off as needed. I guess I am young enough that I've never thought about safety or arcing as one of the reasons for the switches. In short, most of the time they aren't needed but it can be handy for a few devices.
Wow, the new ones have switches? That is the most annoying thing about mine. And I use it often enough it has a permanent place on my counter.
Also for lamps. A switch is a bit more convenient than the one on the lamp itself that you have to reach under the shade and then rotate. For someone disabled, this could be a very big deal.
Having used switched outlets my whole life, I do find they are very occasionally mildly more convenient. What is much more convenient are individually switched outlets on a power strip, as the force required to unplug from the power strip is usually more than enough to pick up the whole board, even if it has all its outlets full. Having a switch for that one outlet on the power strip means I can easily turn off the water heater in my aquarium without having to use both hands in a hard to reach place to hold the power strip down while pulling the plug out.
I still think having switches on the outlets themselves wouldn't be a terrible idea, even if you never use them. Perhaps they could be combined with GFCI/RCD somehow. Either way, there are worse things in life than redundant switches.
Problem with combining it with GFCI is that you can run a wire from a single GFCI to multiple other (regular) outlets to have them all be GFCI-protected... so your switch for one outlet would also knock out all the rest. (My dad's house has one GFCI in each bathroom and one in the garage, even though they have like 2-4 outlets in each)
Most places outside the US don't need RCDs in outlets because the whole house/apartment has one in the fusebox for everything.
You could test/reset the GFCI/RFD to shut it off/on if you wanted a switch on the outlet.
*That's really jank and could result in damaging the protection capabilities of the outlet but it would /technically/ work. There's probably someone out there doing this now that I think about it oh no.....
@@leonharder4846 Yep. It's like in some countries, protecting against earth leakage is a good idea in every room, not just wet areas.
I’ve found switches in outlets to be very frustrating when traveling, because large power adapters that plug directly into the outlet (think wall warts or USB adapters) can actually be big enough to hit the switch on the outlet.
Another use case would be dark-activated nightlights which don’t have switches on them. Would be convenient to turn them off without having to unplug them.
Lots of those in the US have switches in them. Though so do not, but I imagine they'd likely cover the outlet switch anyway, so still not ideal. I think buying a switched one if you want that is the better bet.
definitely agree, cheap rice cookers (there are much more high-end and high-capacity ones with more advanced controls and an on/off switch), popcorn poppers, and waffle irons might be assumed to be temporary presences on your countertop, while coffee machines and toaster ovens are probably assumed to be permanent fixtures on the countertop and need to be dead in order to be rated as safe to leave alone
Add Hot Glue Guns and Irons to the mix. I hate that I can not leave them plugged in safely when I am done using them. I get that it seam to be very cheap and basic items cut out switches to cut cost, these item all seem to be just heating elements in a specific form factor. So i end up using a power strip to easily turn them on and off.
@@smuckerst8355 yeah. from what I can tell, the situations where it might be handy to have one seem pretty rare. everyone is mentioning outlier situations.
Not having a switch also reduces manufacturing costs and assembly (and one less thing to go wrong especially if under warranty)
I always thought those switches were like a mini-circuit breaker, so if something went wrong, it would automatically trip rather than the entire circuit going. This comes in handy if your circuit-breaker is in an inconvenient place (mine is outside the house).
They kinda are like a mini circuit breaker. They just work a little differently and are absolutely important where water could potentially con into contact with anything plugged in.
@@sexkrazedpanda nope, they are just a regular switch, nothing more. (as in they dont switch off for overload or short circuits)
I live in the EU, specifically the part that uses full fat Schuko plugs, so we don't have switches generally on our outlets, but they would be bloody useful. My kitchen has almost nothing in it with a proper on/off switch, most of my stuff is always on from the moment it's plugged in, my toaster, my mixer, etc. . The other stuff is, that Schuko plugs can sometimes require stupid amounts of force to pull out, that coupled with the fact that you can't know how securely the outlet is attached to the wall means, that we're taught from a young age to use two hands to pull those plug: one hand keeps the outlet in the wall, the other pulls the plug, so it's not just a one hand yoink. (And thats not just a myth here, I personally had pulled multiple shoddily attached outlets out of walls, because i had the sheer audacity to try to unplug something.) A switch would make it easier. But I get the logic still, in an optimal world, those switches should make no sense.
Get a power strip with a switch.
I use extension cords with switches, handy. And no, they aren't flimsy kind of extension cords. With the electricity prices we have now, it feels prudent.
Your toaster heats up when the plug is in? And the mixer starts mixing?
@@nesnioreh Nope, but the LCD/LED panels on them are constantly on, so the internal electronics are powered. Same with my bread maker now that i think of it. So they won't use a shitload of electricity if i don't use them actively, but still, why waste, especially now that electricity is stupid expensive here.
@@LandonJerre If you don’t use them that often then it shouldn’t be a hassle unplugging them.
Australian here, one additional thing I like about switches on outlets is that it is very easy to teach children, universally, how to make sure devices are off.
and it means that young children can turn things off/on without having the additional risk of them plugging/unplugging the device and inviting the whole what if i stick a non plug thing in the hole child curiosity
..and if the kids are inquisitive little squirts like I was, when they stick something* in the outlet they have a 50% chance of it being dead.
---
*Oh, like pipe cleaners with metal wire in them...
?
It is basically an extra safety measure.
Apart from that, it also eliminates the arcing when plugging something in, thereby reducing any potential damage to a device.
The point is turn off at the wall, unplug, plug back in turn on at the wall.
This is pretty dumb. How can you be sure the switches aren't just shorted out and could electrocute you?
yes, that paranoid. It's just an extra level of protection. Kettle and Microwave are the main things I use the switch on the wall for every day. I was taught to always turn off the switch before plugging or unplugging anything (less important these days due to the extra insulation required on all plugs)
I live in the UK and I do the same. I think it's because people running 120V at the outlet don't seem to think electricity is that dangerous compared to those running 220-240V (I don't know, maybe they are correct? I wouldn't like to try. Even 120V @ 32A is probably not a great time...). It was drilled into me as a child to be careful around electricity. Even as you say, modern plugs are safer than they were when I was a child I still turn it off at the socket before unplugging anything.
As an American that's super weeeeeird turning off your microwave
Microwaves function as kitchen clocks in the US so turning off a microwave seems very odd my American brain and a lot of the times our microwave also function as ventilators above the stove so the plug is obfuscated behind a cabinet it's just not practical to US.
@@adamjc86 same. I have taken 240V mains across my fingers thanks to a dodgy plug… it’s not fun.
@@bf0189 although our microwave has a clock, it almost always reads ‘00:00’. The plugs are on the wall near the appliance so are easily accessible.
i feel like this is a holdover from older electrical circuits when not every appliance came with an off switch. i still have a working vaporizor from the 50s that has no off switch, pug it in and its immediately on.
The amount of appliances in house powered by adaptors or which are ‘constantly’ on standby rather than powered off is quite impressive.
A lot of those devices have a standby mode for a reason though. You'll save maybe 10 cents over a year for the amount of power they use in standby by turning off the outlet, and in turn have to replace the battery that you've worn out that stores the saved settings of the device, or worse the device will reset entirely as it has no battery to store settings in.
@@robmausser It's for safety reasons. More active circuits means more points of failure. One of those appliances could heat up, be covered by something or get wet.
A loose neutral contact could make one's apartment effectively connected to 400V.
@@sekrasoftIf it’s drawing a very low amperage (as devices do when in standby) why would it be heating up? Also where are you getting 400v from? We have 120v in the US, not 240v
@@Roomsaver 3 phase maybe?
@@Roomsaver I imagine the heating up when getting wet is probably not an intended feature of whatever device, but a short. Which would not happen if the outlet was unplugged or switched off.
Turning the outlet off with the switch before unplugging something or plugging it in prevents arcing or possibly touching the prongs and being shocked, as you said. It's better to have a feature that's universal so you can use it for the few things that benefit from it. You can leave the switches on and plug/unplug on hot switches still.
Turning off the appliance also prevents arching.
@@m8e Not always. Many appliances (especially those with a power brick) have always on circuits inside them. Relying on getting the plug orientation perfect and pushing in or pulling out fast enough every time is a poor system when you can just flick a switch and know it's not live. And then you can slowly and carefully insert the plug, instead of hammering it in or yanking it out which surely causes far more stress on both parts than doing it when the circuit is off.
@@tyrannicpuppy 'hammering' ...? Are you sure you're using the right plug for the socket?
@@m8e sure, removing load also prevents arcing. But as has already been stated, not everything, including the rice cooker shown in the video, has a zero load setting. Same again with anything that has a light to show power status, like entertainment devices and charging devices. Most power tool chargers, for example, have a light that is red when charging or no battery is connected, or green when charging or no battery is connected. Most screens only have standby or on, where standby still has circuits under load searching for a source of awaiting instruction. Computer power supply units have a switch for this reason also: many computerised circuits will always be under load. I know when I unplug my computer personally, I always make sure it's at its lowest load setting, turn off the power supply, turn off the wall, then disconnect it because that's the safest process.
So, once more, it's better to have a safety feature that you are by no means required to use, that is useful sometimes for some applications, than to not have it ever because it isn't needed for a lot of applications.
Pretty much all our devices in the UK are switched too. I think it's just an occasionally convenient thing, that some people have interalised too much to the point of being anxious when it's not there
I think it's because our plugs are difficult to just pull out the socket.
@@Chrisallengallery That and when your power is 230v it's nice to know the cable is dead too.
My understanding is that one main purpose of the switch is so that the device is isolated when the plug is being connected/disconnected as the prongs on the plug are not really designed to be the make/break when under load - a switch is designed to do this and includes the springy part to avoid arcing etc (technical description). Perhaps this is less of an issue with a lower voltage?
People being paranoid and switching things off at the socket is certainly a 'thing' here though (especially the older generation)! Of course, as Alec noted it's actually more relevant now with phantom/standby than it ever was before. It amazes me how paranoid some people are their toaster or other random appliance might burn down their house if it's not switched off/unplugged, yet everyone trusts their fridge and freezer when they go away on holiday :D
@@timalston you could switch to the almighty Schuko and eliminate that problem. We don't have switches on our sockets and we are fine.
@@BastetFurry Schuko wouldn't be safe in the UK as it lacks fuse protection which is needed due to our ring-based wiring model. A single socket could dray 32A+ before a circuit breaker would kick in, so that local protection is important.
Switches are common in Europe, I think, in places where they have 208 or 240 volts. That would do some more serious damage and be more likely to arc than a 120v appliance would be. Not needed on 110v circuits.
There are many reasons why there are still switches on sockets. The main one being: you dont know what someone is going to plug into it. Maybe it'll have some kind of switch, maybe it won't; so it gives you the option. A big number two is that the swiches used on some of those timers and similar aren't held to the same safety and compliance specs as other kinds of switches and triggers are. So it's best to have a backup.
I have never had a cheap appliance switch fail to on as the are normally open switches.
It would be safer to turn off the gas when I wasn't using the stove, and shut off the water fo the night after brushing my teeth. There is a point where it is a bit much
Isn't this a GFCI outlet?
@@Blake-jl8lh We always turn the gas off to our BBQ with the switch at the gas outlet (a.k.a. shut off valve) after using it. Everyday safety.
The power switch (to the heating element) is in the appliance. Like you pointed out, MANY appliances nowadays do that "always on" nonsense with vampire power draw for the computer brain that drives it.
Also, as you've previously shown, pulling the plug while stuff is running at maximum power, you can get a rather sizable arc, which may be dangerous. A fast clicky switch (as you've also demonstrated previously) would reduce arcing in a situation where you're turning something off in your example emergency.
Overall: a switch on the outlet is possibly neat, possibly slightly convenient in a few edge cases, but probably not really worth the trouble.
I guess it's just whatever you happen to be used to. Here in the UK most outlets do have switches, but it's by no means unusual to come by ones that aren't fitted with switches. I have some wall outlets that are in awkward places, such as behind furniture etc., and so extension cables are plugged in to them permanently, with say, six outlets at the other end, so all the items in the sound system (for example) can be isolated in one go, as the switch is not too hard to reach, but unplugging our big and awkward (but safe) UK plug, and later having to plug it back in IS much more hassle than throwing a switch!
My first 49 years were spent in the UK, I now live in the Mythical Land of Australia, you think the UK square pin plugs are a pain to to plug back in? the Oz blade pin ones are so much worse.
When we lived in England and we were about to leave home for a trip, going around and 'unplugging' things to reduce the risk of damage from lightning (or any other electrical peril) was as easy as pushing the outlet switches so that they were flush with the wall-plate (as opposed to sticking out at an angle, with red tops, to let us know they were live). This was especially nice for things plugged in behind big pieces of furniture and whatnot: you reach down behind the loveseat and push a little switch in-you don't try to get a grip on the plug, pull it out, and risk dropping it to the floor, so that you may have to move furniture to plug it back in.
There is no need to go around the whole apartment and turn off each outlet separately, climb behind some cabinets, feel something somewhere and similar unnecessary things. Just turn off the circuit breaker when you leave.
@@Thales_WH , I ask you to use your imagination and think a little more deeply. Suppose that both your refrigerator and your microwave-oven are plugged in to the same circuit, and that you want to preserve your frozen and refrigerated food while you're out of town but you also want to eliminate the risk that a lightning-strike will damage the appliances that you don't need to keep electrified during your absence. Will turning off the breaker for that one circuit help in such a situation?
@@smadaf There are about 20 individually fused circuits in my house, so it's no problem to leave the fridge and freezer on and the others off without having to bend or go around the rooms. I have a switchboard with circuit breakers right outside the door. However, if my microwave oven is not working, it is completely disconnected from the network with the switch that is located directly on it. It is an older product of the AEG brand, where it has been that way since production.
@@Thales_WH , two things:
1. Is your house the only house, and are you the only householder; or can you imagine other houses with other occupants and other degrees of physical mobility (e.g., ability to reach certain things with their arms) and other preferences and other circuit-designs and other appliances?
2. For at least forty years, most microwave-ovens have been made so that, when they are plugged in, they are on. The magnetron, fan, and light are not always on-but the appliance is, because there's a clock. The list of modern appliances that have a closed circuit as soon as they are plugged in is plenty long.
@@smadaf 1. I don't prevent anyone from solving things in their own way, that's everyone's business. I just pointed to another solution, which in my view is not only more convenient, but better all round. Is there something wrong with it? Don't you do the same? We're just exchanging views on the matter, it's not a conflict.
2. My microwave oven is not really 40 years old :DD In fact, it is completely disconnected from the mains when it is turned off. I don't have a clock on it on purpose - I don't need any timing functions. The stop button is a massive switch, not a microswitch that would control the electronics. I know it very well, I'm an electrical engineer and I've already taken it apart once. You are right, however, that many devices have some quiescent consumption even when they are in stand-by mode. I try to avoid ones that I suspect have a greater tendency to fail. Some equipment is good to check inside every once in a while as part of prevention. It won't solve everything, but it's a good starting point. It's not possible to monitor everything anyway, it's more likely that the switch will blow one day. To turn off every device with an extra switch after every use is too convenient for me. But as I said - let everyone deal with it according to their needs. But thanks for your opinion.
The benefit I see is reduced receptacle wear from plugging into and unplugging commonly used devices, such as power supplies for electronic devices or electronics that have some measurable standby power draw. This allows you to kill power without physically wearing out the outlet. Switches tend to have far more cycle life than receptacles.
I have a vacuum sealer that doesn't have a power switch, you have to unplug it to power it off. Apparently it's designed under the assumption that I have switched outlets. I've read that this is common for stuff that's designed for European markets and reworked for 110.
UK has switched sockets but they are uncommon in mainland Europe.
Alec, I personally installed switches in all of my US kitchen receptacles because I got super annoyed by plugging things in/out for stuff that doesn't have their own switch like many of Hamilton Beach appliances. I don't wanna receptacles falling out from the wall after having sex with plugs so many times.
Buy better appliances 🤷🏽
I've had sex with plugs many times, but I think we mean different things... 🤔
@@ThisIsMyRealName Why should I? HB does the work and lasts for decades.
@@arthurvin2937 I'm sure your outlit was also doing just fine until you got a product that didn't have an off switch.
Hadn't considered that's yet another reason why the US plugs have such awful retention. If the only way to cut power is to yank it in and out, of course you're going to be over stressing the connection. Especially the way I see most people do it by simply yanking the cord, no matter what angle they pull from. Adding torque stress to an already poor design.
On safety, a quick google of various government data sites suggests that there were about 1000 electrical-related deaths in the US last year, compared to just 30 in the UK. Electricity is dangerous, especially if the voltage is at 240v like the UK. I know Americans have a fairly lax attitude when it comes to dangerous, potentially fatal things (guns being the obvious one), but it strikes me that the more convenient failsafes you can build into something, and the less you have the make physical contact with the live plug and/or socket, the better. And that doesn't even cover the benefits of switches when you are dealing with stuff that have standby lights, like TVs, drawing low power constantly.
Things to take into account for the UK - its tradition, its required by safety rules/laws, vampire power draws as you mentioned, older appliances were not always as safe as nowadays so being able to cut off quickly when our plugs can be harder to remove as grips on the prongs when plugged in can be quite strong depending on the model, age - by this I mean that plugs can be harder to remove for the older generation and our plugs are designed to be harder to remove from sockets - some OAPs get kits to replace the back of uk plugs with a loop in the body that can be hooked and pulled instead of trying to grip, 120v vs 240v safety concerns plus lastly idiots - you can try to make something as foolproof as possible but the universe is always working to create a greater fool. A recent example of why they are handy would be my father doing some DIY - he was using an older more powerful disk cutter that went out of his hands and cut a groove in the concrete floor as he had to let go of it and jump back - there was no way to safely reach to switch on it but could easily and safely hit the switch on the wall to kill it.
IL has been around for several decades.
👌👍🇬🇧
Switches on outlets are not required by any rules or laws in the UK and never have been.
It's only been 'tradition' since the 1980s, prior to that unswitched outlets were common with switched being an optional choice.
@@jwflame Thank you. I thought this was the case,
also big thanks for the content you upload I've found it very helpful.
The switches are really nice if you have stuff plugged in that's out of the way, like a lamp or radio on top of the shelf. It's also nice to turn off things that have an always-on display even when "off".
But those are wall switches, not switches on the plug. At least I hope. Wall switches for these things are very, very handy.
Yes sometimes you can reach things well enough to operate a switch but it would be more tricky to pull out or push in the plug.
@@KevinJDildonik This video is about wall switches.
That's the only reason I'd ever want one, to turn on a lamp as I enter a room without fumbling for a switch inside the lamp shade.
@cal derra Wall Seitches are for Lights, This video is referring to switched sockets.
same with power-strips that have an on/off switch, it's usefull for things that don't so much turn 'off' as much as they go into 'standby'.
Except those would mostly be things like TV's, computer screens, hifi setups etc...
Those tend to be on powerstrips anyway, because they usually involve more than one appliance that all turn on/off together.
It's because they're aping good surge protectors that have actual circuit breakers in them.
I love those, I have one on my workbench which essentially turns on all my lamps, dremel and soldering iron, which does have its own switch anyway.
But I like just shutting down the whole lot with one switch when I finish