Power supply madness...:(

Orionaut

Orionaut

Orionaut

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2 Aug 2012
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Why is it that most current Mains>Low voltage power supplies (That power almost everything nowadays) seem to have been designed by Jerks??

What I mean is this. They almost all nowadays protrude above the "Earth" pin location by a sufficient distance that they cannot be used in conjunction with the "Cube" style multi adapter because the protruding part will either foul against the wall or against the cable of the plug immediately above it (If you see what I mean)

Its like engineers design products nowadays with no real consideration on how they are going to be used. :/

And this isn't just me. Practically everybody I know in the "Real World" finds this an utter PITA!:mad:

<Just a vent really, nothing is going to change... :(>
 
Presumably because a lot of old houses have sockets on the skirting board. If the power supply protruded downwards then it would hit the floor. Similarly a lot of kitchens have sockets in the wall just above the work surface. Again they would hit the work surface if they faced downwards.
 
They are dangerous, we dont allow them on the campus here - if i see one it gets the boot into the cupboard of shame.
If you want to put multiple devices into one socket use a trailing 4 bar or similar, any fire safety officer will tell you the same.
 
sideways14a said:
They are dangerous, we dont allow them on the campus here - if i see one it gets the boot into the cupboard of shame.
If you want to put multiple devices into one socket use a trailing 4 bar or similar, any fire safety officer will tell you the same.
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Why?

All the Cube ones I have have their own replaceable fuse for protection. Just like a trailing bar type. Whay are they any different from a safety POV?

Yes, for sure. If you stick a 3Kw fire in one socket, a kettle in the second and a high end PC in the third it will overheat.

But any of them would under the same circumstances.

(A 13A fuse will not protect against a long term but constant overload. One can draw double that as a steady state without it blowing)

And we are talking here about adapters that only consume >100 watts most of the time.

Houses are getting littered with cables because of all the sub-30W devices, each requiring their own power supply, that cannot be used with compact multi adapters.

(Yes sockets are becoming more available that provide USB compatible charge points, but this only addresses a small part of the problem. More later perhaps. I do have an idea about this that I might well put into practice in my own home)
 
Ok so these multiplugs generally have a 13amp rating, so that nearly 3kw allowed through them.
Problem is these things are not stable in a socket, the have issues with weight and will sag out of the socket or be at an angle ect - you can see where this is going cant you?

If you have live terminals having intermittent or poor contact your going to start to see overheating in the terminals, the more power going through the unit the worse it gets. One of these bricks on its own just doing 3kw to one item can get bloody hot but try putting a lot of power through one thats waggling about like a dogs tail and... well things get toasty..

Hence using a bar style unit, it wont suffer as much - i still dont like putting 3kw through those though as any dodgy soldering or crimping inside can produce hotspots and... well you can work out the rest.

We do not allow them here where i work, or on any of the other Unis i work with - they are simply a No and anyone found with one will have to remove it from the site.

2 years ago i had a 12k loss of equipment (AV kit and 11 computer psus) to deal with that had only been in the building for 12 months, a floating neutral was heating up a conductor in a distribution box and causing a lot of issues downstream of it. The thing is when the contactor was removed the heat damage to it and the box it was in was very significant, prob 24 hours away from a big fire instead of just a load of dead parts.

Electricery is no joke.
 
touch said:
Probably designed with a 2-pin style plug in mind and adapted for our 3-pin plugs later.
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Nah, they're a pain in the arse here too, especially if the have an earth (third pin) or the plug needs plugging in the correct polarity (pins different sizes)
 
Earth wire is the same as a neutral wire. Both do the same thing its just a earth wire is a backup for neutral going wrong.

Earth is mostly used in appliances that are metal based. Anything plastic based you will not usually see a earth wire on the plug connection.
 
Orionaut said:
Its like engineers design products nowadays with no real consideration on how they are going to be used. :/
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Yup I'm unfortunate enough to own one of these
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obviously no one would ever want to use it in landscape mode and place their hands where the uber sensitive touch buttons are :rolleyes:
 
You shouldn't really do that either to be honest.
I mean, say you needed 3 x 1 mtr 4 bars to reach a desk, clunk clunk clunk... but you now have 10 sockets available sharing 1 13 amp (if thats whats in them) fuse.
Much easier to go pop, plus most of the ones i have been inside seem to have been made by the apprentice on his hangover day :p so prob not what you want to over load in the first place.
 
robfosters said:
Is it really dangerous to daisy chain extension leads?
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In itself, no. The danger comes from overloading the socket that everything is hanging off but these days the vast majority of home electronics is low power stuff so if you keep a handle on the overall load and don't try to run multiple kettles, toasters, heaters and other high power devices off one socket it's fine.
 
kaiowas said:
In itself, no. The danger comes from overloading the socket that everything is hanging off but these days the vast majority of home electronics is low power stuff so if you keep a handle on the overall load and don't try to run multiple kettles, toasters, heaters and other high power devices off one socket it's fine.
Click to expand...
Ive just read that a single plug socket can handle up to 3000W before overloading. That sounds like a lot. Even a beefy PC only has an 800-1000W PSU and rarely uses all of it.
 
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