How many electronics is too many for a single outlet?

[ThereAndBackAgain]

Now, I already know the only valid answer to this question is "It depends," but it's an interesting topic.

I suspect the general populace is unaware that there are limitations on how many things can be safely plugged into a single outlet (via a surge protector or power strip), but, with that ignorance, it seems like problems should arise more often than they do, until eventually it would become "common knowledge" that you need to be careful about how many devices you are feeding with one power outlet. But that hasn't happened, unless I am mistaken. Is that because most surge protectors/power strips limit their number of outlets to about six, and most consumer devices aren't power hungry enough that six of them plugged into one outlet would cause an issue?

I have a PC (PCPartPicker estimates its wattage at 304W at full load), a 24'' monitor, a 50'' LCD TV, an Xbox Series S, a Wii U, a set of Insignia bookshelf speakers, and a Blu-ray player all plugged into one surge protector. Now, most if not all of the time, I don't have all of those things powered on at once (though often I have three to five out of seven devices powered on), and I haven't encountered any issues yet, but I wonder if I'm almost literally playing with fire with this setup.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

....I have a PC (PCPartPicker estimates its wattage at 304W at full load), a 24'' monitor, a 50'' LCD TV, an Xbox Series S, a Wii U, a set of Insignia bookshelf speakers, and a Blu-ray player all plugged into one surge protector. Now, most if not all of the time, I don't have all of those things powered on at once (though often I have three to five out of seven devices powered on), and I haven't encountered any issues yet, but I wonder if I'm almost literally playing with fire with this setup.

All of those things plugged into a single socket is just asking for a fire. Just because you haven't encountered any issues "yet" does not mean that you are safe.

 

[Gururu]

If your house is wired properly you are fine. If the draw is to great the breaker will cut the power.

 

[ThereAndBackAgain]

To err on the side of caution, I'll probably get another surge protector, feed it from another outlet, and plug half of the devices into that one. But I have had this set-up for at least a year or two and never once tripped a breaker or experienced any other issue.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

If your house is wired properly you are fine. If the draw is to great the breaker will cut the power.

Assuming, of course, that the breaker hasn't welded its contacts due to the excessive heat caused by the draw (yes, this happens far more often than you may realize).

 

[TerryLaze]

I have a PC (PCPartPicker estimates its wattage at 304W at full load), a 24'' monitor, a 50'' LCD TV, an Xbox Series S, a Wii U, a set of Insignia bookshelf speakers, and a Blu-ray player all plugged into one surge protector.

Put everything on max for a while and touch the cable, if it's not warm to the touch then you are fine.

You can also look up the max wattage for every piece individually, the surge protector, the cable to the mains, the cable inside your walls, the brakers, and so on.

 

[bill001g]

This is where you go on amazon and spend a small amount of money to answer question like this. What you can search for is brand name called killawatt. There are many generic versions of this being sold for under $10. It will show you the number of watts all the devices you have plugged into pull. Most have other features like keeping track of power usage over a period of time and some will give you the estimated cost if you put in your electrical rates.

 

[stuff and nonesense]

Uk has breakers and fuses. Fuses are fitted into the plugs that go into the outlet. So if you keep the current load drawn from the outlet to less than the rated value of the fuse there is no problem. Exceed the value and the fuse blows protecting the wiring. On 2 outlets, properly fused I have 2 PCs, 2 monitors, Blu-ray, DSP A-5 amp, sky box, router and Samsung 55” OLED.

13A fuses are in the plugs connected to the outlets, 3A or 5A in the appliances connected to the distribution strips.

Years ago there were plugs that connected to the outlets and provided many sockets from one.

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/P65NJK/bad-practice-electrical-overload-P65NJK.jpg

These things are dangerous. Protections are bypassed.

 

[stuff and nonesense]

Assuming, of course, that the breaker hasn't welded its contacts due to the excessive heat caused by the draw (yes, this happens far more often than you may realize).

Press the test button periodically?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Press the test button periodically?

GFCI is not a current sensing circuit breaker if you're stateside

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Most surge protectors have a circuit breaker built in that will trip if there is an overload case. If you're house wiring isn't ancient/improper and your circuit breakers are working, I highly doubt any harm will come.

Plus, I suspect the draw of that entire system is far below what even a 15a circuit at 120 could sustain, let alone 20a or anything 240 land, but purchasing a kill a watt device would confirm this power consumption and make sure you're in a safe situation. Harbor freight sells them.

 

[LordVile]

Depends on your country but here it’s 3000W though I wouldn’t do that continuously

 

[ThereAndBackAgain]

Put everything on max for a while and touch the cable, if it's not warm to the touch then you are fine.

You can also look up the max wattage for every piece individually, the surge protector, the cable to the mains, the cable inside your walls, the brakers, and so on.

I might give that a try out of curiosity some time, but of course realistically I would never normally be running all the devices at full power all at once. But I think I'm going to need another surge protector regardless, since I'll be adding another device to the mix soon and I'm all out of outlets.

This is where you go on amazon and spend a small amount of money to answer question like this. What you can search for is brand name called killawatt. There are many generic versions of this being sold for under $10. It will show you the number of watts all the devices you have plugged into pull. Most have other features like keeping track of power usage over a period of time and some will give you the estimated cost if you put in your electrical rates.

That's pretty cool. Nifty devices, even if just to satisfy curiosity. I get charged a flat rate regardless of my power usage, though I'm sure I'd be put on notice if my power usage massively differed from what's typical for residents.

Uk has breakers and fuses. Fuses are fitted into the plugs that go into the outlet. So if you keep the current load drawn from the outlet to less than the rated value of the fuse there is no problem. Exceed the value and the fuse blows protecting the wiring. On 2 outlets, properly fused I have 2 PCs, 2 monitors, Blu-ray, DSP A-5 amp, sky box, router and Samsung 55” OLED.

13A fuses are in the plugs connected to the outlets, 3A or 5A in the appliances connected to the distribution strips.

Years ago there were plugs that connected to the outlets and provided many sockets from one.

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/P65NJK/bad-practice-electrical-overload-P65NJK.jpg

These things are dangerous. Protections are bypassed.

I'm across the pond; not sure how the standards differ here in comparison.

Most surge protectors have a circuit breaker built in that will trip if there is an overload case. If you're house wiring isn't ancient/improper and your circuit breakers are working, I highly doubt any harm will come.

Plus, I suspect the draw of that entire system is far below what even a 15a circuit at 120 could sustain, let alone 20a or anything 240 land, but purchasing a kill a watt device would confirm this power consumption and make sure you're in a safe situation. Harbor freight sells them.

The building is from the 90s, I think. Of course, I don't know if it was wired properly. But yeah, I don't think the total power draw is super high. My PC has a 1660 Super, not an RTX 5090! But, as mentioned above, I likely need to get another surge protector anyway since I'll be needing more outlets soon. If I switch some of the devices to another outlet in the same room, isn't it still on the same circuit?

 

[faalin]

Lets break this down and say your in the United States, so 120v on ether a 15amp or 20 amp breaker.

304watt computer is 2.6 amps
24 inch monitor is .5 amps
50 inch LCD tv on the high side is 1.2 amps
X-box .7 amps
Wii u .625 amps
Insignia bookshelf speakers 25w each .42 total
blu-ray .25 amps

In total your looking at 6.3amps



What you need to do is play the good old game, find the circuit breaker. Find the breaker for the room and turn it off, then walk around with ether an outlet tester or the cheap way is a small lap and plug it into every outlet and see if it turns on. You might even be surprised to find that they shared breakers between rooms, so if you had two bedrooms next to each other they might be on the same breaker.

 

[geofelt]

Some 10 years ago, Tom's had an article on power strip internals:
https://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/675-cheap-power-strip-tear-down.html
It probably pays to buy a brand name high quality strip.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

If I switch some of the devices to another outlet in the same room, isn't it still on the same circuit?

Sadly the answer to that is "it depends how your house is wired".

If you have access to the breaker box you could experiment and see if all of the outlets turn off with the same breaker to determine that

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Some 10 years ago, Tom's had an article on power strip internals:
https://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/675-cheap-power-strip-tear-down.html
It probably pays to buy a brand name high quality strip.

I use APC strips for all of my electronics and would recommend them to the OP strongly. They have a great presence in the commercial or server environment for a reason too.

 

[JeffreyP55]

Now, I already know the only valid answer to this question is "It depends," but it's an interesting topic.

I suspect the general populace is unaware that there are limitations on how many things can be safely plugged into a single outlet (via a surge protector or power strip), but, with that ignorance, it seems like problems should arise more often than they do, until eventually it would become "common knowledge" that you need to be careful about how many devices you are feeding with one power outlet. But that hasn't happened, unless I am mistaken. Is that because most surge protectors/power strips limit their number of outlets to about six, and most consumer devices aren't power hungry enough that six of them plugged into one outlet would cause an issue?

I have a PC (PCPartPicker estimates its wattage at 304W at full load), a 24'' monitor, a 50'' LCD TV, an Xbox Series S, a Wii U, a set of Insignia bookshelf speakers, and a Blu-ray player all plugged into one surge protector. Now, most if not all of the time, I don't have all of those things powered on at once (though often I have three to five out of seven devices powered on), and I haven't encountered any issues yet, but I wonder if I'm almost literally playing with fire with this setup.

USA circuits are 15 amps. Use ohm's law to figure out what you can and can't do. I set an overload alarm for 1800 watts.
One rig draws 1.7w at idle. Running cinebench it jumps to 500w.

Ohms Law Power Wheel: Understanding the Electrical Formula Wheel - Electrician Apprentice HQ

Understanding Ohm's Law is crucial for electricians. It's the key to mastering how voltage, current,

electricianapprenticehq.com

 

[Eximo]

USA circuits are 15 amps. Use ohm's law to figure out what you can and can't do. I set an overload alarm for 1800 watts.

Sometimes. Age of the house, panel limitations, etc, kitchen & bathroom circuits, etc.

As mentioned earlier the two common breaker sizes for normal outlets are 15 amps and 20 amps. It is very typical for lighting circuits to be 15A and the outlets in rooms to be on a 20 amp circuit. Smaller area rooms will sometimes be on a single 15A circuit for the outlets.

Kitchens sometimes have improved circuits or multiple circuits for specific appliances. Microwave often gets its own breaker, and of course electric ovens get their own 240V 50-60 Amp breaker. Bathrooms are similar, they will often have a higher wattage circuit for hair dryers. (GFCI is also generally kitchen and bath)

 

[JeffreyP55]

Sometimes. Age of the house, panel limitations, etc, kitchen & bathroom circuits, etc.

As mentioned earlier the two common breaker sizes for normal outlets are 15 amps and 20 amps. It is very typical for lighting circuits to be 15A and the outlets in rooms to be on a 20 amp circuit. Smaller area rooms will sometimes be on a single 15A circuit for the outlets.

Kitchens sometimes have improved circuits or multiple circuits for specific appliances. Microwave often gets its own breaker, and of course electric ovens get their own 240V 50-60 Amp breaker. Bathrooms are similar, they will often have a higher wattage circuit for hair dryers. (GFCI is also generally kitchen and bath)

Thank you. I have a little experience in the field. 20a three pin has neutral pin 90 degrees off. 15a is standard.

 

[Eximo]

Thank you. I have a little experience in the field. 20a three pin has neutral pin 45 degrees off. 15a is standard.

I think you mean 90 degrees. But yes, that is to prevent a high wattage appliance from being plugged into an underrated circuit. So the cord/plug on the appliance end is the safety measure while still allowing normal 1500W max things to be plugged in.

However, you don't always see those in homes with 20 amp circuits, very regulated in the commercial space and, hopefully, new construction. But most, if not all, of my 20 amp circuits have regular outlets. Also, receptacles get replaced improperly, so best to do what others suggested and additionally test which breaker goes to what outlets. Though truthfully there aren't that many US appliances rated for more than 1500W, and most of those you would expect to find in garages and workshops.

While it isn't against code, I also think all NEMA outlets should be installed in the commercial way with the ground up. While uncommon, prevents things like coins and keys from ever falling onto a partially unplugged cord with hot and neutral ready to be shorted out. Though our outlets should really be redesigned.

 

[ThereAndBackAgain]

Lets break this down and say your in the United States, so 120v on ether a 15amp or 20 amp breaker.

304watt computer is 2.6 amps
24 inch monitor is .5 amps
50 inch LCD tv on the high side is 1.2 amps
X-box .7 amps
Wii u .625 amps
Insignia bookshelf speakers 25w each .42 total
blu-ray .25 amps

In total your looking at 6.3amps



What you need to do is play the good old game, find the circuit breaker. Find the breaker for the room and turn it off, then walk around with ether an outlet tester or the cheap way is a small lap and plug it into every outlet and see if it turns on. You might even be surprised to find that they shared breakers between rooms, so if you had two bedrooms next to each other they might be on the same breaker.

Sadly the answer to that is "it depends how your house is wired".

If you have access to the breaker box you could experiment and see if all of the outlets turn off with the same breaker to determine that

I think I have access to the breaker. There's an electrical panel against the wall that I've never messed with. But I'm scared to touch it because I don't know what I'm doing.

So, supposing two nearby outlets are on the same circuit, would it make a meaningful difference in safety to move half of the devices to the other outlet anyway?

I use APC strips for all of my electronics and would recommend them to the OP strongly. They have a great presence in the commercial or server environment for a reason too.

Yeah, that would be nice. But unfortunately it's not a cost I can justify.
Whoops, I misinterpreted that as UPS for some reason. The surge protector in question that I use actually is an APC model, though it was a budget one and it's discontinued.

USA circuits are 15 amps. Use ohm's law to figure out what you can and can't do. I set an overload alarm for 1800 watts.
One rig draws 1.7w at idle. Running cinebench it jumps to 500w.

Ohms Law Power Wheel: Understanding the Electrical Formula Wheel - Electrician Apprentice HQ

Understanding Ohm's Law is crucial for electricians. It's the key to mastering how voltage, current,

electricianapprenticehq.com

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the basics of electricity, even though I find it interesting. I'll give that article a look.

Sometimes. Age of the house, panel limitations, etc, kitchen & bathroom circuits, etc.

As mentioned earlier the two common breaker sizes for normal outlets are 15 amps and 20 amps. It is very typical for lighting circuits to be 15A and the outlets in rooms to be on a 20 amp circuit. Smaller area rooms will sometimes be on a single 15A circuit for the outlets.

Kitchens sometimes have improved circuits or multiple circuits for specific appliances. Microwave often gets its own breaker, and of course electric ovens get their own 240V 50-60 Amp breaker. Bathrooms are similar, they will often have a higher wattage circuit for hair dryers. (GFCI is also generally kitchen and bath)

I live in a studio apartment. It's one room plus a bathroom. There are seven outlet receptacles total, with one in the bathroom and one in the kitchenette (the latter two are GFCI outlets).

Though our outlets should really be redesigned.

Do you think that could ever realistically happen? I dunno. It seems to me that it's one of those things, like QWERTY, that is so heavily entrenched that it's basically impossible for the standard to be replaced with something better. Though I guess adapters could make a transition more possible.

 

[Eximo]

Do you think that could ever realistically happen? I dunno. It seems to me that it's one of those things, like QWERTY, that is so heavily entrenched that it's basically impossible for the standard to be replaced with something better. Though I guess adapters could make a transition more possible.

It is an interesting problem to consider since it would cost many billions of dollars.

Swapping out the receptacles could easily be a government funded initiative, trade ins for old appliances or shops to convert all the plugs. Massive recycling campaign for old power bricks.

But there is also some potential for legitimate reasons people might want to update. Included USB chargers in each outlet is pretty popular. Switching home lighting to DC and having a whole house DC circuit rather than an AC-DC converter in each bulb (generally the thing that burns out in LED bulbs). Smart outlets that report to a central household power monitoring system that report back to a smart grid for better power plant load handling. It will come down to whether some feature would be more beneficial in the long run than sticking with what we have.

For instance the last of the DC power plants was shut down not that long ago (2007), and everyone was given a stipend to get new appliances.

 

[ThereAndBackAgain]

Switching home lighting to DC and having a whole house DC circuit rather than an AC-DC converter in each bulb (generally the thing that burns out in LED bulbs).

Oh, what? I didn't know light bulbs had to convert to DC, I thought they ran directly off AC. Isn't that why they flicker at 60 Hz? If LEDs require DC, why do they flicker at 60 Hz?

With a whole house DC circuit, I assume AC adapter power bricks would no longer be needed, which would be cool.

 

[Eximo]

Oh, what? I didn't know light bulbs had to convert to DC, I thought they ran directly off AC. Isn't that why they flicker?

With a whole house DC circuit, I assume AC adapter power bricks would no longer be needed, which would be cool.

What most LED bulbs have in them is called a capacitive dropper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_power_supply

Basically a cheap way to convert AC to DC, and is basically made just poorly enough that the bulbs still burn out. With a little extra care those bulbs can have seriously long lifespans.

You can do a little research on the Dubai lamp. Basically they codified a high efficiency bulb that puts most on the market to shame and by its nature has a long lifespan.

If a standard DC power was accepted, yes, like 20V 5A or something, but that would limit everything to 100W. But since there are bigger loads than that, there would still need to be a way to get higher power.