Funny little round 3 pin sockets?

Plasticman

Mine were put in 10 to 15 years ago. Round pin plugs in modern installations are intended for lamps only - not for other equipment like in old installations. I've also seen them used in shops etc for display lighting.

27col

About 25 years ago my sister bought a new town house(three stories) The lounge was equipped with a switch on the wall that controlled the power points. There was no ceiling rose or any other means of lighting the room, except by plugging in standard lamps to the 13amp sockets. That was weird. I don't know what the installer thought that he was up to. It quite a lot of work to convert the wiring to something that was practical.

tinkerbell84

27col wrote:

About 25 years ago my sister bought a new town house(three stories) The lounge was equipped with a switch on the wall that controlled the power points. There was no ceiling rose or any other means of lighting the room, except by plugging in standard lamps to the 13amp sockets. That was weird. I don't know what the installer thought that he was up to. It quite a lot of work to convert the wiring to something that was practical.

Plasticman wrote: »

We have them too. They are designed for lamps which can then be controlled by a light switch - no need to go around and switch each lamp on separately, just flick the switch like you do with the other lights. We use ours for the Christmas tree lights too, much easier than crawling around the back of the tree trying to find the plug socket..............

I think that's your answer

gmgmgm

27col wrote: »

About 25 years ago my sister bought a new town house(three stories) The lounge was equipped with a switch on the wall that controlled the power points. There was no ceiling rose or any other means of lighting the room, except by plugging in standard lamps to the 13amp sockets. That was weird. I don't know what the installer thought that he was up to. It quite a lot of work to convert the wiring to something that was practical.

We have a lamp circuit in most of our rooms.
I think it's a fantastic way to light a room- it's much easier to make a room look good with a choice of table lamps than some sort of central hanging light.

If you really want to have ceiling lights, then it shouldn't be much work to add in a drop for the ceiling; but don't get rid of the 5A circuit!

Just goes to show we all have different tastes.

27col

The point that I was making, was that the room in my sisters house only had 13amp sockets. These were controlled from the switch at the door. There were no independent 13amp sockets, such as you would expect to find on a ring main. I have no problem with lamp circuits at all, but you do need other sockets that you can use for tv's etc. Of course, in those days there was a lot less requirement for electrical sockets. We thought that we were doing well if we could afford a radiogram, and a17inch TV

starving_artist

If you want to use a lamp that has a round pin plug in an ordinary mains socket can you just swap it for a normal 13 amp square pin plug or do you have to use a 5amp fuse?

point3

starving_artist wrote: »

If you want to use a lamp that has a round pin plug in an ordinary mains socket can you just swap it for a normal 13 amp square pin plug or do you have to use a 5amp fuse?

Generally, a 3A fuse is ok for a table lamp; the fuse is designed to blow should there be a surge in power thus protecting the appliance. A 13A fuse would not protect a table lamp.