Electrical outlets and traveling abroad

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goldstar

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
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Electrical Contractor
In my many years of traveling I've never been to countries where the primary household voltage was 240V. I recently made a trip to Australia and I thought I'd share some photos of electrical receptacles and switches that are in use "Down Under". Bear in mind, I stayed only at hotels while I was there and had little or no exposure to any residential areas. BTW, anyone planning to take this trip I must admit it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Bring money !!!

This first photo is of a duplex 240V receptacle. All the receptacles, whether inside the hotel rooms or in the hallways have individual switches to turn the respective outlet on. Notice the position of the switch. On is down. Kind of makes sense in a weird kind of way. We're above the Equator so up is on. They're below the Equator so down is on.:slaphead:

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The only 120V receptacle available is in the bathroom and is marked for an electric shaver only. My guess is that they have a small xfmr built into outlet assembly inside the JB. I was able to use this for that purpose and also to charge the battery for my camera.

Australia20054.jpg


The next 3 photos are of a switch bank next to the bed. There are (3) s/p switches (one with a pilot light) and (1) 3-way or 4-way switch for the room light. I wasn't able to determine if this was low voltage wiring to a control cabinet or actually line voltage. I did not take anything apart to examine it. I'm not the luckiest guy in the world and I'm sure I would have blown something up. All the cover plates were "clip-on" and held in place by the small dimples in the cover.

Australia20409.jpg

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And yes, I did get to hug a koala bear :happyyes:

cid_3D289E3C49BA49AFBB6E2AC9B3537BB0PhilSophia.jpg
 
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norcal

Senior Member
If you had dual voltage appliances, then a Hubbell adapter like this may have come in handy.

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When I went to Germany last September (9/11-9/25), it made me real nervous the 1st time I plugged in my laptop power supply into the local power, even though knew good & well it was rated for it.
 
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jmellc

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Location
Durham, NC
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Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I made 2 trips to the Philippines. They had a few 120 volt and a lot of 240 volt receptacles. They also had 240 volt GFCI receptacles, which I have never seen here. I made a bad mistake with my CPAP machine. We had an adaptor kit & I used it for the machine, 240 to 120 volt. Well, it damaged the machine & I had to get it repaired. I only then found out that my machine was labeled for 120 or 240, no adjustments needed! I had never thought to check that, as it is very unusual here. I still don't make sense of it, as bucking the power to 120 should not have hurt the machine. I guess it could be coincidence. Didn't totally destroy it but the motor blew very little air afterward.
 
goldstar

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
jmellc said:
I made 2 trips to the Philippines. They had a few 120 volt and a lot of 240 volt receptacles. They also had 240 volt GFCI receptacles, which I have never seen here. I made a bad mistake with my CPAP machine. We had an adaptor kit & I used it for the machine, 240 to 120 volt. Well, it damaged the machine & I had to get it repaired. I only then found out that my machine was labeled for 120 or 240, no adjustments needed! I had never thought to check that, as it is very unusual here. I still don't make sense of it, as bucking the power to 120 should not have hurt the machine. I guess it could be coincidence. Didn't totally destroy it but the motor blew very little air afterward.
Click to expand...
I did come across one 240V GFI receptacle but it was in a public men's room. Out of courtesy to others I didn't take any photos.:) It did have 2 buttons on it marked "A" and "S". I'm assuming it meant "actuate" and "set".

I did not have any issues with the 240V outlets as I did not have any electronic equipment with me that needed an adapter. We did bring an adapter with us but never used it. I'm having difficulty understanding the Hubble adapter. If you know a receptacle is 240V why would you make an adapter that would convert the configuration to accept a 120V device ?
 
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fmtjfw

Senior Member
Location
Fairmont, WV, USA
goldstar said:
I did come across one 240V GFI receptacle but it was in a public men's room. Out of courtesy to others I didn't take any photos.:) It did have 2 buttons on it marked "A" and "S". I'm assuming it meant "actuate" and "set".

I did not have any issues with the 240V outlets as I did not have any electronic equipment with me that needed an adapter. We did bring an adapter with us but never used it. I'm having difficulty understanding the Hubble adapter. If you know a receptacle is 240V why would you make an adapter that would convert the configuration to accept a 120V device ?
Click to expand...

The plug configuration shown was used for grounding outlets in the US, in industrial and commercial settings, prior to the adoption of the current rounded ground pin style. The configuration was used for both 120 and 240 volts. The straight blade was always the grounding conductor. This adapter, from its construction almost certainly dates from transition from that era to the modern era and was used to plug in the "new" plugs into the old outlets.

It was patented in the US about 1918 and later adopted as the standard outlet in Australia.

Nearly all computer and computer related equipment is dual voltage (and frequency). Some requires flipping a little red switch from 120 to 240. Almost all power supplies for portable equipment (laptops) are frequency and voltage agile without human intervention.

That is why there are power bricks with various forms of the IEC power connectors (full-sized 3-wire, reduced size 3- and 2- wire). The computer maker has one power supply and ships the specific cord set for the destination country.
 
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fmtjfw

Senior Member
Location
Fairmont, WV, USA
jmellc said:
I made 2 trips to the Philippines. They had a few 120 volt and a lot of 240 volt receptacles. They also had 240 volt GFCI receptacles, which I have never seen here. I made a bad mistake with my CPAP machine. We had an adaptor kit & I used it for the machine, 240 to 120 volt. Well, it damaged the machine & I had to get it repaired. I only then found out that my machine was labeled for 120 or 240, no adjustments needed! I had never thought to check that, as it is very unusual here. I still don't make sense of it, as bucking the power to 120 should not have hurt the machine. I guess it could be coincidence. Didn't totally destroy it but the motor blew very little air afterward.
Click to expand...

If the 240/120V adapter was pretty light (didn't have the heft of a transformer), then it was probably SCR based. It would mangle the 240V sine wave to make it appear to be 120V. The waveform would be truly awful. This probably is what damaged your CPAP. See the previous posting about computer equipment. It also applies to most portable medical equipment.
 
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goldstar

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
fmtjfw said:
Nearly all computer and computer related equipment is dual voltage (and frequency). Some requires flipping a little red switch from 120 to 240. Almost all power supplies for portable equipment (laptops) are frequency and voltage agile without human intervention.

That is why there are power bricks with various forms of the IEC power connectors (full-sized 3-wire, reduced size 3- and 2- wire). The computer maker has one power supply and ships the specific cord set for the destination country.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I wasn't aware of that.
 
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