How many things can I plug into one outlet before it becomes a fire risk?
Question:My friend has two power strips (about 12 different electronics items) plugged into the same outlet. Should I be concerned about his house burning down?
Answers:
The issue isn't the outlet, it's the power strips. The wall receptacle and the in wall wiring all rated to exceed the max load of the overcurrent protection device (aka- circuit breaker or fuse).
Cheap power strips may have a 16ga cord and low grade internal wiring and contacts. Poor quality contacts and conductors equals high resistance equals fire risk. Piggy back a couple of these and fire is a very real risk.
But if your friend is using better quality power strips with heavy 14ga cords, and even better, with their own breakers, he should be ok.
==========================
Looking at the other answerers - there's clearly a bunch of people who don't have a clue what they're talking about (come on people - Ohm's law isn't that hard).
To address some of the misinformation flying around-
-Every receptacle in your house (in the US) is rated at 15amps or higher
-Other devices on the same circuit increase the possibility of tripping the circuit breaker - they have no affect on the possibility of a melt down of the powerstrips in question
-an "outlet that has a safety switch" is a GFCI receptacle. A GFCI protects against imbalances in the hot and neutral legs of the circuit and protects against shock if the neutral fails. It does nothing for overcurrent conditions
-a surge suppresor provides no protection against overcurrent. In fact just the opposite, it protects the appliances from voltage spikes in case of a lighting strike, etc.
-1500 watts equals 12.5 amps (Ohm's law people). I've never heard of a 12.5A breakers -- but 15A breakers are standard for household circuits. A 15A breaker can handle 1800 watts
-It doesn't take a heater or large TV to put a branch circuit overcurrent. Some of the monster dual-SLI gaming systems are coming with power supplies capable of supplying a claimed 1200 watts. Put a couple of these on a powerstrip and the powerstrip will be hot to the touch. Put 3 or 4 on the same circuit and you'll trip the breaker.
It isn't necessarily the number of items you plug into the outlet, but rather the wattage each item draws from the outlet and how much each outlet is able to support being drawn from it which creates the fire hazard.
You would need to check the specs for each outlet and item you intend to use, plus the requirements for each power strip to make certain they can handle the load you intend to place on them.
You should use an outlet, that has a safety switch on it so if you load to heavy it will kick its self off. And if your lites flicker you are over loaded. try to use a power surge strip.
You can also put a power strip in another plug so they wont be running on the same outlet.
Queen Bee
You bet your life, you can't over load the circuits.
I have a similar situation going on with two rooms on 2nd floor. Both rooms are serviced by single 1500 watt circuit breaker. I got power strips to heat baby bottles, lights, 3 modems, computers and accessories. In Winter, I even plug in electric heaters. When I plugged in two electric heaters, circuit breaker tripped. I guess I went over the 1500 watt limit.
Unless you got something that draws huge amount of watt, like a big televison or an electric heater, I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure power strips are UL listed.
each power strip has a ckt breaker rated at 15 to 20 amps it will trip the reset button out before it burns anything down electronic items don't pull alot of power you should see my set up and I am a electrician
More Related Questions & Answers...