Same, running a heater, PC with 4 monitors, 5.1 surround speakers/sub, a solder station, lamp, chargers and more.... thinking its about time to get one of those industrial power strips with like 20 connections, and to check my breaker
Shremeant “Depends on your PC specs” LOL. Do you really think a highend video card will make 300 watts difference or so? A PC is just a PC. The maximum i have ever seen a PC drawing was like 350 watts. Normal household PC uses 150 watts or so. A 16” laptop can go as low as 15 watts.
I`m looking into it. So far I left no witnesses. And I don`t know nothin` `bout those mysterious electrical deaths reported in the news. (just kidding, of course;) Could be a loose/broken plug pin arcing, ...
Crap... he is on to me... wait, why did I open my mouth? I just exposed my self. I mean, I can still delete this comment and not post it... Yet, I am going to post it anyway. Weird.
The trap set by the MasterNinjaonANinja has snapped and narroly missed me. Here is the actual victim: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-53pkJQVQ6OY.html So the hunt continues ...
The most disconcerting piece of information I have ever been given, (other than at the tender age of 6 my big Sister telling me I was adopted from travelling gypsies) was the supposed fact that in an urban environment, you're never more than 10 meters from a rat!
Yeah, that 10 m is pushing it ... That 10 is an average type figure, such us if I have $1 and my bro has $3, on average we have $2 each but ACTUALLY no-one has $2. So it could be close to 0.5m in a travelling gypsy camp or inner city London, UK, but 19.5m in a National Park, hence 10 m on average ... something like that ...
a heater is just consuming electricity like any other, just because you know it consumes a little bit more he should still be able to check all his devices and their power consumption. if one power bar is rated 1500w and other one is 1500w, once you run 1500w on either you're at max capacity, you're running 1500w thro both ofcourse, this guy probably ended up running more than rated for thats all, heaters has nothing to do with this, just the power consumption of the devices attatched.
Kinda. In pretty much all cases it will be fine, just keep in mind that it's a high resistance load. Cheaply designed power bars' caps would never be able to handle a high resistance load.
Had the same thing happen years ago, had a heater plugged into a power bar, that was plugged into another power bar. Outlet melted where the 2nd power bar plugged into the first.
For those who don't feel like counting to 15, you can grab a Kill-A-Watt meter which will tell you exactly how many amps and watts a plug in an outlet is taking. Very useful for determining how close you are to overloading! (This is not endorsed by any company, I have a few and they're great.)
@@cliffmathewYou would need to know how many outlets are on the circuit and use the device to measure the current being drawn from each one. Easiest way to find how many outlets on the circuit is to flip the breaker off and check how many outlets lose power.
3:57 You need to take the power factor into consideration. Basically it is about 0.5 on such equipment so double the figure. 4:43 It is output 1 A at 9 V. The input is 15 W at 120 V which gives 0.125 A but lets double that for the power factor so we get 0.25 A. A circuit breaker does not trip immediately if the overload is not large. Also if there is poor contact in the plug it can cause heat. The more you chain the more change there is for poor contact. Here extension cords are for 16 A. I have a 10 A circuit breaker.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video. This was incredibly educational and helpful. This is the kind of stuff that everyone SHOULD learn in high school. I made it to age 31 without ever understanding this stuff. How horribly irresponsible and unsafe.
Also I would also give a notice. Over time contact between chinese and even non chinese plugs/sockets tend to oxidize due to thermal cycling, moisture, also dust adds its toll. So it may start heating even if you are at 11/12/13/14A of your total 15A maximum. Also, if contact between socket and plug gets overloaded for some time, oxides and burns start to develop between contacts and that encourages even more heating. So I would recommend reaching 50-80% of the load maximum and recycling the plugs into sockets, also taking a look at the state of conductors and cleaning if neccessary. When unplugged/replugged, the conductors scratch off the oxides/dust and thus the contact improves.
It's quite clear to me what happened. Electrical conductors get warm when they are pushed near their rated limit (doesn't have to be over), the first place to get warm will be the weakest point, such as a connection like a plug. As a conductor gets warm resistance increases, as resistance increases it generates more heat, and it can turn into a runaway effect until it starts a fire. Your circuit did not exceed 15 amps, which is why the breaker did not trip. The problem was the cheap Chinese power bars, despite saying 15 amps they are not designed to handled that kind of load. If you've ever used Chinese batteries that say something like "6000mah" but actually are more like 800mah, you'll be aware they are not shy about overstating the capacities of their products.
The same mistake you noticed with the speaker adapter you made with the modem. The modem runs at 5 volts from an adapter, and the sign on the modem itself said 1 amp at 5 volts, so that's just 5 watts. That's 0.043 amps from the mains, but given you have some losses in the adapter, lets say it draws 0.05 amps.
You hit the nail on the head. I was scrolling through looking for this very comment. Those rotating plugs suck and are prone to premature mechanical failure. I'm convinced that was the failure point.
Indeed, the resistance inside the contacts on the plug was just too high (bad contact, fouled by greasy fingers perhaps), which in turn generates a lot of loacl heat build-up. Hence the fire.
Common sense says no more then 1 power strip at a time just because of the fact you can plug a lot of things in already. Most power strip packages they tell you not to plug multiple strips into each other. If you need a second one, use both wall plugs. These cheap power strips are a joke especially Monster branded ones, very thin copper strips running along the inside and everything is molded, which means plugs can get loose. All of my strips are metal with actual outlets. You can get them from some electronic stores and most hardware stores. Way better construction. The reason why the breaker didn't trip on the power strip nor the breaker box was because there wasn't a physical short, just a connection heating up.
I'm using both wall sockets already. My problem is the house I live in has a grand total of 10 power sockets total. the bedroom has just two. My computer setup alone requires 3 plugs all to itself. I am faced with 12 things plugged in at once right now in a location that only has 2 accessible wall sockets, and that's with half the stuff I keep around my desk not actually plugged in at all. To top it off one of the power strips I use has UK plug sockets, because I have several UK devices. That's not otherwise a problem, because the voltages are the same, but the power strip is the only way I can reasonably plug those in to anything... If these properties actually had a decent number of power sockets for modern conditions, this absurd setup wouldn't be quite as necessary. But as it is... In any event I try to keep stacked anything to an absolute bare minimum. The two standard strips are plugged into a wall socket each. The UK strip is plugged into one of the other strips. (I'd give it it's own wall socket if I could. In fact I did, when this whole setup was in a different room, but I'm simply out of options...)
That's not how "common sense" works. 2 devices plugged into 1 socket can attempt to draw 30 amps by themselves if they are high current devices like heaters whereas you can piggyback to your heart's delight if the drain from each device is low enough. A double powerpoint doesn't supply any more power than a single one does, they are BOTH on the same circuit. "Common sense" is no substitute for logic or maths.
Red things on power bars ARE NOT BREAKERS, they are just switches that humans can use if needed, only breakers you have there are the ones in basement. Meltdown could happen from two factors: 1st the wall plug could've been connected to a higher amperage breaker by accident, so the meltdown occurred (it would happen first on contacts between wires); 2nd it could have been a loose connection.
Moral of the story anyone: Plug as many surge protectors into surge protectors with things plugged into those as you want, just make darn sure NOT to exceed 15 amps. If those circuit breakers were not flipping when you drew a lot more, there's something wrong with it obviously, and I won't be surprised if there is considering it was from 1971, right in the middle of the time contractors were using aluminum wiring, which is extremely unsafe. If you need to be worried about anything at all it is that wiring in your house, that will go up in flames WAY before the copper stuff in the surge protectors will.
Well, obviously. My college used very cheap Belkin power strips, with no surge protection. I measured ground voltage from the neutral and hot terminals and got a voltage reading of 42 volts and 46 volts. I immediately unplugged it. I at home use a 200 dollar UPS unit as my power strip.
Now I'm starting to consider that maybe using ground voltage to power low power devices and charge batteries for occasional use of high power devices is viable. Shouldn't it be not normal for ground to get a measurable amount except during spikes?
Breakers sometimes have problems with "slow blow" events, where the operation is overloaded, but everything else is within limits. Some devices also sont always draw power and allow tripping mechanisms to "reset" before the point of activation. It can be as simple as that it wasn't a true fire, but instead, an overloaded outlet connection between the affected strips. This is why price matters
The heat damage / fire was caused by a loose (or) high resistance connection between the socket of the first power strip and the plug of the second power strip, and not because of an overlaoad. And while adding the amperes of the different loads. All the amperes rating should be converted to it's equivalent 120V reference before adding them up.
This power bar is a classic case of a poor connection. Happens when the plug doesn't make a full connection. Ive seen this on CH breakers too - in particular the BR style. 14 gauge can handle 18A without a problem. The 15 A is a rating given also to compensate for high ambient air temps which changes how many amps rather conductor can carry and for how long before the insulation is compromised. The power bar problem above is avoided when an AFCI breaker is used.
Thanks sir you have clarified what I have been doing for three years is safe. Lot of electronic stuff I use never even hit the limit. Only way a fire could happen at my house is faulty powerbar or faulty electrical circuitry in my house.
I noted a problem when you added 1A from the router. the router was attached via a powerinversion brick, that converts 120VAC to 5VDC. This conversion changes the amperage alongside the voltage, to create the overall wattage pull. 5Vx1A=5 Watts, so 5W/125V=0.04 Amps pulled from the wall, plus efficiency loss, which should be listed on the power brick.
It overheated because the resistence of the connection was high (the plug connected to the other power bar), that resistence did two thing, ONE it avoided the ampers (current) to go nominal 12.5A, TWO it generated heat and fire, that is the reason protections didn't trip. Was a loose connection?, not necesarily, if you study the internal shape of the females contacts, it is just a tiny part which really get in contact with the male counterpart, the parts are not perfectly parallel frictioning, notmally is a tiny part which press against the male plug. That minimal surface normally can't conduct 12.5A.... , when the power bar say in the label it is 15A, it don't reffers to just ONE female plug, female counterparts are not designed that way, but the label reffer that the sum of all females will do up to 15A, and the protection is normally 15A sustained during X ammount of period, it is NOT just past 15A barrier and PUUUFFF (instantly).
if it were really loose the user will notice it just when pluggin, what happens is that the metals increase resistence on heat, and change its shape on heat, and it is a run, if at the beginning it was a tiny surface in contact, it heat, then the heat makes it worst.
That doesn't really make sense, because it means you could overload a power strip far too easily in general. Consider I have 6 socket power strip rated for 240 volts 10 amps. OK, so if I plug in 6 devices that use 400 watts each, that's the power limit. But so is one device that uses 1500 watts, and one that uses 800 And if you don't think something can use those kinds of wattages, a typical portable fan heater is anything from 1500-2000 watts. My Desktop PC has a 650 watt power supply. And that's the OUTPUT power rating, and when heavily loaded efficiency may be as little as 80%, meaning it draws closer 780 watts. Meanwhile, it's fully possible to buy 1250 watt power supplies for computers, and while those tend to be much more efficient... It still means you're pulling more than half the total power the entire strip is rated for through a single plug. For that matter, the power strip has pretty much the exact same rating as the wall socket. If you overload the power strip as a whole you're also overloading the household circuit... So there are things like resistance and inductance and some other complex issues, and in general plugging a power strip into a second power strip isn't the best idea ever. But if you're careful it's perfectly safe. I've seen professional theatre crews plug a whole heap of equipment into several power strips leading into another power strip this way, which was then plugged into a rather long extension cord... That worked perfectly fine. (admittedly the extension cord was a 20 amp rated chord, which means something like 4.8 kilowatts, but nonetheless it was quite a mess of wires and adapters and other things...)
well done bro i thought in my head if the WHOLE amps is 15 not one outlet is 15A all the four is and he must have fought that one outlet is 15A so he plugged the printer in which must have been over 3.75A
here in argentina is outlets at wall for 10A and 20A, if a power bar must meet it, it can be 10A or 20A in the main plug, now, now, except for industrial type, to see power bars where each individual plug is capable of that, overall thinking the POWER BAR concept is for dividing power in several female plugs, has no-sense for making each individual female plug capable of the full input Amps. Other way I would be a power extension cord, not a power bar. But, any way, this burn, your video case, is not about you did those Amps, it was just heat from a loose conection or DIRT in the contacts, that did't the required resistence for allowed heat to be developed, so, it is normal that none protection shut it down.
thanks for the clarification. i have a couple of chains of these in my office for screens and computers, but its a calculated amount of power used, well below the rated amount for my cables :)
It's quite simple: If you plug low-power drawing items into a power strip that's coming off of another power strip, you should be just fine. However, under NO circumstances should an extremely high wattage item (like a space heater) be plugged into ANY kind of extension, be it a power strip or extension cord. If anything, it should be the only thing plugged into that outlet. Same goes for air conditioners. Plugging a computer or laptop charger into the primary strip (the one plugged into the wall) and then using a second strip for something like an lame with a CFL or LED bulb, maybe a phone charger... You'll be fine. I have a dual strip setup at my house but I only use the 2nd strip to power a small LCD monitor, my computer speakers (about 5A), and an LED lamp. Pretty sure I'm not going to burn anything down.
Your math is flawed...lets use the the speakers as an example. Speakers DC adapter said it has an output voltage of 9 VDC and is capable of supplying 1A of current which give you a maximum output of 9 watts o f power (I know it saw 15W but I just did the math for you). 9 Watts / 120 VAC = 0.075A Max Draw on 120V mains. Basically stating that the speakers won't draw more than 0.08A at max volume....not even 1/10 of an amp from the wall. If it could draw 1A at 120 volts that means it would use 120 Watts...which is unrealistic.
That`s right, thanks for noticing. I pointed at the OUTPUT numbers by mistake.And those are DC. The INPUT is 15 W, so same math as with the TV 15/115 = 0.13A I`ll insert some text box fix.
The input of the speaker adapter says 15 watts, and the output is 9 watts. But these numbers are right, as the speaker adapter has a transformer in it, and transformers are not 100% efficient. Some of the electricity is turned into heat in the coils, you can feel that a transformer gets warm when in use.
Power consumption is not the same as power that goes into producing sound in speakers. Much of the power is consumed by the amplifier. And power consumption ratings, are probably more of a "maximum under reasonable conditions" rating, and not the "average" or typical usage. Probably a bit more power will be used when played as maximum volume, than at the typical volume.
It all depends on the draw through each powerbar. If you're only drawing low power, it will make no difference and hurt nothing. I agree that is a big 'if' however for someone who doesn't know what they're doing.
Daisy chaining is the name that springs to mind to me. It's perfectly okay and safe to do as long as you don't exceed the power rating of the power strip, which should be molded somewhere in the plastic casing, or the sockets thereof.
Except it violates the safety devices that are on the power strip, extension cord or surge protector. They are not designed to be plugged into each other in any form or fashion at all. They are designed to be independent equipment.
@@chadmargraf4020 The reason manufactures warn against daisy-chaining is because they assume people will use every available plug in both the first and second power bar, and I don't blame them for assuming that because people are idiots. However, as long as you keep the full power draw well within the maximum amp rating for a single power strip, (which is usually around 14 or 15 amps) then it is not dangerous. People just need to understand that a chain of power-strips has the same maximum amp capacity as a single power strip. You don't gain extra capacity by chaining them because every strip in the chain must bear the full load of everything that's plugged in.
@@Beefnhammer thats what I figure, that you are not using all the devices at once. and would shy away from using the bar for anything that heats up and thereby draws a lot of electricity.
FYI - the router is rated at 5V 1A, that's what comes out of its power brick, check the rating for the input of the power brick and it'll probably be much less than 1A.
we do this on a large scale on LAN parties. we do however go thru EVERYTHING and plan how we spread it out. Here we use 10-16A 230V systems and fuses and we use 16A rated stuff AND spread it out as best as possible. we try to allocate 8A to a 16A circuit. .
now with cable extensions in the UK no idea how many amps but you can connect extension leads and other equipment plugged into them and it still works correctly.
In the UK we have fuses in every plug. I have 4 power strips plugged into one wall outlet but on the one plugged into the outlet I have a 5 amp fuse, so I should never encounter any fires I hope.
We don`t keep dogs in the office, it`s a heritage building from 1892. But there aren`t any washrooms either, so that there might be something to look into ... I just remembed we have a high electrocution rate among workers there, all misteriously found dead with pants down, never been solved cases ...
theoverengineer You know, I think we may be on to something major here. If we combine our brain power, we might be able to save lives. Or at least keep power outlets dry. But it is sketchy.
"plug power bars into power bars" is : ( in France ) unauthorized, installation outside the norm, not covered by insurance, and it's very dangerous !!! (because, made in china multiplug is not alltime full good, and up the problem of the power run in.
All depends where you're at. Here stateside we are anywhere from 110-120 for most residential applications with some 220-240 volt plugs for larger appliances requiring special plugs. Think large residential electric dryers and range/ovens. So for our applications daisy-chaining power strips can act as extra outlets, or in the case of my college dorm an extension cord since those were banned from the dorms. In the UK and most other places that side of the Atlantic I believe use 220 for all applications. At 220 volts you are likely to sooner exceed the limitations of the single power strip. I am a firm believer in only buying products from reputable brands when it comes to anything handling electricity, especially with higher requirements. I believe what may have been the issue is that some power strips have an 'always on' outlet that could have caused a problem, or could have just been old/faulty where there was enough draw to cause the heat and melt. Too many factors for it to really say for sure based off this video alone. But typically I would agree daisy-chaining multiple power strips isn't a best practice for wide application across an entire home or business and is begging for a fire.
Ryan Slemmer the Heat generated really only depends on the current flowing through the socket and it's resistance (P=R*I^2). With the same load the current is lower on a 220V system and I theory you're less likely to start a fire. But it really depends on if the power strip is reasonable good if it will hold the bold promise molded into it's casing
I made the biggest mistake during college by plugging a heater into an electrical cord instead of an outlet and the power on the side of the room it was plugged into went out and I had to get my RA to flip the breaker switch. 5 times in the first 2 months of school. I’m grateful a fire never started but I did get fined when a separate RA reported me. Be safe with ur heaters!
Who the heck plugs a heater into a surge protector in the first place... Air Conditioner, Refrigerator, Portable Heater, Deep Freezer, All of these things draw massive amounts of wattage, and should always be plugged directly into a wall outlet. A surge protector can not handle those levels of wattage very well, which is obvious why the fire started in the first place.
The math is irrelevant.As soon as you plug one power strip into another you've violated the UL Listing.Good luck getting your insurance company to pay you for your losses.
From experience, I can say "No, it's not." I had an old house with a single outlet in my office with a 2->4->6 setup with the lowest powered devices furthest. With a 2KW heater on the second of 2, the melting began further up the chain where I would not have expected it.
Your router is taking 1A at 5V - that does not mean it's taking 1A at 115V. If the power conversion is 100% efficient, the 5W (5Vx1A) drawn by the router would work out at (5W/115V) 0.043A. To allow for inefficiencies I'd call that 0.1A. Also, your speaker adapter shows it takes 15W at 120V - that is (15/120) 0.125A. Its OUTPUT is 1A at 9V (= 9W - that is a fairly inefficient converter given a 15W input). You can take that figure as that is given as the input rating. Therefore your total power draw is 9.305A (call it 9.5 to allow for inaccuracies), not 11.08A. Here in UK, our plugs are rated to 13A (not 15A), but our higher voltage allows a maximum power draw of 3120W at 240V.
Just an FYI, those breakers on a power bar are simple bimetallic thermal switches, i remember plugging a 1500 watt heater into one of those (well within the current rating with just a laptop and speakers on other plugs), the switch tripped after about 3 minutes. further tests show that those CANNOT be used to supplement a proper circuit breaker. Older power bars may not even have an overload contingency, while newer ones may even have a proper 15 amp circuit breaker.
One of the disadvantages of using a low voltage such as 120V is that it requires a higher current to deliver the same power as a higher voltage can do at a lower current, and thus requiring more bulky connectors and thicker wires to establish a good connection. I've seen lots of pictures and videos of charred and burned 120V outlets. I live in a country with 240V phase-to-neutral and I've never seen a burned outlet here (not saying it hasn't happened, I just haven't seen one). Most outlets here are fused at 10A.
Basically, as long as you didn't go over the max amp, you're pretty much safe as long as 1) extension did cheap out on cable (gauge) 2) amp taken for a device is as exactly as it said
Short answer, NO! Power strips are designed for a certain load. It's easy to go way above that load rating when chaining them together. It's even possible to overload individual power bars and house circuits by plugging multiple high amp devices into it. As a general rule, any device that generates heat draws a heavy load (such as hair dryers, curling irons, heater fans, block heaters, etc.) Also air conditioners draw a lot. So be aware and be safe.
In my short army career I was interviewed by an army psychiatrist at one point and because i was a bit bored, I decided to screw with him, we explored several things and after about 45 minutes he was getting pretty concerned (think group W bench in Alice's Restaurant"). I looked him ion the eye and said you do realize I've been screwing with you. After he threw me out of the exam room i got to peek at the record and he commented "very bright but dangerous" so that started the army doing everything they could to turn me into an officer. I resisted the siren call and left the Army as an E5 over 2 on the E6 promotion list.
I used one power bar as a source that went to another two bars, powered a computer with the monitor and my studio monitors. Never had a problem (at least for the 2 years I used that config), probably because there wasn't too much current going through at once.
Never gave much thought about it... In Europe most eletric bars also have 16A max, but since we use 240v we atually have about twice as much capacity, unless I plug home appliances or several heaters to one, it's quite hard to overload one
I used to daisy chain at least four of these, every single outlet plugged in for the length of about two years. I'm shocked my house didn't burst into flames
You can hook a power strip into another one as long as the power being pulled isn't a lot. Basically don't plug in a vacuum or any high power devices into them.
Thanks goddess I watched this video, you just saved my house to burst in flame =/ since I had a conditioner running plugged on a power bar that was plugged to another, and after unplugged the power bar I noticed already it had some brownish color
My job is to find such cascade setups and dismantle them. There are so much of these in office tables. Good thing some use power bars with proper cable thickness and special reinforced extended connectors. Also, powerbars with integrated fuses.
