Shoutbox

Sweet merciful crap! Are you insane man?! You should never piggyback Powerbars. Not even surge protectors. The limit is set for a reason. If you are pull too much of a current through the wires, they can heat up and cause a fire. Also, any surge protection that you may have had is now gone!

Think of the current as water, and the cable as the canal. Too much water going through the canal, and the water will spill over and damage everything around it!

Count yourself lucky that your pad or your flat haven't caught fire yet!

Good gawd man!

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
i've never had dodgy problems like that.

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same here

I have just 2 sockets where I need them (there is 2 behind my bed but I don't need them)

I have a extension cord that goes from my wall to behind my pc....that extension cord has 3 sockets on it.

One Socket Goes to a 5 socket power bar.
currently filled with speakers...subwoofers....usb hub etc
(spots filled in that power bar: 5/5)

Another socket on the extension cord goes to my computer itself.

3rd socket on the extension cord goes to a power bar.
This power bar has my clock,monitor,xbox,tv,wireless game adapter (for xbox), and another power bar
(sockets filled on this power bar 6/6)

so yeah

All of that on 1 socket in my wall (btw the other socket on my wall <because usually every socket on the wall has 2> is my printer )

been like this for 2 years....nothing has broke...no fires have happened so im "lucky "

I'm using so much power I'm using more than one circuit breaker (Thanks Ghost_Stalker )

One from the first floor and the other one from the kitchen

Just so I don't have to make a "deathrig"

ya, its called a Circuit Breaker

i could swear that a standard cuirciut breaker in canada was rated for 15 amps.. for whatever series of plugs was on that cuircuit. Plugging all those things into one bar cant be safe.

and i thought my daisy-chaining was excessive.

lizard, that is correct, a standard Circuit Breaker in Canada is 15amps, but you can get 20, 25, 30, and up

Also, note that even though you may have everything turned on it will not always be drawing the rated current. For example, your speakers will be drawing the maximum current when the volume on them is maxed out only. Even then I can't understand how they claim to draw so much current besides the PC, Monitor, TV and Speakers the rest seemingly should draw a minimum current; my Altec Lansings draw a maximum current of 2A. So I don't understand how they can draw so much. And if indeed they are you should be able to feel it by touching the lead going to the main as it should heat up quite substantially.

On that note your second power board forms a loop in the picture. This is a major no-no, when wire is looped like that it forms an induction coil which might be causing your strange problems.

Just thought it through a bit more thoroughly:
It probably has to do with the power in the UK being 110V (AUS being 240V) but that still doesn't fit into my rudimentary High School physics formula V=IR, if resistance is constant then halving Voltage should halve Current. Somebody with better physics knowledge might be able to explain.

uk is 220-240v, north america is 110-120v

The number of amps written means the number of amps needed to turn on the object. That your tv uses i dunno.. a peak of 5 amps when turned on,   the amps needed  to work when it is already on will be less than the peak (max amps used to turn on).
* Voldemort thinks we need cookie
* Voldemort summons cookie
* Voldemort thinks that if someone doesnt get it he will write a longer explanation.

Good point damm-o your quite right when u turn something on it does draw more current. You can try this by plugging in a light then switching on a high power device, the light should dim for a fraction of a second.

edit: Just noticed Saints Deathrig Version 2 now that is some dangerous stuff... notice the mass of coiled up leads. If that were to have a large current through it I think it would get very hot.