@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

steve

@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org

|🦆| Climber, windsurfer, Welsh speaker, Technical Director of https://social.opendium.com/@opendium |🐱| Dringwr, hwylfyrddwr, siaradwr Cymraeg, Cyfarwyddwr Technegol https://social.opendium.com/@opendium |🦆|

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ben, to Blog
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

New : Plugging a heater into an extension lead, what could go wrong?

We had a 2kW heater plugged into a multi-socket lead which ultimately failed.

I took the lead apart to see what exactly had gone wrong.

https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blog/house-stuff/plugging-a-heater-into-a-switched-extension-lead-what-could-go-wrong.html

steve,
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

@ben "In all cases, gravity ensures..." so not suitable for use in space then? :)

Of course, the UK "13A socket" is actually rated for 10A continuous... but you should still have been ok with a 2KW heater. I don't think "don't plug heaters into extension cables" is particularly good advice TBH - there's no reason that a good extension cable should be any more dangerous than a good wall socket (which also usually have switches). IMHO this extension cable is substandard since it claimed to be 13A

steve,
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

@ben I have some Aliexpress smartplugs which claim to be 16A, despite having a 13A UK plug on one side and 13A UK socket on the other... I'm absolutely sure they aren't CE/BS certified, and no I'm not going to try putting 16A though them!

FWIW, people who need to charge an EV through an extension cable seem to recommend cables sold by Toughleads. Although your experience does show that pulling large currents continuously through even a brand new and properly rated 13A socket isn't without risk.

steve,
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

@ben I would be tempted to send it back to tesco (possibly together with a copy of your analysis) - despite the design causing the switch to fail safe, I certainly wouldn't want to rely on that happening before the plastic catches fire, so they are selling a fire risk (if they think you shouldn't plug high power stuff into an extension, why label it as suitable for 13A?). Although its interesting that there are neons soldered onto the hot bits and it looks like the solder didn't melt.

steve,
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

@ben The advice not to plug EV chargers into extension leads mostly seems to be because most EV granny chargers have thermisters in the plug to detect an overheaty socket, and that obviously can't protect the wall socket if its plugged into an extension instead.

steve,
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

@ben Well, an EV charger is about the biggest continuous load you're going to plug into a 13A socket. Kettles might draw more, but only for short periods, but if you're charging your car with a granny charger you could well be pulling a continuous 10A for 24 hours straight. (As mentioned, UK sockets are rated for 10A continuous, and there's always the concern that an old socket might have loose fitting or corroded contacts, so very possible it isn't up to doing the rated current)

steve,
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

@edavies @ben I usually charge on a single phase type-2, rated at 32A. If the EVSE tells the car to draw 32A, that's what my car seems to draw, regardless of the voltage. So on low-voltage days, the EVSE screen shows 32A but a lower KW power than on high-voltage days. Although not a resistive load, I guess the charger can tune itself load pretty well to stick closely to the current limit, regardless of the voltage. I rarely use a granny charger, but I can't imagine it would behave differently.

bloor, to random
@bloor@bloor.tw avatar

Oh this could be awkward.

@cybergibbons and I have been asked to give a w3w based talk. But I've had the suggested event title and blurb through and, er, I don't think it has been fully realised that we don't like w3w and think it's bad.

Luckily, I have a call with the organiser, so I have an opportunity to explain our stance.

This will be a fun zoom call.

steve,
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

@bloor @cybergibbons I don't think you should warn them :)

danieldurrans, to random
@danieldurrans@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Looking to buy some heat shrink tubing. At most I need about 10cm.

Amazon is all “500 assorted heat shrink tubing kit”.

The really annoying thing is that I won't be able to buy what I need cheaper locally.

steve,
@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

@danieldurrans this is why the death of Maplin is so irritating... Used to be able to go on and buy a transistor for 10p, but now I need to buy a pack of them, pay postage and wait for them to arrive.

GossiTheDog, to random
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @GossiTheDog not to the same size bill, but our cat always seems to recover immediately after we've handed the vet cash (before any treatment)... I think they are in cahoots.

    sarahjamielewis, to random
    @sarahjamielewis@mastodon.social avatar

    People have a right to access and use secure tooling that enables them to leverage modern cryptography.

    The alternative is absurd. A demand to deliberately subvert foundational economic infrastructure. A position that should be laughed out of any sensible room.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @sarahjamielewis to be fair, the printing press (and pretty much all other disruptive technology) has generated plenty of controversy in their own right. Such is the cycle of progress - there's always excessive push back until the new technology is accepted and a middle ground is found.

    mattgrayyes, (edited ) to random
    @mattgrayyes@chaos.social avatar

    Good morning to you and a very fuck the Tories.

    In order to to be able to fuck the Tories you now need ID. If you don’t have ID, go here ASAP to be able to vote against them next week.

    Accepted ID:

    • UK / EEA Passport
    • UK / EEA Driving licence
    • several forms of pensioners travel card
    • several forms of disabled travel card

    🚨Young persons travel cards Do Not Count!

    https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @mattgrayyes The sad truth is that if everyone votes for a shit candidate to prevent the shitter candidate getting in, the winner is pretty much guaranteed to be some degree of shit. :(

    bloor, to random
    @bloor@bloor.tw avatar

    A little bit of insight to disgust you before a weekend. A local school not only selects based on the faith of the parents, but parents also "pretend to be religious" to get their kids in. And, one local church even has a "church passport" that gets stamped to "prove" you turned up, for this very reason.

    Told you you'd be disgusted.

    It is unbelievable and disgusting that (correctly) an private company cannot discriminate on this basis, but schools are allowed to.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @linkovitch @bloor Not just the tories. MS sponsors a lot of university courses, and in exchange get a "how to use Microsoft stuff" module incorporated into the course. Couple that with student discounts on MS software, you've basically got the drug dealer model of getting them hooked young.

    bloor, to random
    @bloor@bloor.tw avatar

    We should really be giving ourselves a gold star on the "capacity" basis.

    It is still rare for it to be as good as this, but as time goes by it will be more and more common.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @bloor bonkers that we're importing from France too!

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @bloor oh, and burning coal... Wtf?

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @bloor the inertia argument doesn't seem to wash - gas plants also provide inertia at a lower carbon intensity

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @sheddi @bloor presumably France's electricity prices were more negative than our own, otherwise why buy from France instead of the UK?

    orta, to random
    @orta@webtoo.ls avatar

    It's wild to come back to the UK.

    Just got an advert from the NHS saying "go see a pharmacy first instead of a GP, we've given them the ability to prescribe more stuff" - kinda nice on individual convenience, but what a sorry state of decline.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @orta Multiple points of contact feels like a massive waste of everyone's time. 1 year old had conjunctivitis, went to the pharmacy for eye drops "we can't prescribe for children under 2, go and see your GP". So we've wasted our time going to the pharmacy first instead of the GP, wasted the pharmacy's time, and then had to go back to the pharmacy to actually get the medication after seeing the GP.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @orta OTOH, I get gluten free bread on prescription. If the supplier is out of stock of sliced bread, I have to go back to the GP to change the prescription to unsliced because the pharmacist is apparently not trusted to make a suitable substitution to a prescription...

    bloor, to random
    @bloor@bloor.tw avatar

    Reporting -vs- Reality.

    The VED renewal on my car, which I did today. Indicating it is £0.00.
    The Application complete on the renewal of VED on my car, again, confirming it is £0.00.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @ben @bloor suspect the current government would not defer EV VED, hopefully the next government will be saner. Don't understand why they don't apply the same banding to all diesels, regardless of their age though.

    OTOH, I'm not a fan of "fixed cost" taxes like this - we drive an EV almost all the time, but also run a 20 year old diesel van, which only does about 1000 miles / year to the beach and back, but the VED is eyewatering. Replacing it wouldn't be environmentally sound.

    monsieuricon, to random

    I've been admining Linux systems for 25 years, and I still have to check which one it is every time.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @monsieuricon it is exactly the same order as cp and mv

    analog_cafe, to webdev
    @analog_cafe@mas.to avatar

    So wants a payment + brokerage fees for import dues. Fair.

    Unfortunately, their website won't take my payment unless I create an account. Sucks, but terrible web service is a corporate standard in 2024 so I proceed.

    The website will not create my account. The UI does nothing (not even an error message). The browser console shows an endless stream of errors and messy log messages. The page is 17MB in size.

    Had to resolve this via phone call (x4), like it's 1984.

    😱

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @jamesholden @analog_cafe the others usually hold your package hostage, so you have to pay even though they have no right to charge

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @revk @jamesholden @analog_cafe I would presume that even trying to charge you is fraud though, since you didn't accept the T&Cs...

    amy, to random
    @amy@spookygirl.boo avatar

    Regular reminder that if you don't run your site on HTTPS you're doing yourself and anyone who visits your site a disservice.

    This is double extra true for anyone doing ANYTHING related to sex. Even if your hosting provider is cool with what you're hosting, you owe it to the people who use your site to protect their privacy by preventing their ISP and any intermediary from knowing what they're looking at.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @amy @shalien I'm extremely unconvinced that DoH is good for the average person's privacy. It takes a situation where each ISP can snoop on their own users (but many probably won't) and instead concentrates everyone's data at a very small number of huge (and historically, abusive) companies.

    Sure, you could change the defaults, but most people won't and this is a worse situation to normal DNS.

    I certainly trust my ISP ( @aaisp ) not to snoop more than I trust !

    bloor, to random
    @bloor@bloor.tw avatar

    I joined the LibDems immediately after brexit.

    I have now quit the LibDems.

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @bloor if I wasn't already a Plaid member, my alternate choice would probably be the greens. Although with FPTP it makes not a jot of difference who I vote for.

    steve, to mastodon
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    I have never got 's media_proxy to work, so videos don't play. I had assumed that it was a problem with my Apache config... So I've just set up a new instance using Nginx instead, so I can use all the stock config files. And media_proxy doesn't work there either. !

    steve,
    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org avatar

    @eitch dunno, I don't use Docker because it seems like a terrible idea :)

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