The Royal College of Art's graduate show has opened, and this year, the show-stopper was a plug. Min-Kyu Choi impressed every passer by with his neat, apparently market-ready plug that folds down to the width of an Apple MacBook Air. "The MacBook Air is the world's thinnest laptop ever. However, here in the UK, we still use the world's biggest three-pin plug," says Choi.

Choi's plug is just 10mm wide when it is folded. To unfold it, the two live pins swivel 90 degrees, and the plastic surround folds back around the pins so the face of the plug looks the same as a standard UK plug. The idea produced a spin off, too. Choi created a multi-plug adaptor, a compact standard plug sized unit with space for three folded plugs to slot in, as well as one that charges USB devices.













Sauce

absolute genious, That choi will be a millionaire shortly.

Brilliant Idea,

Just need to get them on to your every day devices. Doesn't look DIY friendly

They didnt think much of my idea though

Well of course they didn't; both wires are the same colour which obviously contravenes IEE wiring regulations(BS7671) 17th.edition.

I want to see the inside. It's probably not rewireable. Where does the fuse fit? It'll cost a fortune to get it BS and ASTA approved. Very clever and neat idea though!

Very clever!

im not to fussed, looks a bit flimsy to me, it would last 5 minutes with me

quality. genius that. nd am guessing the fuse goes underneath the little red cirlce's on the plug i want 1

I want lots!

5th and 6th pictures dont add up the wires will have to come out of the multi upwards looking at the earth pin

The problem is that in picture 5, the adaptor is being held in the wrong orientation; 180 degrees out.

Strange he did not notice that, if these are meant to be publicity pictures!

if you turn the plug you also have to turn the thin the thin plug which will send the the wires out the thin plug upwards not like the last picy which go downwards

I think not. Look at the very first pic. The bigger gap is between the 2 live pins, the smaller gap is between a live pin & the earth pin. The adaptor in pic.5 just wants turning 180 deg. then the thin plug will fit. As pictured, the plug wont fit into the adaptor because the pin spacing is wrong.

Yes, major mistake.

It looks obvious to me. In pic 5 the adaptor is being held upside down to display the fact that it's a normal 3 pin plug.
Simples

& the same result could have been achieved by turning the adaptor 180 deg. & rotating the camera angle 90 deg. left. Then the plug would have been shown to fit correctly & the adaptor pins could be seen also: I think the original pic.5 was simply an error.

Well that's what happens when people don't pay attention and think ahead

It's still a good idea though

yeah i think its a brill idea ......i wish id fort of that..

i presume they are all factory fit .....because of the internal space....

I think those wings are too flimsy to be classed as a safety guard, interesting idea though.

Chris - no earth on Beakers connection so wires can be the same colour.

I presume that is the bedside light lead in some non-British hotel, I have seen some horrendous things in Spanish hotels even recently.

Next power development is gas powered devices (eg mobile phones and refillable from cigarette lighter aerosol), very high energy density, reckon one refill will last 2 weeks to 1 month. It is supposed to be butane but if they make them to work on methane then it would just be a matter of a tube and daily supply of baked beans.

If you run out of beans will peas do?! (Not 'processed' though!)

Brilliant Idea, ideal for laptops.

i think the addaptor is only upside down to show it stil has the standard 3 pins on it, the right way up would have the pins facing him

smart idea for low power applications i.e. phone charger, laptop charger, however...



...I can see a few burnt old dears after plugging a couple of 2kw heaters in winter in that lol

In simple terms, providing the thing can stand a momentary max. 3 x 13 = 39Amps it should be safe as the ring main circuit breaker of 32Amps will blow. 2 x 2KW = 8Amps which is therefore quite safe. Some 'cube' adaptors with 3 outlets have fuses, some do not and rely on the 'diversity factor', which means it's unlikely that 3 x 13Amp loads will be switched on at the same time in a domestic situation. If they are, the main circuit breaker will trip. This is the essence of the British ring main system which is very safe.
I still would like to see what's inside it!

You should not draw more than 13A from any one socket, the contacts are not designed for this and will get very hot.

The ring-main is the cheapest compromise because it uses minimal cabling for the amount of current it can supply. But it is a compromise between safety and cost.

We used to have star-wired circuits with a separate fuse for each socket, that is far safer as the cable and the sockets are fully protected by the fuse. The penalty is the cost and bulkiness of all the cabling required - especially with the price of copper these days. If an RCD was added to this system it is nearly perfect. The wiring regulations still permit star-circuits.

The biggest flaw with the ring main regulations is the addition of spurs where a low current cable is protected only by a much bigger fuse, how this was introduced without realising the unsafe practice beggars belief. The fuse is there to protect the cable not the equipment.

17th edition has tidied up the requirements for RCD protection in new circuits which has got rid of some equally ridiculous loopholes in personal protection.

Surely 2 x 2KW @ 240 Volts = over 16 Amps. Not good on a 13A outlet as DD has pointed out.

Oops! Mental arithmetic went wrong. (Happens a lot these days)It should have been 2 x 2kW = 2 x 8A approx. But neither plug fuse (if 13A) will blow at 8A each and the 32A circuit breaker will hold.
I agree with dd that the bad point is the overheating from 3 x 13A possible draw through the adaptor's '13A designed' pins into the wall socket, if this new adaptor has no 13A fuse of its own.
I checked my unfused 3-way adaptor and it is BS and ASTA approved!! I've never seen this questioned before. Any thoughts?