electricalreceptacle
I found this outlet on the second floor of my apartment.
I thought the plug could be an isolated ground plug, but then why is the connector so weird? And I dont live in a hospital.
Important: I found this plug trying to analyze the fuses in one of my rooms. I'd like to hopefully find there to be ~25A of possible current in this room – right now the fuses are at 20A. So if i could somehow pull a lot of current from this plug that would be dandy.
This Blender which is used in the "Will it Blend" commercials requires a dedicated 20amp circuit. I have a smaller model but it still pulls 10amps! Now most people don't have these, but there certainly are all sorts of mixers, blenders, bread makers, etc. that might require this type of amperage.
I believe that you are required by NEC (in new builds anyways) to have dedicated 20amp outlets in the kitchen. I think that it's not so much that a single device will pull 20amps, but two devices plugged into a single outlet might.
Typical UK central heating is wired like this (Honeywell Sundial S-Plan)
It is not immediately obvious but essentially, the 240 live supply passes through a series of switches in this order:
Unlike the arrangements common in the US, all the above equipment operates at 240VAC.
Note that, so the switches in the timer and therostats don't have to switch the high currents needed by the pump, there is a separate (grey wires) parallel live feed to the mechanical relays in the zone valves. This doesn't change the fact that, logically, the units in the diagram operate in series.
Some commercial installations and some more recent domestic installations may have low-voltage to thermostats and may have intelligent thermostats that incorporate the timing functions. This doesn't seem to be the case in your installation.
As shown above, for installation convenience the equipment is wired radially and all connections are made in a central wiring box (often a backbox of the timer). So physically star-wired but logically in series (with parallel branches for hot water and heating).
Normally the thermostat needs 240 VAC neutral, 240VAC live (from timer) and switched 240V AC live (to zone valve). Some traditional-type thermostats include a heating anticipator (a resistor across switched-live & neutral that warms the thermostat).
UK wiring insulation colours are
old current
neutral black blue
live red brown
earth green yellow/green
Earth wires are sometimes bare copper (as in "twin & earth" single-core cabling inside walls/floor voids etc) but inside a junction box, back box or patress should be covered by the electrician in a yellow/green sleeve at time of installation.
If your thermostat has a ground connection but no neutral connection, it is wrongly wired and you should consult an electrician if you are not confident working with lethal voltages.
If the timer (controller) is set to "heating: always on" you should measure 220-240 volts on live at thermostat. Some multimeters have a low-impedance setting to avoid "ghost-voltage" indications. An alternative might be to temporarily wire a 60W incandescent light bulb across live and neutral, using a connector block, then measure voltage when the bulb is on (fully).
Best Answer
The formal technical term is Ms. Winky (sockets are female)...
That is a NEMA 6-20. It provides 240V at up to 16 amps continuous. The fuses must be 20A, that is the only size allowed here.
As a general rule, you can never give yourself more power by up-sizing fuses or breakers, so put that idea right out of your head and never consider it again. It's not like we randomly use excessively large wires for no reason. Fuses and breakers are already the max the wires will allow.
There is no neutral here, which means you cannot derive 120V except with a transformer. You cannot take neutral from anywhere else for a variety of reasons. However if the cable supplying this outlet also includes a (capped off) neutral, or if the wires reach this outlet via conduit, an upgrade is possible - ask.
Also as a general rule, any load that requires 25A @ 120V (3000W) is very stupid. That's not how power is done in North America. Common receptacle circuits are 15-20A. The vast majority are 120V (permitting 1440-1920W maximum (80% is the max for a plug-in appliance). However, 240V is well supported, giving 2880-3840W maximum. Therefore: Any appliance that needs 3000W would be manufactured to use 240V.
You are keeping your load a secret, so we have to guess. You say it needs 25 amps (3000W). If it is an array of PCs or other load that is capable of running 120V or 240V, then you are in luck. You can get 4800W (3840W continuous) out of this receptacle. Just get a NEMA 6-15 power strip and cords and you're off to the races (6-15 is more readily available than 6-20).
If your load absolutely requires 120V, then buy a different thing, or get an isolation transformer (not a stepdown transformer) of appropriate size.