Electrical query

Tachyon

Tachyon

Tachyon

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Joined
26 Dec 2003
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Same oul' town
I'm sure this was posted a while back but I couldn't find it. Anyways, I had a bit of a reshuffle with electrical items in the house here and unfortunately due to a poor socket layout in the room I've had to do this:

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Not having any clue on the can/can'ts of electrical loads, is that too much for one socket or will one socket happily support all my equipment?

It's maybe nothing compared to what some folks have running off a socket, but I thought I'd ask if theres a spark in the house who knows what watts/amps/ohms/gigahertz or whatever is used can be plugged in safely.
 
Doesn't look a massive load, but would require more info to say for sure.

e.g.

Laser printers need more than inkjets.
CRTs depends on the size.
Hi-fi amps depends on the power output.

etc.
 
The load from that little lot won't be anywhere near 13A amp, so you are alright on an overload point of view :) ,

though with computer stuff its not advised to daisy chain extension leads because IT equipment by design leaks current to earth (a byproduct of the filtering capacitors between phase and earth) and in the case of a broken earth the sum of all this leakage could add upto enough to give you a significant shock, though that said, with the little amount of stuff there its unlikely that its significant enough to worry about, and I doubt the power circuits in your house are constructed with section 607 in mind anyway :) Its more relevant to areas such as call centres or datacentres, but its worth bearing in mind.
 
OKie dokie, here's a bit more info:

Hi-fi amp says 315w
CRT is a 17", not sure what that equates to.
Printer is a Canon inkjet, again no idea how that rates.
CD player & tuner are standard hi-fi separates, I wouldn't think they would rate too high.

I was thinking if I had my pc (inc monitor) and hi-fi going at the same time, it might add up.

If it doesn't sound too massive then thats a good start :)
 
aslong as the adapters you have used are not those silly cube ones and they have surge protectors in it should all be fine
 
Just read your post Adam as well, sounds great.

Regarding getting a shock though, theres breakers or something you can buy to cover that sort of thing I think.

Edit: Nzyme, just standard 4 gang ext. leads, no cube adapters in use. I may invest in a surge protector then.
 
Tachyon said:
Just read your post Adam as well, sounds great.

Edit: Nzyme, just standard 4 gang ext. leads, no cube adapters in use. I may invest in a surge protector then.
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you should be alright then but since there is pc equipment on there i would suggest protecting it from surges in your power especially if there are a lot of electrics in your home cause thats a lot of money if it does go wrong
 
just to cover me back tho im a mechanical engineer not an electrical engineer so if it all goes **** up its wasnt me ok :p

no really you should be ok ;)
 
I've been running a very similar layout to you, due to lack of sockets in the house. :(

Surge/RCD protector in wall > 10m extension around skirting board to desk, which has a 4x strip

I use about 2 sockets, and another for the surge protector strip.

The 4x strip has a surge protector 6/8x strip, for the most expensive items.

I've been running it for about 5 years, and no hiccups - if I spill a cuppa and it hits an open socket in any of the strips I'm fine. The RCD at the socket just clicks, I sort out the electricals, and reset the RCD. :cool:
 
Tachyon said:
Just read your post Adam as well, sounds great.

Regarding getting a shock though, theres breakers or something you can buy to cover that sort of thing I think.
Click to expand...

Chances are you already have on in your consumer unit if your electrics were installed in the last 15 years

I was getting a bit carried away there :p , usually section 607 and RCDs don't go too well together, if you are installing to the requirements of 607, then there is most likely significant leakage without a fault to trip a RCD that is sized to protect agaisnt direct contact without there actually being a fault. It was my arm waving style ...its not particulary relevant to you, was just making a point that you wouldn't run a busy office of PCs from one outlet with multi gang extension cords :)
 
Just to make you feel better:

I live in a smallish room at uni in a rather old building. It has one (yes just one!) single wall socket. Plugged into that socket is (via three power-strips into one 3-way plug):

PC *
TFT *
2nd TFT *
Chargers (various) *
Desk lamp *
Midi Hi-Fi *
Room heater *
Ambient light *
2nd ambient light
Bedside light
Alarm clock *
Electric blanket
Hair dryer

All the starred ones tend to be on at the same time :D
 
sara said:
PC *
TFT *
2nd TFT *
Chargers (various) *
Desk lamp *
Midi Hi-Fi *
Room heater *
Ambient light *
2nd ambient light
Bedside light
Alarm clock *
Electric blanket
Hair dryer

All the starred ones tend to be on at the same time :D
Click to expand...
I'd love to the feel how hot the flex is when everything is on at the same time. Especially hair drier and heater. :eek:
 
basmic said:
I'd love to the feel how hot the flex is when everything is on at the same time. Especially hair drier and heater. :eek:
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Well, nothing has melted.

Yet (!).

Better than the last house I was in - those plugs like sparking :(
 
Adam_151 said:
The load from that little lot won't be anywhere near 13A amp, so you are alright on an overload point of view :) ,
Click to expand...
Probably .... but with unspecified amplification involved, it isn't necessarily the case.

Tachyon said:
Hi-fi amp says 315w
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Hifi specs can very misleading. It depends exactly what they mean by that. My main hifi amps are rated at 150w into 8 ohms, and as monobloc amps, there are two of them. EACH has a 3.5KVA transformer. The big brother to these has two 2.5KVA transformers per mono amp, and if you want to drive those hard into tricky loads, household mains isn't adequate ..... let alone a single power point. They want supplies of the order of 400v at 15 amps to drive it.

Now, these are not your standard hifi amps, but it makes the point that even a single high-end amp is capable of drawing down substantial power requirements. On the other hand, many amp manufacturers use misleading claims (like PMPO measurements) to make their products seem, on a spec sheet, more powerful than they are.

Adam_151 is probably right. But if that amp is delivering proper power to hard-to-drive loads, well, ..... :(
 
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Nzyme said:
wow basmic your from darlington :o you live in the same dump as me :p
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I did try to speak to you once on hear, but you turned your nose at me. :eek::(

Which area are you in? Don't have to be exact.
 
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