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I read that as „sockets that do comply with the listed standards may be used“ although you‘re definitely right that 553.1.201 explicitly mandates shuttered sockets.

The quote on the previous page explicitly mentions BS EN 60309-2 and one could most certainly supply an entire house from a blue 63 or 100 A socket.

The main question is strain relief. I‘ve seen this a few times with standard pattress boxes and 20 mm of inner cores on show.

Yes, that’s what I wrote in my initial post, I just missed that the 7p price wasn’t for one piece.

Not really surge protectors as we know them. These gadgets monitor the supply for slow voltage increases or drops and disconnect until the voltage is within the set limits again. For brief surges they‘re useless as far as I know. They‘re quite popular in various countries e.g. Ukraine, Russia...

I must have missed the detailed price chart the last time I looked, seems like the price for one is 89p. For two it’s only 53p. https://www.accu.co.uk/brass-threaded-inserts/849011-HTBBI-M3-5-BR

I found them for 7p apiece but with £ 5.25 p&p from a UK online store. Unless you might need them for something else in the future a new back box would certainly be cheaper. The main advantage of using an insert would be not having to mess with the plaster.

Snow outside would seem very unlikely for the UAE. Three-core cables with white, blue and green/yellow is also fairly typical of Russia and some of its neighbouring countries. Quite over-engineered compared to most videos from that region, in a good way.

You can buy threaded brass inserts that are meant to be melted into thermoplastic materials but I suppose they could be epoxied into any other material. I‘ve used them to build an acrylic case for a tablet, just drilled slightly undersized holes and pushed the brass inserts in with a hot...

The only option I could think of would be a clamp-on meter in the consumer unit but that’s not what I‘d consider a DIY job.

As long as there‘s no more than one double socket you don’t need an FCU.

A quick web search indicates that this model is produced for the Republic of Ireland. Hager has product lines for almost every European country.

I was trained using choc blocks and used them all the time but eventually came to prefer Wagos and push-in terminals on sockets. I‘ve seen too many failed choc blocks, including one or two I‘d installed myself. I know that choc blocks are quite common in the UK but less so in junction boxes...

Most likely a breach of contract rather than any law.

Do you know the model of inverter? It sounds like the inverter doesn’t produce a true sine wave and that causes the ballast electronics to oscillate. That might lead to overheating so not ideal.

I‘ve done quite a bit of electrical work in central Europe and have seen plenty of melted choc blocks and screw terminals but very few damaged spring connectors or terminals. One socket had two conductors in a terminal designed for one and on top of that it was a particularly poorly built...

In Germany Wago-style terminals became common on light switches in the 1970s and replaced screw terminals on sockets pretty much immediately as soon as the VDE allowed them in 1995. Wago 273/2273 connectors have been commonly used for at least as long. I‘d consider that decent long-term experience.

What about the screw at around 1 o‘clock? Could that be an earth screw? Either way you‘d need to check for earth continuity.

Some Schuko and French plugs have the earth terminal closer to the strain relief, otherwise you‘re meant to leave the earth longer than L and N for that exact reason.

Is it a bayonet or Edison socket? Edison ones love to do that when the centre contact gets slightly bent.