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Old 25th Mar 2021, 2:38 pm   #301
TonyDuell
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A bodge from work that I remember in the transmitter lab at Racal Comms was using a twin 13A socket, two plugs and two mains leads paralleled up at the equipment inlet to run a 1kW output solid state HF transmitter that needed 6kW of mains in at full output.
I seem to remember that most, if not all, twin 13A sockets are not rated to supply 13A from both sockets at the same time. Something tells me that a lot of them are 13A _total_.

As for different floors being on different phases there is a possibly apocryphal story of a student who needed 3 phase mains to run a vintage computer. He discovered that each floors of his hall of residence was connected to a different phase, so he ran extension leads out of the window to the rooms above and below.
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Old 25th Mar 2021, 4:05 pm   #302
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A bodge from work that I remember in the transmitter lab at Racal Comms was using a twin 13A socket, two plugs and two mains leads paralleled up at the equipment inlet to run a 1kW output solid state HF transmitter that needed 6kW of mains in at full output.
Within the last year I've seen exactly this setup used for testing a 7kW electric vehicle charger. It's clearly an evergreen bodge!

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Old 25th Mar 2021, 5:27 pm   #303
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Default Re: Bodges

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Originally Posted by Herald1360 View Post
A bodge from work that I remember in the transmitter lab at Racal Comms was using a twin 13A socket, two plugs and two mains leads paralleled up at the equipment inlet to run a 1kW output solid state HF transmitter that needed 6kW of mains in at full output.
Something similar is quite often found attached to portable electric-welders - nicknamed a "murder-lead".

In such applications it's also not unusual to find the 'live' pins and fuses have been replaced by neutral-pins scavenged from other plugs, as a way to avoid pesky fuse-blowing-when-your-welding-rod-sticks-to-the-workpiece.
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Old 25th Mar 2021, 6:21 pm   #304
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Default Re: Bodges

Same at the Students' Union when I was there - lighting rig run from two extension leads - not my doing! I found out when one hadn't been fully uncoiled and had melted...
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Old 25th Mar 2021, 7:40 pm   #305
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As for different floors being on different phases there is a possibly apocryphal story of a student who needed 3 phase mains to run a vintage computer. He discovered that each floors of his hall of residence was connected to a different phase, so he ran extension leads out of the window to the rooms above and below.
OT but visiting the Ocean Room at the local Pavilion Theatre in Weymouth I noticed that all the sockets have a coloured engraved plaque fixed on them giving which phase they are on and that different sockets can have 400V (or something thereabouts) between them, very smart.
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Old 25th Mar 2021, 11:07 pm   #306
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I once went to commission an SiS TV system in a betting shop. It was two shops knocked through into one, and building work was ongoing.

I pretty much sussed out what the problem was as soon as I walked through the door. There was an almighty hum on the speakers and asynchronous hum-bars on all the TV monitors.

The satellite receiver and decoder was plugged in to the supply of the original shop, and the audio amp, video & audio distribution amps and all the TVs were on the "new" side, on a different phase. I ran an extension lead to power the satellite kit temporarily, and left them to sort things out.
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Old 26th Mar 2021, 9:13 pm   #307
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In the house where I live now (built 1959 by my granddad) originally there were six fuses: Three (all phases) for an kitchen oven wired for 380V 3ph, and three other ones for basement, ground floor and first floor. Every floor wired on a separate phase.

So far, so good. Once upon a bright and sunny day my granddad hat the great idea that it would be fine if he were able to switch on the yard light from his living room, too, and not only from the basement. So he installed a switch and some wiring as he thought was necessary.

On my next visit some days later I was told that d**n light did not work, these new light bulbs were scrap and always would die rapidly with a flash.

I asked him how he had wired it up and yes, I tried it with a new 100 W bulb: It literally exploded! Exposed to the 380 V he had wired it up that was no wonder, at least to me....
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Old 29th Mar 2021, 12:54 pm   #308
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Twin 13 amp sockets are unless specifically stated rated for 20 amps max load more than this may cause overheating or worse. I remember years ago going up to portland to install an armored cable into a Portacabin which was to be fed from a DB in another outbuilding. When I opened it up I was surprised to see yellow and black cables going into the neutral bar andblue and red for the phases to 2 sets of circuit breakers I had to look twice and did some testing but it seems someone decided to double up on the neutral. The main building had a conventional 415 volt 3 phase supply weird huh?
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Old 7th May 2021, 5:41 pm   #309
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This image went viral on the Internet some years ago. No doubt a hotel room somewhere in the UK. Who knows, maybe I wired that plug when I worked for Granada in the big hotels in the centre of Manchester?

I'm talking about the plug on the right!
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Old 7th May 2021, 6:13 pm   #310
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Thinking of hotel rooms, when I was acting as chauffeur taking our daughter around Universities when she was 18, we stayed in a hotel in Cardiff. Unfortunately the next room to mine must have had a fault with the bathroom extractor fan. It had clearly run full tilt for heaven knows how long, the bearings were shot and it was making a real racket.

Now I find it very difficult to sleep when there is a noise like that. However, I reasoned that the two rooms might be on the same breaker, so I took the lamp out of the socket above my bed, wrapped a teaspoon (from the courtesy coffee tray) in a towel, shoved it in the socket and turned it on. At which point - glorious silence! Slept like a baby.

Next morning of course the next door room occupants remonstrated with the management about no power. He reset the breaker, voicing confusion about why it could possibly have tripped, and Grrrrrrr-grrrrr-... the knackered fan started up again.

I can be a bit of an animal at times.

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Old 7th May 2021, 6:15 pm   #311
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Quite safe, it is a switched socket after all. And they had the presence of mind to interpose an insulator twixt the conductors. 10/10 for ingenuity. Other opinions I am keeping to myself.
 
Old 9th May 2021, 12:19 am   #312
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Hotels, oh yes, I was staying in a Premier Inn on business and noticed that the big industrial conveyor-belt toaster in the breakfast room was plugged into an extension reel behind the table cloth that was still largely coiled up. It was hotter than the toast!

I summoned the maƮtre d', and expressed my concern.
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Old 9th May 2021, 1:11 am   #313
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Default Re: Bodges

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Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
This image went viral on the Internet some years ago. No doubt a hotel room somewhere in the UK. Who knows, maybe I wired that plug when I worked for Granada in the big hotels in the centre of Manchester?

I'm talking about the plug on the right!
I went hunting for where all those keys that made it live came from
A choice of two sets came up
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Old 9th May 2021, 12:27 pm   #314
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A few years ago my bank in Weymouth was being re modelled and because it was winter they had electric radiators in some of the offices like the one where you go to find out how little money you've left! Anyhow I saw the heater was plugged in to a 4 way extension lead along with the computer and related bits the lead was practically melted I told them how dangerous that was and moved it to the floor where thankfully it remained until no longer needed.
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