2003-01-24 Most countries of South America that lie south of the equator use 380/220 V. Brasil I believe uses both, depending on location and who set up the local grid. In Europe 380/220 V is no longer in use. The voltage was increased to 400/230 V. The British who used 415/240 V were suppose to lower theirs to 400/230 V, so that all of the European Union was harmonised. The only thing not harmonised is the sockets. They vary from country to country. But, they are close enough that the two round pin 2.5 A plug (Europlug) on most small appliance, such as lamps, razors, will fit into all of the sockets.
The larger plug (type B) will not work in all sockets and adapters must be used. The German and French sockets are very close. The only difference is the grounding pins. The French sockets have a male pin that sticks out of the socket and the German socket has side contacts for the ground. But, the Schucko plug works in both the German and French sockets without an adapter. I'm not sure if there is any movement to harmonise all of the different sockets in the EU into one standard socket. It really isn't that important because as noted most small appliances use the two pin plug that fits into most, if not all without an adapter. In Singapore, which uses the British style socket (type D), the two pin plug fit in without an adapter. An object was inserted into the ground slot to release the cover over the hot slots and the plug was pushed in. Maybe it wasn't meant to work this way, but it did. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "M R" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, 2003-01-24 08:27 Subject: [USMA:24592] Re: Power > http://www.starkelectronic.com/fzfv.htm > > Most of the countries in North & South America use > 110V, but all other countries use either both or only > 220V. > > Madan
