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Dangerous Electrical Configuration?

UKnjb

UKnjb

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 23, 2005
716
0
London, UK
I have just built myself another, long, 'desk' to put all of my gear/telephones on so that it is not crammed. While I was disassembling everything, *gets very embarrassed here*, I noticed that I had 3 power-plug boards each with 6 sockets, daisy-chained off each other. As I had acquired the stuff and ran out of sockets, I had just sort of added the necessary expansion. And, probably worse, when I put everything back onto the new desk just now, I repeated the same assembly. Potential danger or what?

In order, the items are:
Bose hi-fi (I mention Bose because I am so proud of it :) )
Digital TV box
TV
DVD player
Desk light
Video/Audio recorder HDD recorder
Broadband modem
DECT telephone
PowerMac G4
External DVD burner
External HDD

Not everything is ever turned on at once and, when everything calms down in my head, I might try and work out the total load that could get drawn from that one single power socket if it were. And the spaghetti of the wires at behind the desk is pretty wondrous too.

Am I the only one to go down this route?
 
I think you're fine. Try to maybe plug in one power strip to another socket just to be safe? Or both.
 
Add up the watts power consumption for all the devices. Max current draw on a UK plug is 13A, which equates to 240V x 13A = 3120 W. So if you're under 3120 W, which I suspect you are with all that low-power stuff, then no problem. I would still try to spread the load between different sockets though, it just seems a bit wiser than daisy-chaining everything..

I have a similar thing at home - one socket, about 12 appliances. Biggest thing is my Sony amp, which draws 180W. Otherwise I'm pretty energy friendly!
 
lilstewart92 said:
I think you're fine. Try to maybe plug in one power strip to another socket just to be safe? Or both.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice; it's because I haven't got another socket within any useful distance (nearest is 14 feet away) that I am in my present configuration.


dops7107 said:
Add up the watts power consumption for all the devices. Max current draw on a UK plug is 13A, which equates to 240V x 13A = 3120 W. So if you're under 3120 W, which I suspect you are with all that low-power stuff, then no problem. I would still try to spread the load between different sockets though, it just seems a bit wiser than daisy-chaining everything..

I have a similar thing at home - one socket, about 12 appliances. Biggest thing is my Sony amp, which draws 180W. Otherwise I'm pretty energy friendly!
Click to expand...

Phew! Thanks for the calculations. As I said, most of the stuff is on 'Standby' at any one time, and it's either the Mac on ± peripherals, or the TV±Digital Box or TV±DVD or hi-fi. Except, I have just added my second monitor, a 17" flat-screen. Oh oh!
 
UKnjb said:
Am I the only one to go down this route?
Click to expand...
Hehe, definately not. My friend is in the same situation, with many appliances 'daisy-chained' from the one point. He hasnt suffered and electrical problems, but I do think it may pose a hazard of power overload.

Do you have any other power-points nearby, or ones that could be accessed with a short extension-lead? Otherwise, I wouldnt worry too much about it.

EDIT: You answered my question about nearby powerpoints. I wouldnt worry about it.
 
UKnjb said:
Phew! Thanks for the calculations. As I said, most of the stuff is on 'Standby' at any one time...
Click to expand...

gaaaaa! Standby, my bug bear. I wish things had proper switches nowadays. There are some ridiculous stats out there about how much energy is wasted by standby. Anyway... I forgot to mention that you need a fuse in the plug suitable for the total wattage! If you wanted to be really safe you could put a 5A fuse in the main plug, and if that was ever exceeded it would blow before your socket melted. But really, unless you're in an old house with dodgy wiring, electrical standards are so full of safeguards now that I would be amazed if you could actually acheive anything dangerous.
 
You think that's bad? You ought to see the LAN parties at Jim's place. The garage appartment we borrow has 2 power sockets. We need 4 (next time it will be 5) laptops, 6 XBoxes, 6 TVs, a Hi-Fi, Routers, other speakers and a microwave :eek:
 
dops7107 said:
gaaaaa! Standby, my bug bear. I wish things had proper switches nowadays. There are some ridiculous stats out there about how much energy is wasted by standby. ~snip~
Click to expand...

I so agree with you. when i finish for the day and turn off the main lights here, it make sme wonder why I had the lights on in the first place; it is like the cockpit of a 747 airliner. So much energy just --- going to nothing. Do I really need 5 different devices telling me the time and umpteen different red lights telling me that they're on and ready to go?
 
Should be no problem,what our US friends call those huge ugly plugs are each individually fused so you can't overload them.The only thing I'd suggest is to make sure there is no obstuctions lying over the cables or sockets so as air can circulate and stop overheating.
 
Peterkro said:
Should be no problem,what our US friends call those huge ugly plugs are each individually fused so you can't overload them.The only thing I'd suggest is to make sure there is no obstuctions lying over the cables or sockets so as air can circulate and stop overheating.
Click to expand...
Hehe, yeah, UK plugs are probably the safest in the world. The 3rd pin, which is both a ground pin as well as an activation-type thing (you need the 3rd pin all the way in before it starts supplying power to the other 2 pins). It also makes UK plugs harder to accidently knock out, and it provides room for fuses :D
 
greatdevourer said:
Hehe, yeah, UK plugs are probably the safest in the world. The 3rd pin, which is both a ground pin as well as an activation-type thing (you need the 3rd pin all the way in before it starts supplying power to the other 2 pins). It also makes UK plugs harder to accidently knock out, and it provides room for fuses :D
Click to expand...

Really, does it operate like a relay or a mechanical device? That's pretty dang cool.

Ben
 
saabmp3 said:
Really, does it operate like a relay or a mechanical device? That's pretty dang cool.

Ben
Click to expand...
Far as I remember, it's just a switch that's depressed when the pin goes all the way in
 
I think you should be fine because if too much power is drawn is should just trip a circuit breaker. Do you have fuses or circuit breakers? And how old is your electrical panel?

If you have a square D or Seimens you should be fine. However, if you have an old Federal Pacific panel then it's just a big fire hazard. They have been known for causing house fires all the time.
 
greatdevourer said:
Far as I remember, it's just a switch that's depressed when the pin goes all the way in
Click to expand...
There's just a spring-loaded safety shutter inside the live and neutral holes which the earth pin (which is longer) pushes out of the way as you plug it in. It's just to prevent little fingers being pushed into the socket. There is no relay.
 
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