A few months ago my PC got fried by a lightning strike, so I had to buy a new one. The old PC was a laptop with its own batteries; the new one is a Dell all-in-one design (with the computer's workings mounted behind the screen, like a telly), that doesn't have a battery. One of the first things that the new PC did was insist on a BIOS upgrade, and you don't want the power to cut off while that is happening. We get power cuts often enough that I sweated for a few minutes while the upgrade went ahead, and so I decided to solve the problem with a UPS.
A UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply, or French: un onduleur) cuts in when the mains power cuts out, and supplies enough power from its internal battery, for long enough to allow you to shut down the PC. I bought one, plugged it in, charged it up, connected the PC to it, fired up the PC, then unplugged the UPS from the wall socket. The UPS kicked in, the PC carried on as if nothing had happened, so all was well.
Then I tried to plug in a different mains cable, and it wouldn't go. Turns out that there is a new standard FR/SCHUKO that applies to mains plugs and sockets. The system is backwards compatible in that new plugs will go into old-style sockets, but old plugs won't go into new sockets. The old style sockets have an earth pin that sticks out, so that the first thing you touch if you touch anything at all is the earth. Double-insulated devices that don't need an earth connection just use a slim plug that avoids the earth pin.
The new sockets dispense with the earth pin and have a pair of sprung contacts that go down the side instead. It's these contacts that prevent the old style plugs going into the sockets.
Apparently, it's about safety, but I'm not convinced.
1 comment:
How delightfully Gallic.
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