Electronic – Why do French power sockets have a protruding ground

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French power sockets have a protruding ground. Why did they make this decision?

I can't see any major benefits from it, it saves some pennies on each power cord, but it exposes the ground connection to people nearby, which can be dangerous as in real life grounds are not perfect, they can have a live voltage and are a risk of electric shock if there's lightning nearby.

Once someone told me they are safer because the ground connects first, but this is also nonsense as the order of connection depends on the size of the plugs alone and not where they are.

In case you don't know what I am talking about:

French power outlet

Best Answer

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that the reason for the unusual earthing arrangements on french and german plugs is backwards compatibility with existing installations.

Appliances can be categorised into 3 categories.

  • Class 0: no earth connection, not "single fault safe" (now banned in most first-world countries)
  • Class 1: "single fault safe" only if an earth connection is present.
  • Class 2: no earth connection, "single fault safe"

If your existing installed base of installations has no earth provision and your existing base of appliances is class 0 then it can be argued that it is sensible to let people plug class 1 appliances into their existing unearthed sockets. They aren't any less safe than the old class 0 appliances were.

There is also an argument to be made that having some appliances earthed while there are class 0 appliances in use makes things less safe than having no earthing at all.

Adding a conventional earth pin disallows plugging new appliances into existing installations, and does nothing to prevent old class 0 appliances from being brought into new earthed installations.

The design of the German and French plugs on the other hand allows new appliances to be used in existing installations in a way that is no less safe than before, while keeping old class 0 appliances out of new installations.