Where's the grounding on European power plugs?
If you ever been to Europe or gotten a device with an European power adapter. You might have wondered where the ground is
If you ever seen European power plugs, you might have wondered where the ground plug is and its not that strange
Three pin is the norm
For most countries, three pin for ground is the norm. Where two pins are for power and a third pin is for ground
On devices that don't need ground, they normally just only have two pins or the third pin is just plastic pin, which is common with the UK adapter
In UK power connectors, there's often a safety block in the power connectors and they won't open without something being inserted in the ground and therefor the non-grounded still have the third pin, just in plastic
Flushed in the adapter
When you connect an EU-plug into a multi connector. You'll see it sits flushed, but there's not third pin on the plug
Two types of EU-plugs
There's two types of the EU plug, but as you might notice, neither have a third pin
The more flat one (right side) is the non-ground power plug. Commonly seen on lamps, mobile chargers and other light consumption devices
The ground one (left side) is more round and you'll see there's some metal on the sides and underneath. I can hear you asking; but how does the ground work?
Ground plug
The ground for an European plug connects on the side of the plug or through a pin in the connector (France uses this solution) and why you see the hole under the plug
So you'll see the connector have raised walls, with metal connectors on the side (for the ground) in most of Europe, execpt for countries using the pin. Where the plug would be completely round and no metal on the sides, but will have a pin sticking out that align with the whole underneath
Before ground was a thing, the plugs used to be round and the connectors didn't have raised walls. When ground became the new standard and to prevent old heavy equipment to be connected without using ground, these two plug designs were implemented
