House wiring [was Re: OT: Re: Audiophilia]

Ours don't go that far. We frequently have shaver outlets in ours. Historically they were two-prong outlets with 1:1 ("isolation") transformers between them and the mains feed, the idea being that it's impossible to get a jolt between either pole and ground. These days such outlets usually use GFIs instead - I don't quite understand why, but electric code has often made little sense to me. (Replacing a comparatively simple (and thus reliable) and certain device with a complex device which doesn't even do the whole job strikes me as a net lose. Perhaps it was kickbacks from - er, lobbying by - GFI makers.) But then, I also have a vague feeling that much of Europe takes the various conveniences the USA and Canada generally lump together into the "bathroom" and splits them up among multiple rooms in various ways. This might be related because would mean that your side of the pond has less desire for a shaver outlet in the same room as a shower or bath than ours does. Come to think of it, I can't recall seeing one here either. I've also seen small hotplates - usually two-burner ones - as portable units, set up (and presumably designed) for plugging into an ordinary mains outlet, here meaning the 15V 110-120V sort that are usual here. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B