Question Users from INDIA! I need your insight! What kind of plug do you use?

[jonnyguru]

I get conflicting information from my coworkers in India about what kind of (grounded) power cords they use around the house, and I think it may boil down to whether or not you are in news construction versus old construction or maybe even what region you reside in.

Some say they use the BS 546, sometimes just referred to as "Type D": https://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/d/

But this plug only supports up to 5A. So they may also use the larger version of the BS 546 that supports 15A, sometimes referred to as "Type M": https://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/m/

This "Type M" is also used in South Africa, other parts of African and some parts of the Middle East.

The other plug I've seen used is the one used in the UK today, as well as some South Asia and Middle Eastern countries, and that's the BS 1363, or "Type G".

So my question to you all is, when you plug your gaming PC into the wall, assuming if you don't use an adapter to adapt one kind of plug type to another (if you do, please comment below) what kind of receptacle are you plugging into in the wall? Does your wall outlet have a BS 546 5A, BS 546 15A or a BS 1363 socket? Or does your building have a combination of outlets installed (again, not including using adapters)? The poll is multiple choice, so you can select more than one.

FYI: There's a good "history of the BS 546" article that I found here: http://www.audiopolitan.com/blog/indian-electrical-plug-where-did-it-originate/

 

[Lutfij]

Hey JG!

Nice to see you have a thread pertaining to this matter. I myself am not located in India but very close to it, in Bangladesh. The plugs that I use in my household(being an Architect and doing my own wiring for my crib) are the UK plug, Type G;
https://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/g/
and have been using since my time in the Middle East as well as from my tenure here in Bangladesh since 1998.

Now the plug you've shown is often found with to be seen on Air conditioning units, referred to as 15A plugs by the local laymen electricians.

To add to your concerns, I was born and brought up in Dubai, U.A.E and have lived my childhood there before returning to my parents country of nationality, Bangladesh. For one thing, standards aren't followed in India and more less in Bangladesh. I can vouch for the fact that a portion of the units that are shipped to India make their way into our local computer malls being a neighboring country to India. Essentially we are allotted an amount from the allotment that is destined to India or so I am lead to believe after speaking one on one with Corsair product rep in my country.

The issue is that due to a non standardized power plug being used in our country and the bundled PSU cord with your Corsair PSU's is often what make things a little of a mess when you have people who use a 2 pin connector/wall socket/power strip that breaks out to a 3 pin connector essentially meaning that there is no grounding. On the other hand you can find that houses have 3 pin wall outlets but lack the grounding wire in any residence or the entire building to name.

The local electrical distributors cater to 2 pin, 3 pin and multi pinned wall sockets that accepts a wide range of receptacles regardless of voltage limitations.

The plug I've mentioned allows you to introduce varying fuses so I think that should solve your headache for the interim period

Let me know if you'd like more information or if what I've said needs a little more clarification.

Regards,
Lutfij

 

[jonnyguru]

You are correct. Bangladesh, the Middle East, Malaysia, etc. all use the BS 1363 plug (type "G"). And that's probably why so many BS 1363 bundled power supplies end up in India, I'm sure.

But I am asking about your typical house in India.

The problem with making sure every country has the correct power cord has to do with the fact that no one region can properly forecast their sales. If Corsair bundled a proper BS 546 15A power cord with every PSU, and sales forecasted 100 units a month, but only sold 500 a month, the typical thing to do is to ship the product back out of the country to someone else who can use it. If it needs to be "reconfigured" to a different power cord, the box has to be opened and the cord switched out and then shipped out to another hub. That PSU is now worth ZERO dollars because of all the cost in shipping, labor, etc.

So far, the feedback has been that Indian houses (that are up to any kind of respectable "code") actually use the Type M (actually, the wall plate looks like it can take either M or D in the same socket).

The problem I'm trying to solve is giving people "low hanging fruit" and allowing them to use an adapter that's more of a fire hazard than just giving them a 5A plug in the first place.

Unfortunately, all of these new standards that keep popping up are making things worse. While countries like Saudi Arabia and Malaysia use the same power cord as the UK, they have their own certifications. Saudi Arabia requires the plug to be SASO 2203 certified, while Malaysia requires MS 589-1: 2011. Instead of paying for these "corner case" certifications, a company may decide to just ship a PSU into a region with no power cord (what Corsair calls a "WW", or "World Wide" SKU because there is no cord). Then the customer is left going out and getting their own power cord, which may be under rated for the application, could melt and potentially catch fire.

Much like how this guy used a power cord for a monitor to power his CX600 and the plug ended up melting into the PSU socket: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/my-power-supply-cord-is-getting-hot.3555188/

He's lucky that the power cord had at least some kind of UL 94 V or equivalent flammability rating or he would no longer be around to post in the forums.

So they may THINK they're helping the customer buy a "safer" product by having regional certifications, but they're actually only making things worse.

 

[Mezoxin]

thats interesting so i bought my Corsair RMi form Venus Egypt , and it came with the UK 3 prong plug that is not compatible with egypt , could it be they move the inventory between Venus UAE and Venus Egypt ?

 

[jonnyguru]

thats interesting so i bought my Corsair RMi form Venus Egypt , and it came with the UK 3 prong plug that is not compatible with egypt , could it be they move the inventory between Venus UAE and Venus Egypt ?

Depends on the distributor.

When there is no distributor in a country (don't think there is one for Corsair in Egypt), they don't get to choose what power cord they get unless they choose a different distributor.

If the Egypt reseller ordered from a distributor in the Middle East, they would get the UK power cord. If they ordered from a distributor in Turkey, they would get the correct EU power cord.

I don't know anything about "Venus", but if their HQ is based out of the middle east somewhere, everything is going to get shipped there first. A company like Corsair, Cooler Master, beQuiet, etc. isn't going to ship directly to the individual retail outlets. On the manufacturer's level, product only ships by the container load. And it takes a lot of stores to support even one single mixed container (that's a lot of computer parts!)

 

[Karadjgne]

Saudi is an odd place. Use of converters is rampant. We had converters for everything from the dryer to Tv's, radios, VHS, lamps etc. Simply because everybody gets their stuff from different places. Singapore, HK, lots of second-hand hand-me-downs from US/UK/Aus owners etc. So the only concern there was whether ppl actually owned the right converter, not whether the included plug was a direct, correct connection. At the right voltages, since some equipment naturally ends up as 230v only, some 115v. Behind our TV looked like something Chevy Chase came up with when hooking up his Christmas Vacation house lighting.

I don't forsee an easy answer to this, not without talking to vendors/salesmen/reps directly and having plug type specifics on their order forms when they order units for a particular region.

 

[jonnyguru]

So I decided to look into this further (on a manufacturer level since I received so much feedback).

The plug you would ship with a PSU is the 15A one with the larger ground pin, which is the exact same plug that South Africa uses.

GREAT! Kill two birds with one stone. A plug that works in India AND South Africa!

But wait.... India needs BIS certification and South Africa needs SABS. So? Well, BIS won't certify a South Africa cord and South Africa won't certify an Indian cord because the wires in the India cord are red (hot), black (neutral) and green/yellow (Earth), while the South African cord uses blue (hot) and brown (neutral).

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!!

 

[Karadjgne]

Insulation color shouldn't matter since they are factory sealed terminations with no user accessibility, you could use clear with copper/tinned wire and a green/yellow ground for all I'd care, but that's just me I guess. Not like the current carrying wires on the other side of the psu are anything but black.

 

[jonnyguru]

Insulation color shouldn't matter since they are factory sealed terminations with no user accessibility, you could use clear with copper/tinned wire and a green/yellow ground for all I'd care, but that's just me I guess. Not like the current carrying wires on the other side of the psu are anything but black.

Correct. Absolutely correct. The insulation covers the actual wires. But when you have the cord inspected by the certification company and they cut it open and find the colors "wrong", they will not give you certification.

It's such a scam.

 

[Karadjgne]

But of course it's a scam, those ppl went to all kinds of schooling, got all kinds of degrees, just to justify cutting open a couple of electrical cords and saying 'yep, it's black, red and green'.

What's even better is you have to pay them.

 

[Mezoxin]

I have noticed that all PSU chords have different ratings for the plugs and socket on both ends , is there a specific reason for that ?
This an example from the uk type cable that came with my corsair psu , it has 10A on the socket side and 13A on the plug side

 

[jonnyguru]

I have noticed that all PSU chords have different ratings for the plugs and socket on both ends , is there a specific reason for that ?
This an example from the uk type cable that came with my corsair psu , it has 10A on the socket side and 13A on the plug side

I shouldn't respond to you since you're off topic, but....

That "13A" isn't a rating. It's the value of the fuse that's underneath that cover.

 

[Mezoxin]

sorry for being off topic , but since you have been very generous with the your information i will rephrase what i meant as its written though as 13A at the top right corner not just the fuse , i have noticed the same with non fused cables as well being 16A on the plug side and 10A on the socket side , wont deviate the conversation again