Switches and sockets...

[dpm_dpmartin]

I'm at the beginning of a house refurb journey - booked in an Electrician for a rewire, new metal consumer board (to be completely regulation-green come 2016), and his initial price included standard white sockets, switches and single light pendants. I said I would like to choose the range myself and he's cool with that.

The reason being that I'd like some kind of brushed metal sockets and switches with black inserts and I also wanna chuck a few of those USB port sockets through the house - living room, kitchen (if legal) and couple of bedrooms.

I know they're expensive, but if I use them sparingly it should be OK and a nice feature when it comes time to sell or let.

I saw this offer on (in fact, I received a marketing email)...

https://www.electricalcounter.co.uk...ket,+Black+Insert+&+2+x+USB+(2.1A)/3252907602

...if I bought 5 that'd be £11 each, sounds pretty good... am I correct thinking that this is a good deal and, also, are BG a good range (they seem to offer anything I could want but I mostly hear of Crabtree or Volex switches and sockets), or have I not yet searched enough?

 

[amjmfareham]

Hi,

Sounds like a good plan to me, although you may hear different from the usual's to this forum.

To quote on your idea of putting one in the kitchen, from what I can see they are no different to a conventional 13A Socket, furthermore, if you have a couple of USB Devices, such as a tablet computer and your smartphone, plugged into this one, you would then have more sockets free for other appliances, such as your kettle/toaster/microwave for example. But as the product description says on the website, they do require a minimum of a 35mm Deep Metal Backbox for the wall, as opposed to the standard 25mm one, due to added components used in the faceplate, so do bear that in mind.

Also, do beware of some of the cheap ones that are sold on dubious webstores, this is because they are more often or not, are of a bad design and would fail and potentially damage the equipment that the socket is supplying, but the ones that you have picked do, as I have said beforehand, look fine to me!

Hope all goes well,

Kind Regards,

Andrew

 

[bernardgreen]

Teardowns of cheap USB power supplies have revealed insulation between primary and secondary that doesn't meet requirements. Of course the regulations are designed with substantial safety margins so *most* of the time the substandard barrier holds. As such catastrophic failure due to dodgy USB power supplies is rare but it does happen (e.g. https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=70903&p=513391 ).

More subtule damage due to poor output quality is harder to pin on the power supply (when a device simply stops working it's often difficult to determine why it stopped working) but it is known that many cheap USB chargers have horrible output quality.

Read more: //www.diynot.com/diy/threads/usb-wall-sockets-can-i-do-it.443040/page-2#ixzz3naDGucMB

 

[dpm_dpmartin]

Hi - I've already read that in detail and it does not deter me, because it should not. So... are these BG ones good quality socket to go for, or should I be looking at things that I see at other places, i.e. Screwfix seem big on LAP?

 

[bernardgreen]

Hi - I've already read that in detail and it does not deter me, because it should not.

Good luck.

because it should not. Do you mean people should not write factually accurate reports about equipment when those reports might deter people from using that equipment.

 

[AndyPRK]

I had a quick look at the artucal and it didn't seam to evaluate what is available on the UK trade estate. Eg. Bg MK. Lap wickes. Or am I wrong ?

 

[bernardgreen]

It is a general concern, no doubt there are well designed and well constructed items on the market. But any design that squeezes a stabilised, smoothed and failsafe DC supply into the spare space around a 13 amp socket has involved some compromises. Then the need to reduce cost to market adds further compromises.

One recent failure ( type and manufacturer not disclosed ) was mains voltage on the USB connector. The high frequency transformer windings had overheated, the insulation failed and primary ( connected to the mains ) and secondary ( USB output voltage ) had shorted together. The over heating is believed to have been caused by eddy currents in metallic iron particles in the ferrite material used for the transformer core.

 

[dpm_dpmartin]

Good luck.

because it should not. Do you mean people should not write factually accurate reports about equipment when those reports might deter people from using that equipment.

No, no... reports exist for all sorts of purposes. These products are on sale, legally, and I want them; that's why a report should not deter me. If you want to persuade me to not purchase or have these USB sockets installed then please don't expend too much effort - however, if you want to tell me that the ones I've identified are a good brand, are good sockets and appear to be at a good price - then I am all ears (or, alternatively, that they aren't a good brand, they aren't good sockets and they aren't even that good a price - of course ). I'm definitely interested in any response that provides useful input to the question asked, but I'm not overly bothered about pointers to negative reports regarding the overall concept as I've made my decision that I shall be buying and installing (having installed) some USB sockets. Hope that's OK (not meant to be offensive)?

 

[flameport]

Screwfix seem big on LAP?

They would be.

LAP is a Screwfix brand. Same as No Nonsense, Titan, Erbauer, Forge Steel, Moretti and plenty of others.

 

[dpm_dpmartin]

I didn't know that, very interesting.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm not overly bothered about pointers to negative reports regarding the overall concept as I've made my decision that I shall be buying and installing (having installed) some USB sockets. Hope that's OK (not meant to be offensive)?

It isn't offensive.

But from a generic POV it is so far from OK as to be stupid-beyond-belief. What you're saying is that once you've made a decision to do something you are not going to pay any attention to anything which tells you that the something you have decided to do is a bad idea.

 

[dpm_dpmartin]

Ha-ha, you're funny... what I'm saying is that for every report that says USB sockets are a bad idea, I can point to other evidence that says they're a good idea - the fact they're being sold legally in the UK is the biggest thing in their favour, right? The UK is a civilised and controlled country that does not allow patently dangerous things to be sold.

I've always said - if you don't have anything of value to add, then try resist the urge to bother... you obviously haven't added any value here. Think on that, maybe?

 

[EFLImpudence]

the fact they're being sold legally in the UK is the biggest thing in their favour, right? The UK is a civilised and controlled country that does not allow patently dangerous things to be sold.

Like tobacco, you mean.

 

[dpm_dpmartin]

I genuinely scratch my head at why the Electrician community seem so dead against this idea. Maybe because it's new.

 

[EFLImpudence]

You have been told that at least some of them are very poorly constructed and dangerous.