Power outlet (sockets)

[radiotrefoil]

OSM Tag(s)

socket:*=yes

How would you like this tag to see supported?

As a Preset

Label

Power Outlet - ([ISO 3166-2 code])

Aliases

power point; power supply

Terms

No response

Link to OSM Wiki page

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:socket:*

Status of the Tag

In Use

Usage of the tag

Over 15000

Suggested Icon

See body text

Replaces other Tag?

No response

Regional Tag?

global but with different presets per region

Further Information

Rationale

I propose adding a preset for common types of power outlet sockets. This will encompass the family of keys relating to domestic power outlets: socket:*. Currently, there is a large barrier towards the uptake of mapping power outlets, because keys of format socket:* have cryptic and difficult-to-remember names such as "typeE", "as3112", "bs1363", "nema_5_15" amongst others. As a result, public power outlets are a useful amenity that are largely unmapped compared to similar amenities such as drinking water and EV charging stations because the tagging is difficult. I find that without this preset, I have to dig through a large list of international sockets (that include all the electric vehicle charging sockets) on the OSM Wiki every time.

Tag usage and competing tags

There are a few similar (competing?) tags for domestic power outlets - the main two are amenity=power_supply (about 600 uses) and power=outlet (about 300 uses), with a more general power_supply=yes having about 36000 uses. Luckily, there is general concensus amongst all of these that the socket:* key group be used to specify the socket type. Therefore I don't think this will be problematic or favour any of the competing tags. Overall, the socket:* key group has about 15000 uses pertaining to domestic power outlets and close to 100K for electric vehicle charger sockets.

Regional tagging example

I suggest regional presets use the ISO 3166-2 country code. In Australia, there should be a regional preset such as "Power Outlet (AU)" for a domestic single phase outlet specified by the key socket:as3112. This could be expanded as necessary per country, such as socket:nema_5_15 for North America, socket:bs1363 for UK/Hong Kong etc.
In some cases, there may be an identical tagging structure for a preset called "Power Outlet (NZ)" which also uses socket:as3112.
In some cases, there will be multiple outlet styles used in a country; for example "Power Outlet (AU - 3 phase)" may be a preset for socket:as3123_5pin in Australia. In China, there are 3 commonly used outlet types that would need consideration.

Icon example

The preset should have an icon that is easy for the mapper to recognise. Power outlets are generally easy to recognise visually. The below example is a mockup for socket:as3112 and socket:as3123_5pin which are commonly found in Australia;

Suggested tagging and form fields structure

• The key type of socket: should be a dropdown menu, but have a default subkey as per the regional preset
• The value of socket:*= should be yes by default, but perhaps should include a spinbox form field that allows the user to enter the number of sockets present.

Additionally;

• power_supply=yes
• power_supply:voltage=* (menu)
• locked=* checkbox
• access=* field

[k-yle]

Without making any code changes to iD, it's only possible to support a very basic implementation:

• ✅ socket:*=yes
• ❌ socket:*=1
• ❌ *:current, *:voltage etc. with default values
• ❌ limiting field values by country

With these limitations in mind, a basic version has already been implemented here:

It's worth considering whether this primitive implementation should be added now, or if we should wait until a proper editor for this field can be built.

[radiotrefoil]

Thanks for the response. The primitive implementation looks great. My suggestion was an ideal case, but for now that will achieve most of my objectives for the request.

[k-yle]

for a proper socket:* field, we need to know the default voltage, current, and wattage limits for each socket.

similar to ideditor/schema-builder#15, this raises the question of whether data like the 'default voltage' should be stored in id-tagging-schema, country-coder, wikidata, somewhere else, or not at all.

[ronidee]

Noob question: If I wanted to contribute information about whether a Café that I visit has power outlets (that can be used by customers to charge their laptop, phone, etc), should I wait until this issue is resolved or can I already use the socket tag already?

I apologize, if this is too off-topic/doesn't belong here at all. But I stumbled across this issue while searching this exact question.

[matkoniecz]

@ronidee

can I already use the socket tag already?

you can, see https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=ATYL

in general iD tagging schema is not about tags allowed to be used, it is about designing UI for easier editing

just because tags is/is not supported it does not mean that it can/cannot be used

in fact, valid low use tags are in general not supported and are added where their usage passes some threshold - see #1573 for an example