Get Ready for New Plugs – starting in 2015!

Was just looking for something else and I found this news from earlier in the year. It was news to me anyway! South Africa is getting new sockets!

From what SANS say, all new installations (I’m guessing new buildings, rather than devices?!) will have to have the new sockets starting in 2015. And those sockets will have 3 pins.*

“This means that from around 2015, all new installations will have to be fitted with the new standard, and that the old (SANS 164-1) will be phased out over the next 10 to 20 years, or possibly longer”

I’m grateful to Tech Central for further explanation (here: http://www.techcentral.co.za/sa-to-get-new-electrical-sockets-plugs/46026/) but in short, that old big-fat 3 pin plug is slowly going to be phased out. But, it won’t be replaced by the sort of plugs you see all over the world on every single device you buy… instead they’ve decided on a NEW standard that is annoyingly slightly different from the ‘europlug’ plug you see on pretty much all imported devices right now.

So, get ready for yet another plug… or more importantly, get ready to have even more things dangling from cheap, Chinese-made adapters just to plug in the same stuff!

What kind of plugs do you have around your house? Which is your favourite?

My favourite is the Danish one (see left) but only because it looks like a cute-smiley face to me — reminds me of Pikachu. It’s the only plug in the world that looks like it’s glad to see me 🙂

* Not to be confused with the Brazilian plug standard. If you want to know the differences, have a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60906-1

or if you’re feeling bilingual (or google translately), have a look at the original page in portuguese here:

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60906-1