Strange plug next to fuse box

[ebee]

It’s a straightforward bit of Modern ideology.
We used to have the choice of speaking across a counter to an actual person orvringing up and speaking to someone.
How outdated!
Now we have the extra choices of emailing or filling in a form online.
Brill .
Now we can spend hours and hours of waiting in a queen and getting absolutely nowhere.

That is progress!!!

 

[JohnW2]

Well we are allowed to change our minds, especially when something demonstrates the benefit.

Yes, of course, but I'm far from convinced that such is the case in examples such as I cited.

If there is little or no problem to 'solve' then anything sold to 'solve' that alleged 'problem' is, essentially by definition, 'snake oil'. In nearly all situations, the argument for any sort of 'surge protection' is essentially theoretical, with very little evidence (of which I am aware) that such 'protection' will afford appreciable benefit.

 

[JohnW2]

Now we can spend hours and hours of waiting in a queen and getting absolutely nowhere. .... That is progress!!!

Indeed - there are a lot of very 'interesting' manifestations of alleged 'progress' around these days.

In addition to the sort of things you mentioned, more in context of this thread is the 'progress' due to it becoming technologically possible to produce things which address theoretical, perhaps minimally relevant in practice, issues and which manufactures can make a lot of money out of promoting and selling!

 

[crystal ball]

Now we can spend hours and hours of waiting in a queen

Each to his own

 

[ebee]

Each to his own

I hope you realised my typo of queue - in my defence I am on a tiny iPhone rather than my trusty laptop (it’s broken at the moment) . Good fun though! LOL

 

[yorksbuilder]

It's labelled directly below the socket? PME system. Protective Multiple Earth

 

[JohnW2]

It's labelled directly below the socket? PME system. Protective Multiple Earth

That label relates to the type of electrical installation (type of 'earth') and has nothing to do with the purpose of the soocket above the label (or what is plugged into it).

 

[ebee]

The “easy answer” is as John says PME is the TNC-S type of earthing system used on an an electrical installation such as a house, a shop or a factory etc. Two other types are quite common here in the UK and others. These are TNS and TT (there are a couple more in very limited use, so worldwide there are 5 different types).

I said the term “easy answer” because I did not want to start a debate about PNB being one or the other of those ,
Many things in life have an easy answer that does not quite always answer every single use or situation but very mostly does.

So Yes, PME is info about the supply earthing and nothing to do with any damp course or snake oil consideration. It is a separate issue.

I have actually seen both info on one label which can sometimes encourage the person reading it to assume two or more situations are linked together . If they were separately labels that assumption would be reduced

 

[FrodoOne]

FYI

Electro Osmosis Damp Proofing Systems fraud

Electro Osmosis Damp Proofing systems are an expensive fraud that has been rejected by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) as useless and do not work.

www.heritage-house.org

 

[ebee]

FYI

Electro Osmosis Damp Proofing Systems fraud

Electro Osmosis Damp Proofing systems are an expensive fraud that has been rejected by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) as useless and do not work.

www.heritage-house.org

Thanks Frodo, yes it was once widely believed but nowadays considered less credible. Things of this kind sometimes happen either by innocent error or by deliberate malevolent design.

There shall always be those that like to make themselves richer by fooling the unweary and there shall always be those who make a bad judgement but with good intent.

And there shall always be those that believe what they have always believed even though our understanding of the ways things work (or don’t work) has improved over time, once someone has a belief it can be difficult to change it.

 

[JohnW2]

..... There shall always be those that like to make themselves richer by fooling the unweary and there shall always be those who make a bad judgement but with good intent.

Indeed, and I might dare to suggest that the (money-motivated) "those" to whom you refer might sometimes be the whole electrical industry

And there shall always be those that believe what they have always believed even though our understanding of the ways things work (or don’t work) has improved over time, once someone has a belief it can be difficult to change it.

Very true, and I suspect that most of us have a tendency to think/behave like that.

Kind Regards, John