Node Electrical outlet
09Nov09
I’m fascinated when people are able to rethink old ideas and come up with something completely new. The Node electrical outlet was designed to address the issue of not enough wall sockets. It’s unique design allows you to plug in multiple two pronged cords. While I’m not sure that it is really any more practical than your traditional electrical outlet (it may be less practical really, no three prongs here) you can’t deny it looks better.
If anyone finds out if these are available stateside, let us know.
Related posts:
Comments
14 Responses to “Node Electrical outlet”
Leave a Reply
Sponsors & Advertisers
-
Fantastic! But I imagine that would be challenging to have certified with UL.
We actually have a really old extension cord version of this. It’s a bar, maybe 2′ long, screwed into the baseboard molding, and plugged into the regular outlet a few feet away. Plugs (two prong only) can be placed anywhere along the bar into two grooves, similar to the outlet above. Always seemed really unsafe to me. While we’ve never actually used it, it’s clear that at some point before we moved in somebody did.
Sooo many people are going to overload their circuits with these. To work this would require a separate circuit for each outlet.
Another problem: Polarized plugs.
Equipment with polarized plugs are designed to be plugged in ONE way (hence the two different size of prongs). Unlike a standard outlet, there’s nothing to keep people from plugging a device in backwards.
Not likely to go “poof!” but it’ll probably damage the device.
It’s alternating current, so it doesn’t matter which way the thing is plugged in. “Polarized” plugs are only there to make it harder to plug your lamp into that outlet behind the couch.
Yes it is alternating current but you do not want the shell of the light hot so you get electrocuted when you taking out the bulb.
Hence there is a reason the plugs are different size all though I like your reason LOL
AC is still polarized. There is a hot or live conductor and a neutral conductor. Many things do not require a polarized plug. Many do. Amplifiers generally require correct polarization to avoid line noise. Lamps should be wired with correct polarization to avoid shock. The lack of a ground makes these almost useless, too.
As far as overloading the circuit, people can do that, anyway with outlet strips. The bigger danger is when people chain several outlet strips or multi-outlet adapters. Multiple serial connections like that will heat up and cause the outlets to fail.
However, this device would be okay (except for the polarization and grounding issues) if it had it’s out 15 or 20 amp overload protection built in.
Pretty design, but they forgot about practical use.
Cool idea, but the outlet has no ground. This could be a problem.
Electrician 101:
Some devices due to their design may not have grounded cords – typically because they contain no metal components other than the conducting parts themselves. In essence the ground is redundant as their is nothing metal to connect it to and thus not used.
The vast majority of electrical devices however do contain conductive parts and housings and it is imperative that these be grounded. Installing an outlet that does not accommodate this is simply an unacceptable practice and creates a potential life safety hazard.
No chance this product would ever be approved in the US or Canada, or installed by a competent electrician.
I suppose you could order and ship from overseas to install yourself but you have to ask yourself if having something “neat” is worth risking a life. Gratefully electrocutions are no longer as commonplace as they once were, modern grounding practices have help significantly in this regard.
I can think of a better reason this concept. There is very little actually holding the plugs in. Unless there are some very stiff springs pushing the contacts together the slightest tug on the power cord will cause them to slide around. Cool looking concept but perhaps the designer should actually consider the actual practical concerns dealing with it instead of focusing on appearance. Anyone can make a concept design that looks cool, it needs to be useful too.
Why not make the interior or exterior slot larger or smaller and coordinate the plugs to fit only one way. Polarization problem solved….as far as overloading, well, thats another issue
You would need to make the slots thinner for that to work which would also require changing the plugs on every cord for every device that needs to be plugged in. If you think manufacturers are going to change that just for a plug that is slightly nicer looking than sure its a great idea.
It would require too much thought for most people to consider “what would happen if you overdrew that outlet?” With so much space for plugs, it would be really easy to overdraw the circuit. I have a bunch of power drills that are high amperage and they don’t have any grounding plug. Granted, I wouldn’t install this or let it be overdrawn, but someone else might. Its a lawsuit waiting to happen.