They’re like that in this apartment we’re renting and I keep seeing them elsewhere. I don’t get it.
at least in part it’s an end result of decades of crud and tech debt, so to speak, accumulating in british power grid and home wiring. they do it this way because otherwise it won’t be safe. continental euro home wiring usually has thicker wires, residual-current circuit breakers and no ring circuits so we get away without fuzes and switches, and with smaller plugs that don’t become caltrops. sometimes we do have ring circuits kind of thing, but not in house wiring, instead it’s in medium voltage distribution grid, and it’s sized so that it can serve most of loads after single failure.
explanation
in normal state, medium voltage line (like 15kV, 20kV) might branch out in rural terrain from substation to two or more places. in case of single failure, mildly common after storms, everything downstream would be down. instead, to increase reliability, every few km there’s a radio-controlled switch and some of the far ends have line between them that is usually disconnected. in case of single failure, damaged segment is cut off, and the far end of the loop switch gets closed. this way power is delivered the long way around the loop, allowing for repairs of the damaged sector in the meantime. this also specifically avoids some of problems of ring circuits especially in situation when some lines might be damaged.
All plug points in India also have (regular sized, not these tiny ones) switches to control them
Huh, it’s interesting- Here the power switches are a similar size to the UK, so when I searched up a picture of the Indian switches I thought they were ridiculously giant, not like regular sized UK/Australian ones
I guess it’s just whatever you’re used to is the ‘regular’.
Are light switches the same? What happens when you have a lot of switches together, like six or eight? Do you just have really wide banks of switches?
Yeah there are cases where you have to take a sharpie or a label to know which ones are which when there are too many switches all setup together
They usually look like this though
The one closest to the plug point controls it
Safety, easier to switch things off without unplugging them. Why not have one if it’s more convenient? Not all of them have switches though.
It made a lot more sense when things didn’t have their own power switches but…what does that apply to anymore? How many devices do you own that are powered off exclusively by unplugging it? Why pay for the manufacturing time and material to add a switch if nothing uses it anymore?
Fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, television, phone charger, robovac dock, lamps, computer monitor, aquarium pump… I could go on.
It’s not strictly necessary, but it’s a convenience.
Most of those have power buttons and, aside from the charger and vacuum, those things are supposed to stay on.
I meant more things like lamps that you actually turn on and off…And the majority lamps have switches nowadays, I’m not sure why you included it on your list
We’re getting into the weeds a little bit here, but there’s a lot of things that have power buttons that will put the thing into standby, not off. I’ve often done a ‘hard reset’ on my ‘smart’ tv when it starts acting up, just gotta cut the power.
It’s a small convenience, but it’s nice. I’ll happily pay the extra three cents in manufacturing costs for something that lasts decades and may be occasionally mildly helpful.
There are still times where it’s convenient. I have some display cases with integrated lighting and the inline switches are incoveniently between the case and the wall so its super handy to turn it on and off at the plug.
Being able to turn things off at the plug also reduces standby/phantom power when things are in sleep, which for some devices adds up more energy usage than you’d think.
Sometimes when people go on holiday for two weeks they like to disconnect the electrical items in their house for safety. With switched sockets you can just turn them off instead.
I’m sure I could live just fine without switched sockets, but it’s convenient they are there.
Ah, now all of that makes sense! Thank you!
Everything you’d want to know about British wiring and my introduction to Tom Scott:
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.
Your sockets spark when you plug something in?
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.
Oh I’ve never seen that in the US, maybe I just didn’t notice
Home electricity in North America has roughly half the voltage as elsewhere in the world, and double the voltage is double the arcing potential, so that figures.
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.
You’re right, now that I think about it. Laptop power does it more than anything else.
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.
Ah, this is fantastic. I learned some stuff, thank you.
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.
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
To turn shit on or off
when any electricity leaks out (for example through your body) it switches off. the eu also has the same system, but its one switch for your entire house. the us also has this but only in bathrooms.
These aren’t automatic switches, but other people explained the reasoning.
oh, according to electroboom they were gfci.
They’re connected to an RCD, as modern UK wiring has all sockets connected via an overall RCD in the fusebox, but the switches on the socket are just basic on/off switches.
GFCI circuits are required by code around sinks and the like. Bathrooms, kitchens, utility wet rooms, etc.
You can relatively easily install them anywhere you want though.
Allows you to remove power from the plugged in device without unplugging it. This provides convenience to easily and quickly turn things on and off and prevents arcing when unplugging. 240V 13A can arc a bit, particularly if unplugged under load, or on older sockets where the contacts have worn. While a little arcing doesn’t do much damage immediately, over time it will cause pitting and make a high resistance joint that will generate heat.
The switch only disconnects the live terminal, but the neutral terminal should be similar potential to earth (depending on how the building is wired).
Truly the king of plugs and sockets. The plugs are individually fused according to the device needs, ergonomic to use and exciting to stand on.
Allows you to remove power from the plugged in device without unplugging it. This provides convenience to easily and quickly turn things on and off and prevents arcing when unplugging.
That’s exactly what I do, because it’s more convenient than unplugging everything.
I live in South Africa, where we had rolling blackouts (called loadshedding) for a few years. It’s easier to switch everything back on when the power comes back than to plug it back into a socket without a switch, especially with my fucked up spine.
The electricity in the place I live was done poorly, so having something plugged in “live” risks a surge or something and then the appliance gets fucked and then everything smells like burnt plastic.
And that’s the best case scenario. Others have had housefires.
Also, the South African plugs aren’t pleasant accidentally to step on. It won’t pierce your foot, but it can still hurt like a motherfucker for a few seconds if you step on it in the wrong way.
Those UK plugs do look a lot more nasty to step on. I shudder at the thought.
I like the EU and US two prong cables ( 🔌?) where the prongs are parallel to the cable, but not the cables with the orthogonal prongs.
I like the EU and US two prong cables ( 🔌?) where the prongs are parallel to the cable, but not the cables with the orthogonal prongs.
Non-grounded plugs aren’t that great, though, and once you add the third prong the plug gets much less flat. Compare:
Maybe Italy and Chile have the best idea in terms of slim grounded plugs, although the lack of polarity might be a problem?
Also, IMO right-angle plugs are often better than straight ones because you can put furniture closer up against them and do so without stressing the cable.
right-angle plugs are often better than straight ones because you can put furniture closer up against them and do so without stressing the cable.
Yeah that is definitely a huge bonus. I’ve taken it for granted.
We’re slowly adopting three pronged Italian/Chilean-type plugs that will be “backwards-compatible” with the EU plugs. I have no clue about polarity or anything like that.
New sockets include em. The original three pronged socket is kind of a hazard. Kids can stick their fingers in there. Not sure how that got approved.
Wait until you step on with bare feet an upturned UK plug. Worse than stepping on Lego
why would the lack of polarity be a problem? the outlets only deliver AC, and everything plugged into them are made for AC.
I gotta admit I don’t entirely understand it either, but people claim it matters. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-is-the-correct-polarity-important-with-ac.979324/
How many devices do you have that don’t have a switch on the device itself?
exciting to stand on
Thanks, I hate it.
Makes sense, American lie voltage (outlets) are 120V. 240V is considered high voltage and isn’t typically fed into residential units. Plugging anything rated for 120V into a 240V outlet is gonna be a bad time, and is why the outlets for high voltage are shaped differently.
I was gonna guess that the switches were too negate so-called vampire power, which is when a truck’s of electricity flows into appliances that are normally off. IMO that trickle is so negligible in a residence that is 6 effectively irrelevant, but that’s just here in the US. I don’t know anything about foreign electrical systems.
240 is used all the time for furnaces, driers, and increasingly EV outlet connections.
It’s just all our “normal” stuff is 120.
I wish our electric kettle outlets were 240. I’m unreasonably jealous that other places in the world can boil water faster!
I think you can have it, but you’d need to spend a pretty penny.
All it would take is calling an electrician to run the appropriate wiring from the place you want the kettle plugged in to you breaker box, connect it to the breaker box with the appropriate breaker, cap off the other end with the appropriate plug (a 240V plug does exist in America), and then buy a kettle capable of receiving the rated voltage and current and splice on the appropriate plug (because I presume you won’t find one sold with that plug).
An extremely expensive way to save maybe three minutes boiling water, but you can do it.
Safety and convenience versus the cost of including them, I expect.
The Wikipedia page for BS 1363 says they’re optional and weren’t added to the standard until 1967. I can’t recall having seen a domestic socket without one.
But it seems the only legal way to read the actual standard is to pay for it, and even the HSE website isn’t much help.
So basically, this concept was invented by a committee.
Yes. Welcome to the UK. You will need to adjust to small aggravations such as this. Good luck.
Yes, but what’s your point here? “Oh no, someone preserve us from… *checks notes* a group of subject matter experts!”?
If that annoys you for some reason, you’d best not learn how the overwhelming majority of products and services see the light of day. Rage aplenty awaits.
I didn’t have a point, I had a question. And it doesn’t annoy me, I just didn’t know why.
Why are people giving me shit for asking a stupid question in the stupid questions community? Is there a supremely stupid questions community I should have asked instead?
Your original question was answered by numerous people in the spirit of the community, so you have got best answers it can provide at the moment, but your follow-up comments suggest that you don’t think so.
But I may have misjudged your intent, as looking further I can see you’ve been replying to comments individually. My initial impression was that you were masquerading statements as questions. If I have that wrong, then my apologies.
I was genuinely trying to understand.
For safety I guess?
I don’t get how that makes it safer.
So when the dumb person tries to insert a fork in the plug, they don’t die electrocuted.
Have you seen the list of safety features on UK plugs and sockets? The sockets have shutters in them that prevents anything being inserted into the live or neutral sockets unless the (longer) earth pin of a matching plug is inserted first.
Having said that, I agree: seems to be a belt-and-braces approach. No downsides.
And it allows you to cut power to an appliance without having to remove the plug.
Sockets with flaps are code in the us too and have been for a while.
Isn’t the USA 2 pin for many outlets, though. So there is no earthing. The uk socket requires the earth connection to be made by the longer earth pin on the plug before the flaps will open.
yes but you have to open both shutters at the same time. The ground doesn’t have a shutter.
No, because the ground carries no voltage. It’s literally connected to the ground to route any electricity away from the appliance in case a person touches it.
In my work, I’ve learned that when you see a safety measure that looks overkill and that “no one can’t be that stupid” to do what the measure keeps you from doing is because, in fact, someone was that stupid.
Warning signs and safety regulations are written in blood. I call the certificates of Darwin awards.
There are already slats so the only hole you can get a fork into is the earth, unless you’ve already got something convincingly shaped like an earth pin in the earth hole to open the slats over the live and neutral. If you’re going to that much effort to zap yourself, the switch isn’t going to be much of a hurdle.
I’d suspect that it’s largely because it’s more convenient to have a switch than to unplug things and plug them back in again, especially as our plugs are a nightmare to step on to the point that Americans complaining about stepping on lego seems comical to anyone who’s stepped on lego and a plug.
Some of our sockets now have interlock type slats. Not only do you need to insert the earth pin first, but you also have to insert the live and neutral together. Now, even if you wedge the earth open, you still can’t insert a fork into the live.
I like them, personally. You don’t have to use them but they are sometimes handy. I just spent 30 seconds feeling around a TV to turn it off only to discover it doesn’t have buttons. Killed it at the wall.
It’s not a deal breaker, in any case. The weird foreign convention I would like to shame is doors that require a key to open from the inside.
I just spent 30 seconds feeling around a TV to turn it off only to discover it doesn’t have buttons.
Ugh. That annoys the shit out of me. Our dog chewed up the TV remote when she was a puppy, but only got to the power button. But since the TV had no physical buttons, we couldn’t turn it on and off anymore until we got a new remote.
I have an old android phone I keep around because it has an IR LED on top and I loaded it with a few free universal remote apps. They all work offline and it’s come in handy so many times.
Some new models also still include ir blasters. Good stuff
The weird foreign convention I would like to shame is doors that require a key to open from the inside.
Huh. Where have you seen those? Seems dangerous.
They’re used where there are windows close enough that, if broken by an intruder, the intruder would be able to operate the lock.
The better solution is, of course, to not use such doors.
We mostly just leave the key in them unless I’m going on holiday.
If somebody is going to steal my stuff while I’m away, I’m going to make them work for it.
The weird foreign convention I would like to shame is doors that require a key to open from the inside
You can’t lock yourself out with those
But you can lock yourself in. During a house fire.
You can lock yourself in with the other type too.
No you can’t. You can lock yourself out, but a typical residential house built to code in North America has a latch handle that always turns from the inside, even when locked, and usually unlocks by doing so to prevent accidental lock-outs. And likewise if the door has a deadbolt, it must have a deadbolt with a handle on the inside. Most other kinds of locks are also easily accessible and removed by hand from the inside. The point is that they can’t require a key from the inside, because if you can’t find the key then you are locked inside and in thick smoke and fire that the key may be impossible to reach. If any egress door requires a key to unlock from the inside it is considered a serious fire hazard and will never pass a code inspection. (Of course, foolish people can still add them later but you can’t prevent stupid and it’s still a fire hazard not to mention impractical)
These types of building code and fire code rules are typically written in blood. People have died because of this.
All house doors/egress doors in Brazil require keys to unlock. BUT (and it’s a big but) most houses here are made of bricks, with ceramic roofs.
It does make sense to have easy-to-escape houses when they are built of flammable materials with an accelerant for a roof.
You can burn to death, though.
I usually see keyed from the inside locks when there is glass in/near the door to prevent someone from breaking the glass, reaching in and unlocking the door.
Can’t that be prevented by safety glass instead? Doors that need a key to open from the inside risk trapping people inside the building.
If a burger is gonna break the glass, a keyed lock isn’t going to deter them. Unless it’s like only a tiny glass window on the door.
If a burger is going to break the glass, it’s either really bad glass or a really bad burger.
I stand by what I said.
No one seemed to mention the important fact that UK and I think most Europe is a higher voltage than the US. Tom Scott as well as Technology Connections have some good videos on the whys and differences it causes.
Weird that you think anywhere other than North America has 110v electric
I think Japan has but literally every other country is 230
France used to have 110v too, it started to be phased out and replaced by the 220v in the 1950s.
Wow only 70 years ago
Not related but another surprising thing about our shared standards is that Sweden used to drive on the left until 1967. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H
As on the Wikipedia map, you see it’s essentially North and Central America, Japan, Taiwan and some Pacific islands plus some countries where there is a mix of standards.
It’s also kind of misleading. This map labels North America as 115-120V like everyone always does, when in fact it’s ALSO a 240V system, it’s just that the “common” plug and the “typical” circuit don’t use it, they only use half of a center-tapped 240V line. So that’s the “standard” they choose to use to label the whole system.
But it’s kind of unfair. It’s 240V coming into the house just like everywhere else in the world, except you also get the choice for it to be 120V. Being split-phase makes it easy to run multiple 120V circuits with a minimum of wire and still allows 240V for high-wattage appliances on their own dedicated circuits. It’s actually a very clever system and basically every house is effectively supplied with both voltages. It’s often poorly utilized, yes, with a few practical limitations and a lot of limitations due to historical conventions, but as a technical design it’s really kind of the best of both worlds, and it could be utilized a lot more effectively than it is.
If I was allowed to have an outlet with two 120V sockets, and one 240V European-style socket, there’s no technical reason I could not safely do that in a single outlet box. I could choose to plug in whatever I want at either voltage as long as it wasn’t more than 15 amps. Of course code would never allow that, because we consider the higher voltage “more dangerous” but it’s always right there, across two opposite phase 120V lines. We’re just not allowed to use it, except for large electrical appliances like air conditioners and clothes dryers. It’s frustrating.
UK kettles use the standard 240V mains and it’s excellent. Under 2 minutes to boil 3 US Pints with a 3000 Watt kettle.
By that logic, Europe should be labeled with 400 V, as this is the voltage between any two of the three 230 V phases connected to each household.
It is commonly used to power ovens or instant-on water heaters (Durchlauferhitzer, not kettles). Crafts, industry and even some households have IEC 60309 5-pin connectors for movable heavy gear.
We got wm in Australia as well.
Having grown up with it I missed those tbh. Makes saving power easier lol
Does it? Can’t you just turn off the device instead?
A lot of devices can be turned off, but they still use power. So you can waste electricity even though the devices are “off”.
Things like normal table lamps aren’t the problem, it is stuff like TVs, computers, stereos, etc.
yes.
Im from the states and live in Ireland. Here, people unplug lamps when they leave for the weekend. Dozens of times, I’ve had to plug lamps back in when coming into the office over a weekend or things like Christmas break.
I’ve also had to explain to at least 5-6 people that something that does not draw power by being plugged in, such as a toaster, electric kettle or light fixture (unlike a computerized device that has a stand-by mode) is not “wasting power” unless you unplug it or turn the outlet switch off.
I had a person at a party tell me their father was an electrician and taught her to turn the switches that lead to anything such as lamps OFF when they’re not being used because it costs electricity to “keep the wire charged”. True story.
Mainly they exist because there weren’t central fuse boxes for a while due to wartime copper shortages.
Mainly they exist because there weren’t central fuse boxes for a while due to wartime copper shortages.
Someone elsewhere in the thread pointed out that the Wikipedia page for BS 1363 says they’re optional and weren’t added to the standard until 1967.
huh! shit. thanks
turn the switches that lead to anything such as lamps OFF when they’re not being used because it costs electricity to "keep the wire charged
Lol what a donkey. For anyone that’s unaware, your meter spins when current is flowing, when a device is actively using power. If there’s no current flowing, the meter isn’t spinning. Just because a wire has potential doesn’t mean it’s actively drawing current, it only means it’s ready to do something, and any device that has the main feeder going through a physical switch (ie no standby like a computer or tv) has zero current path when the switch is open/off. Even devices in standby are drawing such a negligible amount of power that it doesn’t matter.
My mom used to unplug everything all the time, and it took years to convince her that’s not how that works. She only finally got it when I became an electrician.
You can test this theory yourself if you have a multimeter. Select ohms/continuity, and put the leads across the two prongs. If there is a resistance value present, it will draw current. If it says OL or 0 ohms, that means open line and it won’t draw anything.
the only thing that would make a shred of sense would be reactive power from plugged but unused transformers and the like, and for this reason you should disconnect these when not in use. but the only loads of this type that matter are welders and such
So we can turn the power on and off.
Why else would you have a switch next to a power socket?
Why can’t you just unplug it? If you have to go to the socket anyway… maybe I don’t understand because I’ve never lived with the convenience?
Even if you unplug it, the socket is still live at more than 200 V.
Maybe this was meant to be a joke, but that’s not how it works. If it were the switch would also not do anything, because what the switch does is exactly the same as unplugging the thing, i.e. cut a piece of the wire out.
Edit: unless you meant for safety reasons, in which case the shutter inside is a lot safer than the button.
A switch shuts the supply to the socket. Even after unplugging the socket does have electric supply, i.e. it is live. If any metallic object is inserted into the live socket it can give you a worse shock. Since the voltage supply in UK is 220V not 110V.
Shutter inside is much safer than button but is slightly costlier.
It’s easier to flip the switch to turn it back on than to fumble with the plug. You can get a variant without the switches if you don’t like, or simply leave the switch always on.
Lots of wall warts suck down 5w unused. I could see this being nice
Depends on the device.
Something like a vacuum, sure. You’re probably going to move it around anyway.
But I used to have a Spectrum computer, and it had no power switch. If you plugged it in then it was just on. Much simpler to power off at the switch than unplug it and risk the plug falling down the back of the table into a rats nest of cables.
Plus I guess it’s one more step a toddler needs to do to electrocute themselves…
But I used to have a Spectrum computer, and it had no power switch. If you plugged it in then it was just on
Something I’ve learned talking to my bri’ish friends online over the years: this happens to you guys because you have those switches. I cannot think of anything I’ve bought in the US that didn’t have its own power control for when it’s plugged into the wall (unless it’s something silly that I made or, for whatever fucking reason, Christmas lights and ONLY Christmas lights as every other decorative string light I own has a switch)
Nvidia Shield has no switch either. If it crashes (and Disney+ is the main culprit causing that, along with full 4K Blu-ray rips on Jellyfin) you have to pull the power cable on it.
The real question is why did the UK decide that on the outlet itself is the best place for that switch, as opposed to e.g. in the US where outlets are sometimes wired to a switch located next to the door to the room?
Switches located next to the door are for lighting, as opposed to switches on the socket which mean you can fully turn off your rice cooker without unplugging it. We do sometimes have sockets in the UK with the switch at the door, but they are usually a different shape socket that is designed for a lower current and is only intended to be used for floor lamps.
- Okay, that makes sense.
- Wait, your lamps use a different plug? That seems needlessly limiting/inconvenient.
The specific-plugs-for-lamps think is very rare these days. The reason for it is that it’s not uncommon for our plugs to be on a high amperage circuit - sometimes 30A, occasionally higher - that can’t be safely controlled with a light switch or similar, so the lamp-only circuit will be capped at, say, 3A with unusual plugs to avoid someone trying to connect a tumble dryer.
So you don’t get confused which outlet the switch turns off.
Do you have individual switches for each plug socket / outlet wired next to the door? That seems like it would take a lot of wiring, and need a lot of switches.
The room I’m currently in has six double sockets spread out around the room. They each have one switch per socket like in the post’s image. If they were wired back to the door, they would need a lot more wiring, and one of the two entrance doors would have to be chosen. You’d then have to walk to that door every time you wanted to turn something off.
It seems like a lot more work for no real benefit.
Do you have individual switches for each plug socket / outlet wired next to the door?
No, the rooms I’ve seen wired with lamp circuits would typically have one switch next to the entrance with several outlets wired together to it in the same circuit, along with another circuit of several unswitched outlets. Flipping that one switch would turn all the lamps on at once.
(More rarely, there might be two lamp circuits in a room, with two switches controlling two groups of outlets. I think my parents’ formal living room might be like that, but we barely used it and I haven’t lived there for 20 years, so I can’t quite remember.)
and one of the two entrance doors would have to be chosen. You’d then have to walk to that door every time you wanted to turn something off.
Nah, that’s what three-way switches are for: you can have a switch at each entrance that controls the same group of outlets.
Having a switch next to the door would be useful if you’re using that socket for a lamp but not if you’re using them for anything else. In my kitchen the sockets for my under counter oven and fridge are under the counter and the switches are above it so I can easily access them.
Having a switch next to the door would be useful if you’re using that socket for a lamp
That is specifically what switched outlets in north America are intended to be used for.
Most of the places in the world I have been to do without them, or at least did when I was there, so it confused me. But some people have given good explanations now.
Open one up. There’s also a fuse connected to the live wire. The amperage is dependent on the normal draw of the appliance. Just added safety features. Also the live and neutral holes only open up if you put the earth in first (that’s why it’s longer). British plugs are arguably the safest… Unless you leave them prongs up and step on it accidentally. That makes stepping on Lego feel like a shag carpet.
It seems a bit overengineered for little gain compared to good old schuko imo
You were down voted for whatever reason. These outlets are complete bullshit. You have your safeties in the electrical cabinet and then you make sure to wire your house according to certain standards. Schuko is leagues ahead of this crap. Modern Schuko sockets will only allow anything to enter, when both prongs are inserted at the same time. If you do happen to short anything, the FI switch (no idea what it’s called in English) will cut the power before anything can happen.
for anyone reading: FI -> RCD
