Just a simple plug
I guess I’d not paid enough attention. While in the hardware store last evening, I decided to replace the electrical plug that was mangled in a recent industrial/agricultural/domestic accident. Given that the plugs were in bins right beside me, colour-coded (if black and yellow can be considered as sufficient choices) and priced within my budget, I grabbed a pair of generic plugs (rather than sockets) and headed to the checkout. The scanned price was higher than I’d remembered, but the girl assured me that people often mixed up the contents of the bins. I now owned two 20 Amp connectors, suitable for use by the amateur home repairman.
This afternoon, while doing some stuff in a local school, I noticed a set of wall sockets that were different from the ones I have at home. Sort of like someone had added an extra sideway slot in the familiar two eyes and a nose configuration that we use here in Canada. My partner on the job told me that these were 20 Amp connections. OK. Wait a minute, I happened to buy a pair of plugs with that label just last evening and they weren’t – oh crap!
At home, my plan to sit outside on a sunny afternoon repairing the cord for the pool filtration system came to a halt, because I didn’t have the right plug for the job. Not even close. Back to the hardware store for the mandatory round of time at a courtesy counter, getting my mispurchase exchanged.
It turns out that there are many kinds of connectors in this funny world. Here in North America, we follow a standard known as NEMA, and here is a chart of a small fraction of the types of connectors it describes.
The lesson for today is that nothing is as simple or standard as it should be. Look twice, buy once.
