They're like that in this apartment we're renting and I keep seeing them elsewhere. I don't get it.

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[–] 21 points 2 years ago (10 children)

Being a uk person its cause they can & its also in to building / electric code. Its just a switch that breaks the live leg, stops sparking when plugging in stuff.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Your sockets spark when you plug something in?

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  • [–] [S] 17 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    I've definitely had that happen to me, sort of at random, in the U.S.

    But it doesn't seem to have any effect. It's not like a gigantic spark and it's pretty contained.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Oh I've never seen that in the US, maybe I just didn't notice

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Laptop power bricks is probably where I see it most. Or if you plug in something with a motor already switched on. Listen for a soft popping noise if you plug in a big power brick.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    You're right, now that I think about it. Laptop power does it more than anything else.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Many, many big power-smoothing capacitors inside those jumping from 0 to 120V in a microsecond, that's why. The better-smoothed the power supply, the more capacitors and the bigger the sparks tend to be, although some really high quality ones put most of them behind inrush-current limiters to reduce the sparking, but that can also marginally reduce efficiency. High power electronics are always a bit of a tradeoff. The problem is that capacitors charge and discharge almost instantly in most cases, and when empty they act like a short circuit until they're filled, so they can create some pretty big sparks, even though the actual energy going in is minuscule by any reasonable measurement. It's almost like a static shock, huge spark, tiny energy.

    Some motors will also spark badly when disconnected, but the reason is slightly different. They have a huge electromagnetic field which suddenly fills or collapses and that inductance in the coils can draw a lot of amps on startup and generate some pretty high voltages, more than enough to spark across the gap. Like the capacitors, they are very nearly a short circuit until they start moving.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    No, unless something is very wrong. I don't know if that was maybe a bigger problem with older devices though. I remember being taught to turn the socket off before plugging things in or taking them out when I was a kid

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    All will if there is a load. Doesn't matter ac of dc or even load. Plug an ethernet cable in and there will be a spark.

    Most of the time the spark is tiny and you need a good lab to measure it though.

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