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.
@@chiefinspector7280They output 5 or 9V 3A. A typical phone charger in 2024 is about 20-33W. The mains 110V or 230V is stepped down to the desired wattage. In actuality, the power brick itself will draw a minimal amount of current.
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.
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: ua-cam.com/video/53pkJQVQ6OY/v-deo.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 ...
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.
@@Xyspade Then once you figure that out, label your panel. This is one of those things I have as a pet peeve, especially in older houses. A good 70 percent of our panel isn't labelled. The stuff that is labelled is mostly high-draw appliances like the air conditioner condenser unit, stove, microwave, dryer and some new circuits like one for the sump pump.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
4 роки тому+2
Thank you. I have cords, and strips plugged in everywhere throughout my woodshop. This was a big wakeup call for me.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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 :)
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.
They are breakers. If you plug a hairdryer and a heater, both running at 100% capacity, into a power strip, it will pull nearly 30 amps. If it’s the right kind of power strip, it will trip before the external circuit breaker.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. .
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.
So just to elaborate, the router and the speakers you were reading the rated output current when you should be calculating the rated input current, that is calculating the power supply's overall current draw from the input. Of course, this is a simplistic calculation and simplified to a resistive load. It gets a bit more complex with inductive loads as most power supplies utilize some kind of transformer. AC makes it a bit more complex as well. as V=IR and P=IV is more for DC circuits. Also, most home branch circuits in the home feeds multiple outlets or a combination of outlets and lighting (it varies by the National Electric Code/Canadian Electric Code as well as by municipality or province/state/territory as well). The nominal provided current and wattage actually tops out at about 12 Amperes at 120 V~ continuous and 15 A at 120 V~ peak. European branch circuits, or at least in the UK top out at almost double the amount of power with 13 A at 240 V 50Hz.
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.
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.
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
"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
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.
Here in the United Kingdom, we have fuses in the plugs, and sometimes in the power strips as well, so provided the fuses are not rated higher than they need to be, there shouldn't really be an issue. A couple of those devices the amps was the power supply out or input, no the mains power usage.
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.
be carful on following these stickers that gives you energy consumtion rating , because they say what is the nominal wattage not peak , which could be much higher
i get where this is going, the whole reason why its against electric code to daisy chain power taps is because its very easy to overdraw current from the host tap from all the extra crap or current plugged into the host or downstream taps, putting a large amp draw on the main one, burning the wires and starting a fire, if the host is 15 amp max, the total current draw across *ALL* the power taps in the daisy chain must NOT exceed 15 amps, even if a downstream tap can handle more than that, i see many people only account on a per tap in the chain, and push 15 amps on 3 of their taps (totalling 50 amps to the first tap, burning it)
That depends on what's being plugged in. Many devices use less than half an amp each; 21 such devices would fill up four, six-outlet power strips (three of the 24 total outlets would be serving power strips) while drawing less than 70% of a 15-amp circuit's nominal capacity.
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.
It's all about the load. You CAN daisy-chain power-bars fine, but if you OVERLOAD them, you will have issues. This video explains the issue well. Cheap bars will also be a cause for concern if you put any load on them, as a cheap bar with crappy connections to the plugs will be prone to I-squared-R heating, which can be substantial if the current flow is high, but the connection is loose or has a high resistance. Turns the bar into a heater itself. ;)
I am glad to live in Europe where we have 230V system and 16A sockets that can withstand even overloading without a problem. You can draw 3.7 kW from one socket or group of sockets connected to a breaker. Also, in each house there's at least one 3-phase (3x230/400V) 32A socket, from which can be drawn up to 22 kW of power. That allows us to run machines with very powerful motors for example. That's not possible in America I think :P
Zdenek Březovský I'll never understand why you all always seem to think so many things are impossible in America? An average modern home is fed by a 200A main feed at 240V single split-phase, or 48KW of total power available to a typical modern home (roughly equivalent to a 65A three phase service provided all the phases are in balance). While the average tap is either a 15A (1.8KW) or 20A (2.4KW) receptacle at 120VAC we also use 240VAC taps of 15A, 20A, 30A, 50A, 60A, and up, wherever needed (ovens, range tops, larger plug-in air conditioners, heat pumps, or heaters, clothes dryers, our workshops, emergency power generation, etc.). Even larger homes can start at 400A and up, depending upon the building needs. At the same time, 120VAC is considerably less lethal if one comes in contact and 1.8KW is far more than required for most temporary accessory loads at a single usage point. The few larger loads that are commonly encountered in the U.K., like your 3.6KW kettles, are not really relevant here in the U.S. not because we can't accommodate such -- we could very easily add 20A@240VAC outlets if we wanted such -- but because in a typical U.S. home such a device would be placed on a kitchen countertop right next to the oven/range that, whether gas or electric, is already equipped with much higher powered burners if your goal is to simply boil water in a hurry.
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.
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
its ok to have one more on the line Only if not exceeding the amount of plug space on the original one already. Say there is 6 ports for plugs. can have up to 6 items on it. now some plugs are blocky in size. taking up more then 1 plug on the ports. sometimes you have 2 or 3 of these block plugs. where all 6 ports are covered up. noiw if you take extra power bar. plug it in the first one. you have some extra space for a couple more plugs if needed. but overall might be better ans safer to a longer or better power bar aka Surge Protector is what they are called.
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.
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.
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.
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
I had this happen from sparking on an outlet of a power strip with nothing plugged in and only two plugs were used one by a low voltage thing but like a month before a bunch of audio equipment including an 18” subwoofer were plugged into it maxing it out and it was fine
As stated in at least one other comment your point of failure is the rotatable plug on that power strip. The rest of the video seems to be fine. However, I do have one problem. Those power strips are rated at 15 Amps with the length of wire attached to it. You you daisy chain 2 identicle power strips, you just doubled the length of the wire, reducing the amount of current (amps) it can handle. By how much depends on the gauge, temperature rating, and material of the wire. Then you have to consider the resistance of the plug and socket of each power strip you daisy chain together. I always find it best to tell people no more than 2, and plug high demand devices like a heater or pc into the first strip and leave the second for low power devices like monitors, tv's, and phone chargers.
I would say it depends on the load. One portable electric heater at 1500 watts will max the circuit. The circuit supplying the strip also is operating other outlets in other rooms. Figure your loads and stay less than 80% of the maximum of the circuit on that circuit. Fun!
I don't know much about funky US electrical installations but here is northern Europe, where rules and regulations are followed neurotically, domestic switchboards have 10A or 16A fuses or circuit breakers, which pretty much guarantees that regulations-compliant extension cords cannot melt. At 230V voltage these currents correspond to 2300 and 3700 Watts, respectively.
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.
Not only amps matter, but also cable gauge does. I had one power strip rated on label for 230 V 16 amps, but cable had gauge only 1.0 mm^2, that is safe for up to 10 amps instead of required 1.5 mm^2 so I have to keep on mind I can't exceed 10 amps
Simple math is right! 15A is 15A. As you know, many commercial buildings are actually rated 20A. I ran a bowling center for 22 years. At some point, unknown to me, the owner had his brother go through the building and replace worn 20A outlets with a bunch of 15A outlets he got on sale somewhere. He didn't know any better and nobody else knew. Obviously, the 15A outlets could potentially overload without tripping the 20A breakers. The lane machine (stripping/oiling) pulled upwards of 18A when it was reversing out of the pit. The lane machine kept blowing fuses and I even cooked a circuit board. We finally figured it out... but those discount store outlets cost expensive damage to expensive equipment and, I suppose, could've started a fire at some point.
You had some other issues in that case as well -- namely the plug installed on your 18A device. If you had a load that could draw more than 15A it should never have been equipped with a NEMA 5-15p plug to begin with, but should have instead been equipped with a 5-20p plug that would have only been able to plug into a 5-20r 20A receptacle...and thus would never have fit into those 15A retrofit receptacles. NEC Code does allow the use of 15A receptacles in a 20A circuit (in fact that is frequently the norm) as that 15A rating is per plug position and no device that draws more than 15A should ever be equipped with a 15A plug, thus one should not ordinarily be able to plug more than a 15A load into such a plug (barring the use of multi-outlet strips, which should have their own current limiting fuse or circuit breaker). Additionally, the wire gauges specified by Code are actually based primarily on limiting voltage drop, so you can have a considerable overload before there is a building wiring related fire concern, allowing plenty of time for the circuit breaker in the man distribution panel to trip. The real reason not to use cheap receptacles is that 1) you don't really know if they meet UL/NEC specifications and safety and 2) they are not going to be a robust receptacle intended for heavy use, abuse, etc., and are more likely to fail in service or start a fire as they often do not make good electrical contact with the plug, forming a high impedance connection that can overheat -- they are especially unsuitable for use in a commercial environment.
Whoa! So you're allowed to plug an unfused 15amp cable into a 20amp panel fuse. That means under fault conditions the 15amp cable will be carrying upto 20amps. ... BAD. A basic rule of electricity is that if the cable gets skinnier you always need another fuse to protect the thinnest part of that cable. If you break that rule you will get melted cables and sockets. It sounds like America has both fused and unfused multi-outlet extensions, combine that with 15amp cable fused at 20amps and you have an accident waiting to happen.
Robert de Bath Not really, in the U.S., at least, the minimum permissible wire gauge for an unfused power cord is 18 gauge copper (less than that the plug will require a fuse -- something rarely encountered outside of Christmas light strings). While the "official" rating for 18 gauge copper is 10A, that rating is based primarily upon the maximum allowable voltage drop in a reasonably long power cord. While an 18 gauge copper cord will get uncomfortably warm with a 20A sustained load (4 times warmer than at 10A, to be exact, per I^2R), you will not exceed the minimum required insulation temperature of 60C (or higher if a better grade of cable is used), so you will not easily start a fire that way without other major contributing factors. In fact, fires are rarely caused by the cord simply overheating but rather tends to occur when the cord is both overloaded and either the cord (such as from fraying against sharp edges or animals gnawing upon it) or the plug/socket have been physically damaged resulting in a high resistance connection that can overheat things. Other causes can be overloaded power cords that are tightly wrapped and looped (greatly increasing the concentration of heat) combined with being buried under materials, like linens, that prevent the cord from shedding its heat -- though at that point you have committed just about every sin possible to magnify the chances of a fire if overloaded, especially if it is also physically damaged. Of course, if the overload is closer to a short circuit then the branch circuit breaker will magnetically trip almost instantly, in which case heating is a non-issue. Somehow, and I'm not quite sure how, we have managed to largely avoid the influx of copperclad steel and aluminum power cords that seem to have infiltrated a number of cheap (mostly Chinese) appliance cords and products in other parts of the world. Those type cords are where a very serious fire hazard exists because they will produce far greater heating for a given current combined with the fact that their gauge is often undersized even by copper standards (you can get by with smaller copper conductors due to the greater conductivity of copper -- steel has about 17 times the resistance of copper) -- and poor wire conductivity plus undersized gauge equals a very hot running power cord for a given amp load and, if used, requires much larger wire gauges to be utilized in order to maintain safety, something a Chinese manufacturer skimping on safety for the sake of profit could care less about (they also will frequently combine such with inferior wire insulation that may not even be fire retardant).
Ah, right. So if; really hot day, AC broken, under the carpet and laying on top of itself you might have a problem, maybe. The free movement between EU states does make it easier to import shoddy kit into a less stringent country and then move it to others. But realistically you have to go for the real bottom feeders (eg: the dodgy Ebay importer) to find that sort of stuff. The buyers for "normal shops" don't like getting burned any more than anyone else.
The issue here isn't the leap-frogging of multiple power bars, it's the fact that too much current/power was requested by the second power bar, it failed to properly cut-off and just burned the plug by requesting too much energy.
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
*Looks under desk* "Well I'm screwed."
As long as not much power is going through it I think it’s ok.
Depends on what ur pc specs.
Haimanala TV I assume you are a gamer. It might be just enough, but it wouldn’t be crazy if something did happen
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.
If you plug a power bar into itself you actually get infinite power.
I too marvel at the idea of a flux capacitor
you moron
I did what u said and my house caught fire Thanks for lying in actually mad
DONT TRY IT CAN EXPLODE OR CAUSE A FIRE
I have already received the consequence 😓
Its all about the load. Hook up fifteen 5 watt phone chargers and you'll be fine. hook up two 1200 watt space heaters and you got issues.
My friend had two 15 amp window air conditioners on a single 15 amp circuit and couldn't figure out why the breaker kept tripping.
oh man thank you, after watching this video I only thought about the amp. But you saved me xD
Nope.Killed all the peep on the dive boat last year. phone chargers can be 3 amps.
yeah no shit sherlock
@@chiefinspector7280They output 5 or 9V 3A. A typical phone charger in 2024 is about 20-33W. The mains 110V or 230V is stepped down to the desired wattage. In actuality, the power brick itself will draw a minimal amount of current.
The heater was the problem NEVER EVER hook a heater to a surge protect!
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.
Lol then whats the use of the surge protect
Raymond Leggs thank you
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.
Three safety cut-off devices all failed to activate? Maybe someone's trying to get rid of you. :)
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: ua-cam.com/video/53pkJQVQ6OY/v-deo.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 ...
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.)
Wow thanks. Time to pull the Kill-A-Watt out of the office
Does it help with the scenario he was showing - many plugs on the same breaker?
@@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.
@@Xyspade Then once you figure that out, label your panel. This is one of those things I have as a pet peeve, especially in older houses. A good 70 percent of our panel isn't labelled. The stuff that is labelled is mostly high-draw appliances like the air conditioner condenser unit, stove, microwave, dryer and some new circuits like one for the sump pump.
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.
Thanks for watching! (hearted)
Indeed, I learned a lot from this as well. It's rare to find facts and truth instead of generic PoWeR sTrIpS bAd advice.
😢❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😂😢😮😅😊🔥 😊
I actually learned a lot from this
Same lol
i made your 68 likes go 69 :3
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.
What is the radius of your head?
The total didn't exceed 15 amps. The rotational plug in the last plug strip was defective and over heated with the heater plugged in.
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.
it looks like it was the socket rather than the plug that burned though...
no, they both got hot at the connection point and both fried
I saw your profile pic the read your comment in my head with a country accent
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.
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.
Thanks for the correction.
(Errors happen when I have 1 take and no script)
I was just about to point this out.
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.
Thank you. I have cords, and strips plugged in everywhere throughout my woodshop. This was a big wakeup call for me.
It's all about load. Running a bunch of power powered devises is fine, just don't hook up anything that draws a lot of power such as a space heater.
billybassman21 there are breakers you know
The Minecraft Expidition and there are faulty breakers you know. Can’t rely too much on these things
Is a gaming pc alright fine to plug in
+PreCook ed yeah if its not an amd based gaming pc
Always buy a very high quality surge protector
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.
travis piper is right.
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...)
Who else hates reading long comments.
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.
You can also buy firelighters...a much cheaper and more efficient way of burning your house down.
I'm just glad there's easy addition you can do to check if you're fine instead of just hoping everything is fine.
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).
It looks like the overcurrent arced at a loose-fitting pin, manufacturing problem.
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.
*plugs a fridge, heater, microwave and coffee maker in*
*House Explodes*
InstantCake lloooool
InstantCake No, Breaker trips.
Fridges and microwaves by themselves would far exceed the 15A breaker. That's why they have their own breakers.
Refrigerators and microwave ovens are usually served by 20 amp circuits.
1:58 LMAOOO
happens All the time lol
jx.504 hahahah
jx.504 Aa
haha I was gonna comment the same but I KNEW someone had already done it.
Facts bruhh
Thanks for the video.
I completely forgot about the amp ratings and such.
You refreshed my memory and saved me from a fire.
BarcrestPlays I knooo I have a wide video vocabulary XD
well, range of videos like searching XD
The faces look so shocked at the death of their dear friend :(
🤣🤣
Infinite *POWER*
YES
But not for my bro
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.
elevator1tom real story: don't buy cheap pieces of shit and not expect it to blow up and catch fire
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?
I love my electronics but I don't wanna BBQ either 😂😂😂😂
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.
Well yeah if you plug an energy and shove it into another energy bar you get twice the energy, twice the power.
Justin Y. Hey man
Hey you here again!?
Justin Y. Wtf... I have seen you on every video I have watched in the last 24 hours
Hey guys, if your genuinely sick of this parasite just ignore his comments. Bonus points for using the (pointless) downvote button!
Dumbass Demoman dude no one's sick of him, he just appears in every comment section
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 :)
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.
They are breakers. If you plug a hairdryer and a heater, both running at 100% capacity, into a power strip, it will pull nearly 30 amps. If it’s the right kind of power strip, it will trip before the external circuit breaker.
great video, first 3 minutes answered all my questions thank you sir
Glad to help
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.
Phototristan==You are correct.
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.
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.
Thank You for making this very informative video. I learned something about Watt and voltages that I had no idea before. Great video. Thank You
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.
The router is also 1A at 5 volts, not 1A at 120 volts.
Was looking for this comment...
As someone with an OSHA certification, I'll say that there is NO WAY THAT THIS ISN'T AN OSHA VIOLATION!
Chack out this extension cord fire beauty ua-cam.com/video/jRxhYsumf9I/v-deo.html
You can do this but it's not really recommended that you do. So long as the draw doesn't exceed the amps you should be fine.
Still, just get a bigger power strip
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.
They are safe up until a certain point, being mindful of the amount of current you're drawing will be a life saver.
literally
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.
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.
Totally glossed over that, didn't he?
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.
This video is so electrifying
These terrible puns shock me.
Watt do you mean by that?
These hurtz my head
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.
Oh... this is literally how I have my PC setup because the nearest outlet is insanely far away from my desk.
Is it safe to use two cords for pc only
@@NOAH_999 No, this is super unsafe. You always want to ground your PC to a surge protector.
@@thetwistedsamurai thanks for the information 🤜🤛
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. .
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.
Ethan Short doesn't that almost render them useless for amp-eating appliances?😂
yep but ive never had a problem and its never set on fire so thats pretty good. i plug hairdryer and whatever into the other socket
So just to elaborate, the router and the speakers you were reading the rated output current when you should be calculating the rated input current, that is calculating the power supply's overall current draw from the input. Of course, this is a simplistic calculation and simplified to a resistive load. It gets a bit more complex with inductive loads as most power supplies utilize some kind of transformer. AC makes it a bit more complex as well. as V=IR and P=IV is more for DC circuits. Also, most home branch circuits in the home feeds multiple outlets or a combination of outlets and lighting (it varies by the National Electric Code/Canadian Electric Code as well as by municipality or province/state/territory as well). The nominal provided current and wattage actually tops out at about 12 Amperes at 120 V~ continuous and 15 A at 120 V~ peak. European branch circuits, or at least in the UK top out at almost double the amount of power with 13 A at 240 V 50Hz.
Also, don't let your dog pee on them. That also starts fires.
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.
No, it will just shock him badly, usually.
I understand that. You had a clever visitor who experienced it and left you the sample :D
I work with lots of 'suppliers' who get me the trash of life to be featured here.
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.
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
"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
Excellent! Thanks for the talk. Good point that there could be other outlets on the same circuit.
You're welcome
*When your too lazy to plug in your charger so you plug in a power bar's plug into itself and plug your charger there*
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.
now I want to look up comparison info on 120 and 240 vac.
I have this kind if setup of power bars, no fires or smoke for me. Works amazing and no issues for me.
InactiveCunt he explains in the video why if you took the time to watch it.
that's dangerous and unsafe incase too much energy goes through the wires causing it to overheat and catch fire.
Here in the United Kingdom, we have fuses in the plugs, and sometimes in the power strips as well, so provided the fuses are not rated higher than they need to be, there shouldn't really be an issue.
A couple of those devices the amps was the power supply out or input, no the mains power usage.
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.
Speedy Game Clips people who just want to use them for a longer cord length for one appliance
be carful on following these stickers that gives you energy consumtion rating , because they say what is the nominal wattage not peak , which could be much higher
I learn't a lot to be honest.
i get where this is going, the whole reason why its against electric code to daisy chain power taps is because its very easy to overdraw current from the host tap from all the extra crap or current plugged into the host or downstream taps, putting a large amp draw on the main one, burning the wires and starting a fire, if the host is 15 amp max, the total current draw across *ALL* the power taps in the daisy chain must NOT exceed 15 amps, even if a downstream tap can handle more than that, i see many people only account on a per tap in the chain, and push 15 amps on 3 of their taps (totalling 50 amps to the first tap, burning it)
That depends on what's being plugged in. Many devices use less than half an amp each; 21 such devices would fill up four, six-outlet power strips (three of the 24 total outlets would be serving power strips) while drawing less than 70% of a 15-amp circuit's nominal capacity.
I got 2 15s and 5 20s, and a 1952 Cutler Hammer circuit panel. lel
The panel`s about up for donation to a museum ... Probably has only 60A supplied to the household
theoverengineer The master breaker is only 50A. It still does good!
and it will function indefinitely well as long as the 50A is not exceeded (eg. by a meltdown by lightning strike)
theoverengineer The 3 prong outlets in my home aren't really grounded, except for the gfci, hehe.
God bless U brother, whoever U R. May God bless U & ur family.
*no*
*yes*
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.
Power strips should never be plugged into each other
that's just my multi use room...
Börk Deutsche Doesn't matter they do not get plugged into each other
potato Wrong about what?
i dont have any extensions so i used 2 power strips to run the length of my bed just to power 1 small lamp
Been doing this for years, no issues whatsoever : /
It's all about the load. You CAN daisy-chain power-bars fine, but if you OVERLOAD them, you will have issues. This video explains the issue well. Cheap bars will also be a cause for concern if you put any load on them, as a cheap bar with crappy connections to the plugs will be prone to I-squared-R heating, which can be substantial if the current flow is high, but the connection is loose or has a high resistance. Turns the bar into a heater itself. ;)
Yup, all within Kitchoff`s Current Law
Its from china that's the problem
Everything is from China.
I am glad to live in Europe where we have 230V system and 16A sockets that can withstand even overloading without a problem. You can draw 3.7 kW from one socket or group of sockets connected to a breaker. Also, in each house there's at least one 3-phase (3x230/400V) 32A socket, from which can be drawn up to 22 kW of power. That allows us to run machines with very powerful motors for example. That's not possible in America I think :P
Zdenek Březovský I'll never understand why you all always seem to think so many things are impossible in America? An average modern home is fed by a 200A main feed at 240V single split-phase, or 48KW of total power available to a typical modern home (roughly equivalent to a 65A three phase service provided all the phases are in balance). While the average tap is either a 15A (1.8KW) or 20A (2.4KW) receptacle at 120VAC we also use 240VAC taps of 15A, 20A, 30A, 50A, 60A, and up, wherever needed (ovens, range tops, larger plug-in air conditioners, heat pumps, or heaters, clothes dryers, our workshops, emergency power generation, etc.). Even larger homes can start at 400A and up, depending upon the building needs. At the same time, 120VAC is considerably less lethal if one comes in contact and 1.8KW is far more than required for most temporary accessory loads at a single usage point. The few larger loads that are commonly encountered in the U.K., like your 3.6KW kettles, are not really relevant here in the U.S. not because we can't accommodate such -- we could very easily add 20A@240VAC outlets if we wanted such -- but because in a typical U.S. home such a device would be placed on a kitchen countertop right next to the oven/range that, whether gas or electric, is already equipped with much higher powered burners if your goal is to simply boil water in a hurry.
You also need to include the margin of error for the electronics and also that the splitters themselves also draw a slight load individually.
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.
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
Hilarious video that actually was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
its ok to have one more on the line Only if not exceeding the amount of plug space on the original one already. Say there is 6 ports for plugs. can have up to 6 items on it. now some plugs are blocky in size. taking up more then 1 plug on the ports. sometimes you have 2 or 3 of these block plugs. where all 6 ports are covered up. noiw if you take extra power bar. plug it in the first one. you have some extra space for a couple more plugs if needed. but overall might be better ans safer to a longer or better power bar aka Surge Protector is what they are called.
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.
Great video! Thanks for sharing
5years later and this video just won another argument lol thank you
Very informative, thank you for teaching me something this morning.
You are so welcome!
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.
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.
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
I had this happen from sparking on an outlet of a power strip with nothing plugged in and only two plugs were used one by a low voltage thing but like a month before a bunch of audio equipment including an 18” subwoofer were plugged into it maxing it out and it was fine
You can use power bars as kinda of a extension cable
As stated in at least one other comment your point of failure is the rotatable plug on that power strip. The rest of the video seems to be fine. However, I do have one problem. Those power strips are rated at 15 Amps with the length of wire attached to it. You you daisy chain 2 identicle power strips, you just doubled the length of the wire, reducing the amount of current (amps) it can handle. By how much depends on the gauge, temperature rating, and material of the wire. Then you have to consider the resistance of the plug and socket of each power strip you daisy chain together.
I always find it best to tell people no more than 2, and plug high demand devices like a heater or pc into the first strip and leave the second for low power devices like monitors, tv's, and phone chargers.
I would say it depends on the load. One portable electric heater at 1500 watts will max the circuit. The circuit supplying the strip also is operating other outlets in other rooms. Figure your loads and stay less than 80% of the maximum of the circuit on that circuit.
Fun!
Amazing video. Thank you for sharing
Thanks for the info. I'll pay more attention to that now.
I didn't know people needed this explained to them. "wats dem numbers fer? EELECTRISHUNS?!"
I don't know much about funky US electrical installations but here is northern Europe, where rules and regulations are followed neurotically, domestic switchboards have 10A or 16A fuses or circuit breakers, which pretty much guarantees that regulations-compliant extension cords cannot melt. At 230V voltage these currents correspond to 2300 and 3700 Watts, respectively.
Most quality surge protectors have a circuit beaker built into the power strip. Like APC. Well worth the investment.
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.
Great video. Learned a lot. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Not only amps matter, but also cable gauge does. I had one power strip rated on label for 230 V 16 amps, but cable had gauge only 1.0 mm^2, that is safe for up to 10 amps instead of required 1.5 mm^2 so I have to keep on mind I can't exceed 10 amps
That`s right.
(Here is more on wire gauge ua-cam.com/video/Wz9Uv-oe2LE/v-deo.html)
I just randomly thought about this- thank you, I wasn't planning to do it but thank you
Simple math is right! 15A is 15A. As you know, many commercial buildings are actually rated 20A. I ran a bowling center for 22 years. At some point, unknown to me, the owner had his brother go through the building and replace worn 20A outlets with a bunch of 15A outlets he got on sale somewhere. He didn't know any better and nobody else knew. Obviously, the 15A outlets could potentially overload without tripping the 20A breakers. The lane machine (stripping/oiling) pulled upwards of 18A when it was reversing out of the pit. The lane machine kept blowing fuses and I even cooked a circuit board. We finally figured it out... but those discount store outlets cost expensive damage to expensive equipment and, I suppose, could've started a fire at some point.
100% correct, thanks for commenting
You had some other issues in that case as well -- namely the plug installed on your 18A device. If you had a load that could draw more than 15A it should never have been equipped with a NEMA 5-15p plug to begin with, but should have instead been equipped with a 5-20p plug that would have only been able to plug into a 5-20r 20A receptacle...and thus would never have fit into those 15A retrofit receptacles. NEC Code does allow the use of 15A receptacles in a 20A circuit (in fact that is frequently the norm) as that 15A rating is per plug position and no device that draws more than 15A should ever be equipped with a 15A plug, thus one should not ordinarily be able to plug more than a 15A load into such a plug (barring the use of multi-outlet strips, which should have their own current limiting fuse or circuit breaker). Additionally, the wire gauges specified by Code are actually based primarily on limiting voltage drop, so you can have a considerable overload before there is a building wiring related fire concern, allowing plenty of time for the circuit breaker in the man distribution panel to trip. The real reason not to use cheap receptacles is that 1) you don't really know if they meet UL/NEC specifications and safety and 2) they are not going to be a robust receptacle intended for heavy use, abuse, etc., and are more likely to fail in service or start a fire as they often do not make good electrical contact with the plug, forming a high impedance connection that can overheat -- they are especially unsuitable for use in a commercial environment.
Whoa! So you're allowed to plug an unfused 15amp cable into a 20amp panel fuse. That means under fault conditions the 15amp cable will be carrying upto 20amps. ... BAD. A basic rule of electricity is that if the cable gets skinnier you always need another fuse to protect the thinnest part of that cable. If you break that rule you will get melted cables and sockets.
It sounds like America has both fused and unfused multi-outlet extensions, combine that with 15amp cable fused at 20amps and you have an accident waiting to happen.
Robert de Bath Not really, in the U.S., at least, the minimum permissible wire gauge for an unfused power cord is 18 gauge copper (less than that the plug will require a fuse -- something rarely encountered outside of Christmas light strings). While the "official" rating for 18 gauge copper is 10A, that rating is based primarily upon the maximum allowable voltage drop in a reasonably long power cord. While an 18 gauge copper cord will get uncomfortably warm with a 20A sustained load (4 times warmer than at 10A, to be exact, per I^2R), you will not exceed the minimum required insulation temperature of 60C (or higher if a better grade of cable is used), so you will not easily start a fire that way without other major contributing factors. In fact, fires are rarely caused by the cord simply overheating but rather tends to occur when the cord is both overloaded and either the cord (such as from fraying against sharp edges or animals gnawing upon it) or the plug/socket have been physically damaged resulting in a high resistance connection that can overheat things. Other causes can be overloaded power cords that are tightly wrapped and looped (greatly increasing the concentration of heat) combined with being buried under materials, like linens, that prevent the cord from shedding its heat -- though at that point you have committed just about every sin possible to magnify the chances of a fire if overloaded, especially if it is also physically damaged. Of course, if the overload is closer to a short circuit then the branch circuit breaker will magnetically trip almost instantly, in which case heating is a non-issue.
Somehow, and I'm not quite sure how, we have managed to largely avoid the influx of copperclad steel and aluminum power cords that seem to have infiltrated a number of cheap (mostly Chinese) appliance cords and products in other parts of the world. Those type cords are where a very serious fire hazard exists because they will produce far greater heating for a given current combined with the fact that their gauge is often undersized even by copper standards (you can get by with smaller copper conductors due to the greater conductivity of copper -- steel has about 17 times the resistance of copper) -- and poor wire conductivity plus undersized gauge equals a very hot running power cord for a given amp load and, if used, requires much larger wire gauges to be utilized in order to maintain safety, something a Chinese manufacturer skimping on safety for the sake of profit could care less about (they also will frequently combine such with inferior wire insulation that may not even be fire retardant).
Ah, right. So if; really hot day, AC broken, under the carpet and laying on top of itself you might have a problem, maybe.
The free movement between EU states does make it easier to import shoddy kit into a less stringent country and then move it to others. But realistically you have to go for the real bottom feeders (eg: the dodgy Ebay importer) to find that sort of stuff. The buyers for "normal shops" don't like getting burned any more than anyone else.
The issue here isn't the leap-frogging of multiple power bars, it's the fact that too much current/power was requested by the second power bar, it failed to properly cut-off and just burned the plug by requesting too much energy.
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
The melting secures the plug better
In Europe we use 230V and 50HZ and the fuses in most houses are 16 amps. So actually we can connect more things than in North America!