There was a post earlier about the NEMA 1-15 plug that was, unfortunately, just spam. However, it’s kind of an interesting topic, and better yet made me remember this delightfully old-school website: The Digital Museum of Plugs and Sockets. The history and overview sections for plug standards in different parts of the world are genuinely interesting, and the site as a whole is impressively comprehensive and is a well constructed HTML website (I don’t know how it looks on mobile but on desktop it’s a very clean looking site)
I remember ranting about it in the past, but, basically: the page regarding Brazil is fairly accurate, you’ll find 9001 types of plugs, and a mix of 127V and 220V (no underlying plug vs. voltage pattern). It reaches a point I’ve seen people daisy chaining adapters to get their stuff working, it’s bloody hell.
Some residences have both voltages. Including mine; it’s a few 220V sockets for highly demanding appliances, and the rest is 127V.
Brazil aims to phase out the other types; see footnote. // (1) beginning January 1st, 2007 new residential, commercial and industrial wall outlet installations must comply with this new standard, and // (2) beginning August 1st, 2007 imported electrical devices must comply with NBR 14136 regulations. It is the aim to gradually phase out NEMA flat blade and Schuko devices in Brazil.
Hello, I come from the future. 19 years past 2007. The mess is still there. Try harder dammit. Prime example on how completely dysfunctional the federal government is, I bet shit would be already solved if up to the States, at least in some of them.
North America has a bunch of different types of receptacles as well, but they’re a little better regulated and configured so there’s not much chance of mixing them up. Lots of houses here have both 120V and 250V circuits, but the receptacles are normally completely different so there’s no risk of mixing them up, I think. Amperage, however, is a little more wild west from what I can tell - you have have anywhere from 15 to 60 amp circuits and, as far as I can tell, there’s no way to tell from the receptacle what you’re plugging into or the load it can take unless you check the breaker box (and have a house where the circuits make sense - older houses often have things like lights or receptacles wired into circuits that don’t really make sense for them). This is all in my very limited, very lay understanding so somebody who knows better will probably come along with better info.
ETA: The situation in Brazil sounds rough - generally from my experience in the us, if your plug fits in the receptacle, it’s probably fine. Worst case scenario (most of the time) is the overload a circuit and flip a breaker/blow a fuse, but there are lots of older houses that are definitely not up to current code.
My lord just pick one!! This is fascinating though. Denmark’s is a cute little face!
