I was born in the 1950's (in the US) and I have many exciting memories of plugging in those loose cords for waffle irons, etc and seeing the insulation blow off the cord in blazing red glory. Those were the days! Space heaters that would set the newspaper on fire. Life used to be exciting.
Speaking of the US and probably for the rest of the world, electrical devices have gotten very wimpy. My main complaint is that 12 volts will not kill anyone so most computer stuff has a transformer brick so the manufacturer can kind of do what he wants to mess things up.
But, there are also now "polarizing" plugs and "grounding" plugs. There were not many vacuum cleaners with ground plugs made in the 1970's. And they consume lots of juice.
The big danger is that there are certain devices like hot plates that are definitely polarized so that they can look like they are off but are still electrified. These are a very big shock hazard and polarizing plugs are necessary.
What has led the massive use of grounding plugs in the past two decades is that there may be a chance that the house has been wired incorrectly and that the polarizing plug will not have the correct hot, neutral configuration.
Consequently, if your house is properly wired the grounding plug has virtually no benefit.
But that being said, I play Devil's Advocate but follow the rules in the end.
For US and Canada the Ebtech HumX is a way to isolate the ground and still follow electrical code.
The trick is that these ground lines can get in all sorts of ways. Through coaxial cable for television (these require grounding at the house drop) and unbalanced interconnect lines.
I do have a question and that is whether RJ-45 (ethernet cable) introduces a ground loop? That is becoming a new possible threat as are HDMI and DVI cables.
Speaking of the US and probably for the rest of the world, electrical devices have gotten very wimpy. My main complaint is that 12 volts will not kill anyone so most computer stuff has a transformer brick so the manufacturer can kind of do what he wants to mess things up.
But, there are also now "polarizing" plugs and "grounding" plugs. There were not many vacuum cleaners with ground plugs made in the 1970's. And they consume lots of juice.
The big danger is that there are certain devices like hot plates that are definitely polarized so that they can look like they are off but are still electrified. These are a very big shock hazard and polarizing plugs are necessary.
What has led the massive use of grounding plugs in the past two decades is that there may be a chance that the house has been wired incorrectly and that the polarizing plug will not have the correct hot, neutral configuration.
Consequently, if your house is properly wired the grounding plug has virtually no benefit.
But that being said, I play Devil's Advocate but follow the rules in the end.
For US and Canada the Ebtech HumX is a way to isolate the ground and still follow electrical code.
The trick is that these ground lines can get in all sorts of ways. Through coaxial cable for television (these require grounding at the house drop) and unbalanced interconnect lines.
I do have a question and that is whether RJ-45 (ethernet cable) introduces a ground loop? That is becoming a new possible threat as are HDMI and DVI cables.