Using UK electrical appliances in France.

[elsie]

So I can't remove a UK plug and put a French plug on as I don't know which way the socket it wired.

What do you suggest?

Do it - you do not need to know so long as the rest of your wiring is OK with suitable breakers - an appliance works either way with L & N. Earth, on the other hand . . .

It was a rhetorical question to beejay.

I can't remember exactly, but I think 30-40 UK plugs became surplus to requirements when I moved to France over 20 years ago. The scrap metal man was quite happy to take them.

[demi]

Thank you all for the info.

Very helpful, wound up in house sale (UK) atm but have bookmarked this for reference in a (hopefully) few weeks time.

[Spectrum]

I bought some English to French adaptors/converters from Super U they are twin + earth and rated to 6amps,they are a single plug to plug converter, and yes the Uk plug is upside down, I use them with some power tools in the garage, computer, one printer, bread maker, and food processor, so only low power users, so you have just over 1300Wts to play with, as for rewiring it dosn't matter which side you put the blue and brown the French system is double pole ie both sides are protected, in the UK only the brown (Positive) is protected, so if mis-wired the appliance could still be live, even after switching it off, a dangerous situation. Iam sure a pro will confirm.

[RobertArthur]

@ Spectrum, the worst-case scenario is a phase-neutral reversal in the tableau-électrique with only single-phase protection. Switching off a circuit and you can still have the full mains voltage where you don't expect it: a blue neutral wire somewhere downstream. Examples #1 and #2. The usual suspects:

From left to right:

#1 and #2: only one of the two wires connected, old unipolaire, only phase protected if everything is OK, neutral always connected;

#3 coupe circuit fuse holder: phase protected, opening the fuse holder and it disconnects the neutral also;

#4 disjoncteur unipolaire phase + neutre: phase protected (current sensing) and if something goes wrong the neutral is also disconnected, the same when switching off the circuit manually;

#5 disjoncteur bipolaire: current sensing in both phase and neutral. For additional safety e.g. in hospitals and industry.

I'm not going to mention grandfather's house.

In the past, fifties, sixties, radio receivers with the infamous U series of valves with their heaters directly connected in series to the mains, no transformer inside these low cost plastic boxes, were 50% unsafe when opening: the chassis could be "hot" when opening them in countries with the Schuko type of socket and plug (no fixed left/right position).

Today we are supposed to be protected by at least two 30 mA RCDs.

[hughnique]

It's been a long time since I picked up a screwdriver in the UK, however I think there are pros and cons with both the UK and French systems. The 30amp ring main system introduced many years ago has, of late, come under fire in some areas as being susceptible to overloading, especially if the work on the original installation was carried out by a fireman, doing his second job. Washing machine and tumble drier banging away, bit cold put the fire on, want a cup of tea, I'll just put my new 2 kw cleaner round, yes now not available. Add that lot up and if it's all on the same circuit, not good, always a good point to know what the customer was roughly going to be using, load wise, before planning your cable runs. 13amp sockets , the norm would be double pole switched and every appliance would have a suitably rated fuse within the plug top for local protection all very safe so far. An inherent problem was the consumer unit change, where new technology was introduced by the way of RCD's coupled with single pole MCB's, all very straightforward until you switched back on and the RCD tripped out, and you knew you had a neutral earth fault. With a French double pole system so easy to turn it all of via the MCB's energise the RCD and then one by one restore the power by switching the MCB's on one by one till it trips out, then you have at least found the faulty circuit, and can proceed further.
What gets me about the French installation, is the total crap they expect you to work with, all flimsy plastic, no switches on the sockets so inevitably you end up pulling the whole lot out of the wall, and the worst is these push fit terminals, how they expect those to last for long without arcing is beyond me.

[beejay]

For probably fifty years or more there is a preferred wiring method for les prises de courant. Have a look at the backside of this socket made by Legrand, red, green and blue. Their website follows the same conventions.

Does a phase-neutral reversal harm to equipment? Magic smoke? No. There are only a few exceptions: some ignition/ionisation electrodes of gas fired boilers are phase sensitive, they simply refuse to work. Changing blue and red - in the plug or socket - is the solution.

In case of doubt: there are inexpensive instruments to check it out and also capable to check your 30 mA interrupteur différentiel (RCD) with preset leakage currents.

Unless plugs are also wired to the same layout the socket wiring colours serve no useful purpose.

Having connected several hundred holiday mobile homes and serviced tents to the electrical supply on campsites in various parts of France it is very clear that there is no standard for L and N connections on French plugs and sockets. The only time I found all 100+ site sockets wired to the same standard was where the site owner was a qualified electrician.

Does it matter? Not as far as I am concerned but if you read UK forums for caravanning there are many who think it does.

[Biloute]

it is very clear that there is no standard for L and N connections on French plugs and sockets.

Regulations about left or right for L & N connections look to be a legend. From what I know, the Norm NFC 15-100 doesn't say anything about that (unless it has evolved recently). Most of the qualified electricians and skilled DIYers always put L on the left (presumably because L is on the left on breakers). On top of that, some manufacturers have Red Blue Green connectors in the sockets, but not all of them.
Does it matter ? I would say no except for some gas boilers which are sensitive (don't ask me why).
see: https://www.installation-renovation-ele ... -a-gauche/

[Pachapapa]

An LED lamp on a metal heat sink incorporating an onboard control chip has clear indications as to phase and neutral for a 230 AC connection. Some of the chips conveniently distinguish between US/EURO voltages. Incorrect phase connection simply, it won't and it never will work ever.

[Hotrodder]

I have fitted dozens of twin sockets that were internally connected in such a way that the two outputs were reversed, not matching, so it didn't matter what you did at the input. One would be correct and the other would not.

[RobertArthur]

PIctures of left/right reversing twin sockets made by Legrand: front and back. The infamous fixation à griffe: not allowed anymore since 2004 for new builds and renovations. A modern socket in an old boîte d'encastrement? Not possible. You'll have to install a new back box, screw fixation.