this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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The Brits have undoubtedly the best outlets from a safety perspective, despite their size. North American outlets are garbage by basically all measures. European plugs are weirdly round, but very functional.
My two (โฌ/100)s
I'll just throw in one good thing for US outlets. The option of GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) outlets. I think it is required in bathrooms (or elsewhere 6 feet from water source), but you can probably install those anywhere you wish. It cuts off the power during a ground fault, which means that some current (more than regular leakage) is flowing to ground, perhaps through a human. It should cut off at just 5mA.
There's something similar in Europe, called RCD (Residual Current Device). It is the same thing, it's just that in US it's generally called GFCI and RCD in Europe. The difference with RCD is that it's not in the outlets, but the breaker box, and generally protects the whole home. But you can also wire GFCI to multiple outlets. The problem is, that trip ground fault current for RCD can be up to 30mA as opposed to GFCI's 5mA. And with 10mA and above, you may not be able to "let go" of the item shocking you, which isn't nice even if it won't yet kill you (probably).
Why is that? Leakage current. That could very well exceed 5mA when you have stuff like a desktop PC, fridge and other stuff connected, resulting in unwanted tripping while everything functions just fine. It also means that perhaps, one day, your fridge may save you by preloading the RCD as it wouldn't trip without it.
OK, now something negative about (some) EU plugs.
Type C:
This should only work for devices that don't require ground due to pin thickness. But you can still get it to make a terrible contact and hold it in. But perhaps you could even force it into some. I dislike this.
Type F:
Oh well. You can probably still force in older plugs that require ground pin yet don't have the contacts for type F sockets like modern plugs. It is also reversible which I hate. Sockets should be polarized. You shouldn't be allowed to just plug in the device other way around. If there is a switch, it definitely should disconnect live wire, not neutral leaving the device live but not functional. That's unsafe. I hate this.
Type E:
This is nice. I like it. It would also be cool if there was a fuse inside the plugs cough cough UK plugs.
You can get RCD sockets if you want in the UK (and mainland Europe too). But we generally at the minimum have sockets protected by an RCD (which is the same thing) and in more modern installations all circuits are protected by one.
In my country the differential switch is mandatory, every circuit must be protected, be it from a main one or separate ones for each circuit. I'd be surprised if it weren't the same all over the EU.
For new installations in the UK that's true. But my house, for example was wired in the 1990s and has an RCD only on the sockets (the reasoning I think was that an old style incandescent bulb failing might trip the single RCD taking out the whole house power, but could be wrong).
Since the early 2000's they changed it for new installs to be RCD for all circuits I believe.