When I was 10 years old I was able to build my own power board. I was always a person with a fair bit of common sense and a good proportion of safety and care when it came to electricity. But how is it that a ten year old boy can go to a electrical shop and buy all the items required to build such a item but that same boy can not go and buy a packet of cigarettes or any alcohol.
Playing with 240 volts can be very Dangerous to some one who knows nothing of electricity.
What started this chain of thought was a beautiful little 110 volt Crossly Radio on ebay last night. It was very cheap so I looked at the description and the seller said that he "Plugged it in"and it received a few stations with good volume and then it let out some smoke and stopped working.
On looking at the photos he had bent the power plug prongs so as to fit in our 240 volt sockets lol. How can people be that ignorant. If it doesn't fit then there is a reason lol.

And someone is bidding on it omg lol.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/285032015758

Here's something else the owner doesn't know - it's a transformerless set (AC/DC) which no doubt means a live chassis if the plug is wired up the wrong way, or the pins are bent the wrong way - the owner is probably lucky that the set has a back on it so fingers cannot go off course.

Will that radio ever work again? Probably, but not before many components are ripped out and replaced. Chances are, the filaments in at least one of the valves are goneskies.

As Marc often says - the monkeys have been at it again!

Caused a short circuit in our electricity.

They shouldn't blame the appliance - the short circuit was caused by the operator.

I actually took the time to explain to him what he did wrong. I informed him it was a hot chassis but didn't tell him what I actually thought of him.

I have seen quite a bit of damage from 110V sets being plugged into 240V there is a Majestic here that I am sure was powered with 240V even that it has a big label 110V 60~ on it. Even seen a 32V set with a mains plug. It never left with it.

Despite hard to get; everything 110V AC here, has a NEMA plug, or socket.

Not surprisingly, I have also seen a lot of damage from not assessing the thing, & plugging it in to see if it goes.

Some seem to forget that this sort of equipment runs on smoke; If that smoke escapes; A serious problem has manifested and its now likely cactus.

Many affluent homeowners in Philippines specify dual 120/240v house wiring for convenience, as is available from pole x/former.
myphilippinelife.com/philippine-electrical-wiring/

NewVista I have seen the Philippine wiring first hand. Believe me its B££$#y dangerous.

I've heard that from some affluent Filipino friends here also how the well-to-do in Manila want 120v outlets for American/Japanese appliances.
So similar to situation in Brazil - both countries should have fully adopted the Nth American system.

There's one good reason why the Philippines wouldn't have - they weren't exactly a US ally at the time electricity came to the world. A second reason is that some of the island nations around them were British territories and adopted either the British 240V or European 220V systems for domestic use.

I thought 60 hz would indicate American origin, what year did they go 60?

I thought 60 hz would indicate American origin, what year did they go 60?

I would expect 60 Hz, but there's an entry in the Wiki that says: "50 Hz used in some establishments such as malls".

Japan has a mix: "East Japan 50 Hz (Tokyo, Kawasaki, Sapporo, Yokohama, and Sendai); West Japan 60 Hz (Okinawa, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, Hiroshima)."

Japan also has an oddball PD of 100V, although it is said that appliances rated at 110V work fine there.

MOre generally speaking, it needs to be remembered that before transmission grids there were dozens or even hundreds of smaller town-based power stations and these quite often supplied a mix of either AC or DC at a range of voltages and in the case of AC, a range of frequencies.

Australia was no exception and what was available in a given area could differ greatly to the next.If anyone thought that the cross-section of railway gauges was bad, well this was worse.

And not just Manila, I'm in Baguio in mid 70's, a mile high city where president goes to escape summer heat of capital, am at 'Country-Club' resort, next to a US base. They cautioned there "watch out, some [type A] outlets in hallways are 220" (for use by staff?) Confused by the electrics there I ask a long term resident there, a US military man, "are light switches in US up or down; they're down where I'm from?" (I had never been stateside) He, taciturn, wisecracking in previous conversation, responds "well, you are down-under!"

I have a copy of the 1937 Trade Manual, it has a listing of the voltages running in various towns, as at that point there was no state grids & it was 1962 when the first single phase SWER line went in and there a still some around here.

There were actually Lloyds of London Insurance requirements, in leu of stuff all other regulations, that things should "fail safe" so something like a knife switch would need to be live at the top & if the contacting arm fell, it would fail open & that did extend into other situations like mechanical valves. So where regulations still exist? One would expect if there was an internal fail in a switch, it would fail open?

Where I use relays to change over automotive headlights, the default is always low beam.

As before, it is desirable to have NEMA plugs on 115V and the Australian, or European plugs for 220-240V in the hope they stay incompatible. The fact that NEMA are hard to get here for 115V stuff, is a safety concern, when I see 115 -120v stuff with our 240V plugs.

Clipsal make US pattern plus bases and plug tops. They aren't usually on the shelf but they do make 'em and you can get them at electrical wholesalers. Same for 32V T-pattern pins.