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A picture would work well here but don't have one.
Brother in law moved into a house and living room has unusual sockets in all 4 corners, suggesting possible audio/surround sound connection. However from a google it appears to be either Type D plug-Indian, or Type M-South African. Anyone know of either being used in Uk?
Sounds like a 5amp lighting socket to me. My bet is he will have a lightswitch in the room that does nothing, plug a lamp into one of those and hey presto.
It will be a lighting circuit. ^
Good thing to have, means you can have
Multiple low level lighting lamps on a single wall switch.
When I mixed in well to do circles in a previous life all the lovely big houses had them.
Careful now, aesthetic ambient lighting is frowned upon in these parts. Especially if it's exterior lighting.
I live in a Victorian terrace and I've got one of those just above the skirting board in the living room. It's one of the power outlets which was in use before the modern BS1363 (13 Amp) mains plug was invented, you probably don't want to be plugging speakers into it!
I've got one of those just above the skirting board in the living room.
Tell a lie, I've just looked and this is what I've got.
30A ungrounded and unprotected circuit. I do hope it's not still live...!
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😯
What age is the house ?
My money is with Cougar that they are old round pin power sockets.
What age is the house ?
Almost certainly pre-war. From that Wiki link, the modern 13A plug was brought in to standardise sockets in preparation for rebuilding.
House was built 2002 and sockets don't look like that image above, although I would agree that it could be a 5a lighting circuit mentioned above, as one the light switches "doesn't work".
No, my image was something else.
2002? It's not a lighting circuit.
Get him to take a photo please. Measurements of pin displacement would be helpful also.
Time to get your test meter out, take the socket face plate off and see if the
the light switches "doesn't work".
actually switches power to the circuit.
Cougar's link has also answered a question that's been bugging me for many years now - what's the hole for next to the earth pin on UK 3 pin plugs.
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Turns out it is an inspection hole so you can see if earth is connected or not
We used to have them in my parents house, as others said, they were for lamps and were switched via a lighting circuit.
2002? It's not a lighting circuit.
Why not? Fairly sure plenty of new builds around them had them, house I lived in did built circa 1997.
2002? It's not a lighting circuit.
My house has them - and while the building was built in 1700-and-something it didn't become a house and have electricity until the late 1990s. Once I realised what they were (and why one of the light switches seemed to do nothing) they've proved to be really handy.
Turns out it is an inspection hole so you can see if earth is connected or not
BS1363 is one of the most over-engineered designs of anything in the world. It's a masterpiece.
Why not? Fairly sure plenty of new builds around them had them, house I lived in did built circa 1997.
Really? Far as I knew they were obsolete decades ago outside of places like theatres. Live and learn if so.
Yep, we still fit them when asked. They still have a BS number - BS546. They are smaller than the old power sockets.And you can still buy them in a round casing.
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There were / are three variants of the old round pin design: 2A, 5A, and 15A. As others have said, if it looks like it's modern then it will be lighting. If it looks old it may be ring main, and may still be live. Worth getting looked at if you have any little ones around as it's rather easy to poke something into the live hole...
BS1363 is [s]one of the most over-engineered designs of anything in the world. It's[/s] a masterpiece.
Its perfectly engineered not over engineered.
Really? Far as I knew they were obsolete decades ago outside of places like theatres. Live and learn if so.
Big 15amp round pins are still used for theatre electrics but the small 5 amps are fitted in houses still- as it’s a socket controlled by the lighting circuit using a different plug type is a safeguard against inadvertently plugging in something that would overload the wiring.
Way back in the day those little 5 amps would often be the only supply in the house. My brother’s old flat still had light switches (no longer wired up) that had a 5amp round pin outlet as part of the switch itself and it looks like that used to be the only outlet in the room