Type D — Old British 5 A (BS 546)
- Pins
- 3
- Spacing
- 19 mm
- Pin length
- 14.9 mm
- Rated
- 5 A
- Earthed
- yes
Drawn from pin dimensions at one scale across the whole site — hold a plug against the screen and it should look familiar.
A colonial-era survivor: the round-pin BS 546 5 A plug that Britain abandoned but India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Namibia kept. Three stout round pins form a triangle — two 5.1 mm line pins on 19.1 mm centres and a fatter 7.1 mm earth pin standing 22.2 mm above them. Its modest 5 A rating means the bigger Type M version often lives alongside it for heavy appliances, and many Indian sockets are machined to accept both.
What fits a Type D socket
Only its own plug — nothing else seats in a Type D socket. Europlugs (Type C) can be pushed into many D sockets but sit loosely and may spark — an unintended fit, not a safe one. Type M is the same design scaled up, on separate sockets.
Facts verified against IEC World Plugs — Type D. Prose is our own.
Where you'll meet it
- Bangladesh220 V
- Bhutan230 V
- Botswana230 V
- Chad220 V
- Democratic Republic of the Congo220 V
- Dominica230 V
- French Guiana220 V
- Ghana230 V
- Guadeloupe230 V
- Guyana240 V
- Hong Kong220 V
- India230 V
- Iraq230 V
- Jordan230 V
- Lebanon220 V
- Libya127/230 V
- Macau220 V
- Madagascar127/220 V
- Martinique220 V
- Monaco230 V
- Myanmar230 V
- Namibia220 V
- Nepal230 V
- Niger220 V
- Nigeria230 V
- Pakistan230 V
- Saint Kitts and Nevis230 V
- Senegal230 V
- Sierra Leone230 V
- Sri Lanka230 V
- Sudan230 V
- Tanzania230 V
- Yemen240 V
- Zambia230 V
- Zimbabwe220 V