US/Canada socket in UK

[stormoconnor]

I live in the United Kingdom, but spend a lot of time in the US and Canada visiting family.

 

I own lots of appliances that use the US/Canada two prong plug, which I bring back to the UK. All of these appliances are rated 100-240V~50/60Hz. I was wondering if wiring an American socket in my British home would be possible/safe if used with only these appliances.

 

Alternatively, I was interested in an extension cord with several US/CAD sockets that would connect to a my British sockets at home.

 

Lastly, my British plugs such as my laptop charger has an earth/ground prong is it possible when using it in the US/CAD to get a power adapter that has an earth/ground pin.

[Qwweb]

5 hours ago, stormoconnor said:

All of these appliances are rated 100-240V~50/60Hz. I was wondering if wiring an American socket in my British home would be possible/safe if used with only these appliances.

Voltage and frequency look to be fine.

5 hours ago, stormoconnor said:

is it possible when using it in the US/CAD to get a power adapter that has an earth/ground pin.

Yes, I will include a picture.

[stormoconnor]

On 2/5/2017 at 4:15 PM, Qwweb said:

Voltage and frequency look to be fine.

Yes, I will include a picture.

I meant an adapter that will allow me to plug an earthed/grounded uk socket into a grounded us socket

[dany_boy]

Possible yes, safe no. The higher voltage is potentially dangerous, as the American plugs are not rated to operate at 220-240. The UK plug, while bulky, is a very well designed plug with lots of safety features embedded into it. If anything I would recommend a step down transformer.

Cheers!

[Ahoy Hoy]

On 2/5/2017 at 3:00 PM, stormoconnor said:

I live in the United Kingdom, but spend a lot of time in the US and Canada visiting family.

 

I own lots of appliances that use the US/Canada two prong plug, which I bring back to the UK. All of these appliances are rated 100-240V~50/60Hz. I was wondering if wiring an American socket in my British home would be possible/safe if used with only these appliances.

 

Alternatively, I was interested in an extension cord with several US/CAD sockets that would connect to a my British sockets at home.

 

Lastly, my British plugs such as my laptop charger has an earth/ground prong is it possible when using it in the US/CAD to get a power adapter that has an earth/ground pin.

uk plugs are ring mains while nearly everywhere else isnt so uk plugs are rated up to 32 amps, i dont know if the american/candian ones are rated that high. Also do you even know what ring mains is? Any changes to a UK homes electricity has to be signed off by a electrician. If you dont you invalidate insurance and you cant sell the house and a load of other things.

I think the best thing is to just get a load of adapters. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

On 2/5/2017 at 7:00 AM, stormoconnor said:

I live in the United Kingdom, but spend a lot of time in the US and Canada visiting family.

 

I own lots of appliances that use the US/Canada two prong plug, which I bring back to the UK. All of these appliances are rated 100-240V~50/60Hz. I was wondering if wiring an American socket in my British home would be possible/safe if used with only these appliances.

 

Alternatively, I was interested in an extension cord with several US/CAD sockets that would connect to a my British sockets at home.

 

Lastly, my British plugs such as my laptop charger has an earth/ground prong is it possible when using it in the US/CAD to get a power adapter that has an earth/ground pin.

You can wire the US/CAN device for UK only if it's rated for it. It should say near the power plug what kind of power it takes. If it says 100V-240V (50Hz-60Hz), you're fine. If it says only say 120V 60Hz, you're not and have to buy a converter.

[mariushm]

You can buy a US power strip and a UK plug,  cut the cable of the power strip near the plug and connect the wires from the cable into the UK plug.  Now you can plug the power strip into UK mains and it should work just fine to power all kinds of small US power adapters.

It will work ONLY with switching power supplies, the adapters that say on their labels something like 90...250v AC 50-60 Hz input , something DC output  ..  if the adapter/power supply says only 110 or a small range around 110v you shouldn't use it in UK where you have 230v AC at the wall.

 

You have live and neutral wires and the earth wire. Earth is pretty much green or green/yellow everywhere,  live and neutral colors vary.  Live is usually brown (you remember easily because you poo your pants -or die- if you touch it, neutral is usually blue. Live wire always goes on the UK plug where the fuse is, usually to the right as you look inside the connector. 

US may use other colors for the two wires, probably black or red for live and white or gray for neutral.

It's not a huge deal if you reverse the neutral and live wires in the plug, it's just a tiny bit safer to put the live wire on the fuse side.