I'm an American living abroad in the land of 220v with various 110v appliances. Here in the Philippines, for some wacky colonial reason, the plugs are the same two flat prongs as the US, but the wall provides 220v power. I have a transformer, so this is all fine and well as long as I'm careful to not plug it into the wall. Always careful. (Which of course I am not.)
What I would like is a simple adapter plug that can go on the end of each 110v appliance (and never come off) with a fuse inside that will pop if it is ever accidentally plugged into the 220v socket. Obviously, fuses are for current and don't work for overvoltage, but I'm not sure if there's another term.
Do you know if a product like this exists? Do you think there's perhaps a way to DIY one if not?
Answer
It's a bit of a hack anyway. Best option would be to identify devices that do not support 220V and wire a different plug only available on your converters.
You can get a varistor.
This is a component that starts conducting above a certain voltage.
As seen here with the blue line, above +/-300 volts, current will quickly rise.
You must use a fuse or circuitbreaker in series with the varistor in order to disconnect the circuit when the varistor is conducting. You also have to use a varistor rated for enough power to prevent the varistor to blow before the fuse. Many devices will already contain varistors to reduce the effects of transients.
Beware, varistors can explode violently.
Another option would be to use a voltage monitoring relay. These are more expensive, but are less destructive.
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