Noticed this plug on my wall from when I moved into this house, and I just started wondering again about what it’s actually for. This is in the UK, if that helps. It’s on a big bulky box hanging on the wall below my desk next to two regular plug sockets.

Edit: best suggestion I’ve seen here is that it could be a fuse box for an alarm system. Makes sense since this house did have several security systems before I moved in. Also, for added context, this is in a bedroom and the wire coming out of it goes straight into the wall.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
    798·
    3 months ago

    Ah, that’s a European headphone outlet. It’s for listening to authentic house music.

    • raef@lemmy.world
      31·
      3 months ago

      Wouldn’t authentic house music be from Chicago and European be derivative?

      • StopJoiningWars@discuss.online
        311·
        3 months ago

        Get that Reddit canned response out of here. You can come up with a better reaction than the AIs can, give it a shot sometime.

        • Lupus@feddit.org
          151·
          3 months ago

          I am deeply sorry for expressing the inner response I had upon reading these holy texts. I long to better myself and only wish that some day I might cross unto the plane of higher understanding only true masters of eloquency like you can achieve, so that I might not flood the sacred halls of understanding and wisdom with my measly attempts at conveying a feeling that overcame me. One can just dream of reaching such a form of enlightened humanity to not dirty this truly intellectual exchange of minds with such a lowly response. My regrets at such blasphemy in the face of these holiest forms of pursuit for true knowledge is unbearable. My only hope is that I have not hindered the epiphanies surely to blossom out of the riddle of the mysterious white box on the wall. Were it not for enlightened minds like yours, the world would surely crumble and collapse into nothingness and we all are deeply thankful for your selfless and brave acts against the evils of this world.

          I will now retreat to silence in order to chastise myself, so that I might come out of this shameful exhibition of my intellectual shortcomings as a better person.

          spoiler

          Could’ve just said that this was a low effort comment, I would’ve agreed, your holier than thou bullshit can stay at home. It costs you nothing to be kind.

            • Lupus@feddit.org
              111·
              3 months ago

              You can come up with a better reaction than the AIs can, give it a shot sometime.

              As expressly asked for by you, you ding dong.

              Haha you’re stupid, do better

              *Does better

              Haha you actually tried

              Troll

  • Zier@fedia.io
    493·
    3 months ago

    That’s the secret internet off switch, DON’T TOUCH IT JEN!

  • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
    381·
    3 months ago

    Fuse box for one line. Fuses weren’t put in as standard when electricity was introduced. Many old houses just had live wires coming in with no breaker like today. For expensive electrical items added when there was no fuse, an electrician with install it with a dedicated fuse. If the electrical system has been updated where it enters the house, it may no longer be needed. However, if it is on a different circuit, it may be. Old fuse boxes were a bunch of replaceable physical fuses. Nowadays they are breaker switches for easy resetting and less waste.

    Anyway, if whatever is connected to this gets a power surge, the fuse could trip and you would need to replace it. However it is not a plug, to add a different device or appliance, but just a safety pass through for the wire coming out the other end.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 months ago

      Early electrical grids were fucking wild lol. In my city, there were 3 different grids, with different voltages competing for customers (one was DC!) In the early days before it was standardized.

  • OfCourseNot@fedia.io
    32·
    3 months ago

    This is a fuse box, with a flathead you should be able to open it and/or pull a small tray with the fuse itself inside. You Brits do your electrical wiring with ring-shaped circuits and put a fuse in every outlet.

    This kind of outlet is intended for things you don’t unplug and a socket doesn’t make sense, usually boilers, ovens, stoves, ACs, alarm systems as already commented…

  • Ledivin@lemmy.world
    222·
    3 months ago

    Not a plug, but a fuse box - that small panel would open up/pull out to let you replace the fuse. Couldn’t tell you what it’s for without more info

  • davidagain@lemmy.world
    17·
    3 months ago

    Here’s how to find out: use a small flat screwdriver to pull the central white thing out. It’s a cradle for a cylindrical fuse.

    If there’s no fuse, it’s for something that’s been removed and they couldn’t be bothered to remove the fuse box and its wiring.

    If there’s a fuse, you have disconnected the power by pulling the fuse out of the circuit. Check if something electrical stops working - alarm, shower, cooker, immersion heater, whatever’s on the other side of the wall, loft lights?

    Maybe the fuse is there but has already fused, in which case you may want to find or purchase a replacement of the same rating, and find out what electrical thing started working! The fuse rating is written in faint text on the side of the cylinder. If the replace with a higher rated fuse, you allow things to happen in the device that someone thought shouldn’t happen and could blow the fuse to prevent damage or injury. If you replace with a lower rated fuse you risk it going in normal use, i.e. too frequently.

      • davidagain@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 months ago

        Agreed. Always best to use an insulated screwdriver with anything near live electricity.

        In this case, if the fusebox is manufactured correctly, there should be very little risk indeed, but you can’t be sure that some unscrupulous corporation made something that disintegrates or weirdly exposes live connections where it absolutely needn’t. It doesn’t look super well made because the little tray for the fuse should be flush with the front of the plate and not recessed like that!

      • eclipse@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 months ago

        I’d probably turn off the power first especially if I didn’t already know what was behind it and whether it is properly grounded.

  • palordrolap@fedia.io
    2·
    3 months ago

    This panel has a distinctly UK look about it, and I was already thinking that before I read your confirmation. I think only the UK and Ireland use things that look even remotely like this. The rounded appearance also puts it post-war, pre-1980-something because everything changed to be more flat around that time.

    As for its purpose, would a bathroom be at the other side of that wall, by any chance? Or was it at some point in the house’s history? Heated towel rail is a good bet, for example. You don’t want anything vaguely like an outlet in the bathroom (shaver sockets notwithstanding), so wall panels tend to go in a neighbouring hallway or room.

    Note that some bathrooms have the light switch on the outside for similar reasons. Others have a pull cord inside the room, which is less able to cause electrocution.

    (If you know of a bathroom with a regular light switch inside it, you’ve found a room that was once something other than a bathroom and whoever remodelled didn’t finish the job properly. Or maybe it’s in a very badly built house.)

  • MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world
    412·
    3 months ago

    I showed chatgpt the picture and it was close to what others on here said.

    “The image shows a fused spur or a fused connection unit (FCU). This type of electrical outlet is used to protect appliances that are permanently connected to the electrical supply without a standard plug, such as heaters, ovens, or lighting circuits.”

    Then I asked what country this is most likely to have this in a home

    “The fused spur or fused connection unit (FCU) in the image is most commonly found in homes in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This type of electrical fitting is a standard feature in these countries, where it is used for appliances that need to be hardwired into the electrical system, such as water heaters, ovens, or extractors. It may also be found in other countries that follow British electrical standards, but the UK and Ireland are the most likely.”

    I thought that was interesting and wanted to share.