Am I using to much power from one outlet?

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ccoo84

ccoo84

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Sep 10, 2013
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I built a giant of a Gaming PC Comand Center in my room that would make United States Strategic Comand Jealous.
I think the computer is 650 Watts and have it setup in my room at a glass desk, I also have a iMac next to it, xbox 360, Xbox One, Original Xbox, My Apple Time Machine, Computer speakers system, Astro a50 wireless headphones, a sound mixer, A clap on clap off light switch a 50" plasma, and my HD DVR, and a few other things that integrate them all such as HDMI spitters and switches and an AV to hdmi converter for my original Xbox, plus a 9 slot 3.0 usb hub all in a 10 ft range of a wall of electronics. They all are plugged into an expensive power strip that can handle those loads, I have another powers strip plugged into it also, I read up on circuits in houses and I've never thrown a breaker yet, but the question is: is it safe to have all those plugged into one outlet, or should I spread them out around the room with extension cords? I can't really figure out the math in it about how may watts each device is outputting but I'm guessing that I'm probably getting close to 20 amps I have 3 roommates and its a pretty big house but I don't know which circuit i'm at and I don't want to go throwing the breakers to find out. should I disperse them around the outlets in my room or should it be o.k to just leave them how it is? My electronic collection is still growing also, I'm pretty sure that I glow in the dark right about now.
So any advice would be cool especially from electricians thanks.
 
Solution
Ubrales
Spreading your hardware over different wall outlets in the same room will not help. Most residential room outlets in CA (and elsewhere in the US) are rated for 15 Amps total power draw and the breakers are set accordingly.

To complicate matters, more than one room is on the same 15A circuit. Certain areas (like the Bay Area) in CA have the main circuit breaker box located on the outside of the home, near the back porch or patio. You absolutely have to turn breakers ON and OFF to determine which circuit supports which rooms.

As the previous poster stated, you need a Kill-a-watt meter such as this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001 - this will read power levels up to 1875 watts (just over 17A on 110VAC)
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VincentP

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Oct 18, 2013
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I'm in Australia. We have 240V mains with generally 16A circuit breakers and wall sockets are rated at 10A. This means power boards here have overload protection at 10A.

The first rule in any country is plug a power board with overload protection in at the wall.
If you then have other power boards plugged into this first one, the overload protection of the first should protect your wall socket.
If you have two sockets together, these probably share the rating (10A here, maybe 20A for you).
This means you shouldn't plug two heavily loaded power boards into a double socket.
Be aware also that surge protected power boards void any warranty on protection if they are not plugged directly into a wall socket.

If you have plugged everything into a single power board and the overload protection hasn't tripped, you are probably OK.
Most of the electronics you have described is probably idle most of the time.
If you can get a second quality power board, plug it into a second independent wall socket. It doesn't matter if these are on the same circuit.
 
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Ubrales

Ubrales

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Dec 3, 2009
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Spreading your hardware over different wall outlets in the same room will not help. Most residential room outlets in CA (and elsewhere in the US) are rated for 15 Amps total power draw and the breakers are set accordingly.

To complicate matters, more than one room is on the same 15A circuit. Certain areas (like the Bay Area) in CA have the main circuit breaker box located on the outside of the home, near the back porch or patio. You absolutely have to turn breakers ON and OFF to determine which circuit supports which rooms.

As the previous poster stated, you need a Kill-a-watt meter such as this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001 - this will read power levels up to 1875 watts (just over 17A on 110VAC)
 
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