With the exception of places such as McDonalds and Starbucks where people use laptops, t seems mst homes and other places do not have three-prong electrical sockets. Many electrical items have a three-prong such as computers, printers, coffee makers. microwaves. Why do not homes here have three-prong outlets? Is it just that I live in an older building and that new built buildings have them? Do others here have this problem and have to buy three-prong adapters?
Yeah it’s common. 10NT problem though. I’ve also sorted it out by taking the pliers to that 3rd prong.
New apartments tend to come with 3 pin sockets. Most new electrical things will come with a converter to take them from 3 to 2
Yes. Our house is five years old, and it has grounded (3-prong) plugs, and a few more of them per room. It also has a much higher standard of construction than the two 15 year-old ones we lived in previously.
No guarantee that any 3 pin outlet is actually properly grounded, especially in older places. Newer places might have better grounding, or they might not. One has to check…
Urodacus, Do you know whether there is any easy and safe way for me to check at home whether the outlets are grounded? Would much appreciate if you could elaborate.
You need to invest in a small gizmo, a plug-in circuit tester. I have no idea if these are available in Taiwan itself, but i suspect they are hard to find. US ones would work perfectly here.
In Australia, I used to have one that I used regularly (I worked in theatre lighting) which was the size and shape of a standard plug that is found on the end of an apliance lead. Plug it into any outlet, and it glowed various colours back at you to indicate three things: ground present? current present? and correct phase (ie, active and neutral wires in the correct orientation)?
Now, those little toys cost about $20 in Oz, and were specific for Oz plugs (well, they worked in NZ and Fiji too, though that doesn’t particularly help you). Can you find a similar one here? I suspect they are all made here, but I have no idea of the Chinese term for that little toy, nor where to find one (never seen in hardware stores, but perhaps that mega computer/electronics market might know).
[quote=“urodacus”]You need to invest in a small gizmo, a plug-in circuit tester. I have no idea if these are available in Taiwan itself, but i suspect they are hard to find. US ones would work perfectly here.
In Australia, I used to have one that I used regularly (I worked in theatre lighting) which was the size and shape of a standard plug that is found on the end of an apliance lead. Plug it into any outlet, and it glowed various colours back at you to indicate three things: ground present? current present? and correct phase (ie, active and neutral wires in the correct orientation)?
Now, those little toys cost about $20 in Oz, and were specific for Oz plugs (well, they worked in NZ and Fiji too, though that doesn’t particularly help you). Can you find a similar one here? I suspect they are all made here, but I have no idea of the Chinese term for that little toy, nor where to find one (never seen in hardware stores, but perhaps that mega computer/electronics market might know).[/quote]
Thanks! (And if anyone else knows where to find one in Taipei, please chime in.)
gilchrist-electric.com/gfcir … tester.php (with ground fault trip circuit)
toolking.com/products/681000 … se=400-029 (non-ground circuit breaker, ie standard)