What is the difference between flex outlet and spur outlet?

Answer 1

A flex outlet is a wall outlet which has a flexible cable permanently wired into it instead of being fitted with a plug to go into a socket outlet. Flex outlets have their own fuse holder to replace the fuse which would normally be fitted into the plug if a fused plug were used instead. Such fused flex outlets are commonly used for electrical appliances which will never be moved, such as immersion heaters, which are permanently installed into domestic hot water storage tanks, and hot water heaters which are wall-mounted. A spur outlet is an additional wall outlet that is permanently connected to another wall outlet instead of being wired directly back to the breaker panel on its own circuit. Spur outlets are used occasionally when most socket outlets in a building are installed on a "ring main" and for some reason - usually because of cost when an additional socket outlet is found to be needed at a new point in the building - it was decided not to extend the ring main itself to that point in the building. A "ring main" is a loop of cable that goes out from a breaker to feed a "ring" of socket outlets in part of a building and then returns to be connected back to the same breaker. For instance in an average-sized house 3 ring mains would normally be installed: one for the socket outlets in the kitchen, one for the rest of the ground floor and the third for the bedroom floor. This method is used extensively in the UK and Eire where every appliance has its own correctly-fused plug.

Answer 2

A flex outlet is a flexible metal conduit used for running wires in a building, while a spur outlet is an additional power outlet tapped off an existing circuit. Flex outlets provide protection for wiring in areas where it may be exposed to damage, while spur outlets are used to add extra power points in a room without running a new cable back to the main distribution board.