North Americans plug most of their appliances and electronics into a 110 volt wall outlet. If you want to bring any electronics or appliances with you to Malta, you will need to get adapters and transformers because the outlets here put out 220 volts.

We are presently using two different types of transformers, both of which we got on eBay. One is a Game cube sized black box that sits on the floor. We have a North American power bar plugged into it and we use it to power a few of the computer peripherals that we brought. The other type of converter is a walnut sized thing that has worked so far for the kids' game cube. I have been window shopping here in Malta and converters are available at garages and ironmongers ( hardware stores ) for under  Lm10. Voltage converters produce some heat, the better ones have a good quality housing shielding the hot parts. The capacity of a converter is given in watts. Your appliances have a power usage that is given in watts. The total number of watts of everything you plug in has to be no more than the capacity of the converter. Converters can be designed to convert voltage either up or down and will have switches that MUST be in the correct positions before you start running power through them.

Most laptop power supplies can use either North American or European Voltage. Look for the word 'input' on your AC adapter. Mine reads 'INPUT 100-240 volts'. For these items you simply need plug adapters. Make sure the adapters accept a North American three prong plug.

Our bathroom has a 'shaver only' outlet that has both a 230v and a 110v outlet, no adapter or converter required there. I suspect a hairdryer or curling iron would blow the fuse.

Something that is standard here is that every outlet has on on/off switch beside it. Once you get used to this you will wonder why we don't have these in North America.