Calling all sparks Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[3000gt ant]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and i would like to help you and myself out. I am a design engineer for one of the main electrical companies and for obvisous reasons i cant say which one. We have been producing electrical appliances for many years but i am new to this position. With your help i would like to make your jobs easier and more efficient and i would like you all to make some suggestions of how i could help with designing any useful features you may need into our product range.

The reason i am doing this is because as i see it when these companys design a new range we only go off what the customer wants i.e B & Q, screwfix etc and the people actually installing these apparatus are ignored or not questioned to how the products could be better.

I cannot promise all/any of your suggestions will be included into any of our products as with most things cost is a massive part in the design process, what i can promise is i will do my upmost to include any good ideas into any projects i am involved in.

I look forward to any suggestions anyone may have, whether you are experienced in this field or not.

To give you a idea we manufacture sockets light switches battern holders etc.

Many thanks
Ant

[ericmark]

One product which is needed but not available as far as I know is a fused connection unit which will take 16A fuses.

With many items being designed for Europe where the standard socket outlet is 16A ovens, hobs, Off peak storage heaters etc. are often just over the 13A limit for a UK FCU. Where one wants to split a supply local to the appliance at the moment it means a full blown mini consumer unit to protect at 16A.

I know we are not permitted to fit German sockets in this country but we could fit French ones to accommodate visitors. But again no way to locally fuse down to 16A.