Fire Hazard

[bc4]

I'm looking for help to determine how many computer and office components can safely run off of a 15 amp breaker in a house bedroom (home office)

Generally, we are thinking about plugging in the following:

3 computers- 4 lcd monitors
2 laser printers- one color, one b&w
1 inkjet printer
1 router
1 cable modem
Also, we would have a vcr dubbing system (4 vcr's, 1 dvd player, one sony camcorder)

this is a large room in the basement and it could very well have two breakers but i'd have to have it checked out. The room is approximately 20 x 12 with 2 ceiling fans.

Any insight into how to calculate this would be appreciated

ps, forgive me if this is the wrong section, I don't know where to put it

 

[bc4]

oh yeah, there are approximately 5 grounded outlets in the room

 

[Thanatos421]

I would say you would be ok if it weren't for the 2 laser printers. Check the back of the printers, it should say how many amps they pull. That will be the bulk of your total amperage draw. The rest of that equipment together most likely draws less than the printers

Of course, I'm no electrical engineer, so I don't know if the circuit would handle it for sure or not.

 

[Joe_The_Dragon]

you will like hit a overload trip before you start a fire.

 

[imrul]

its a bit much...

 

[justinmcg67]

Plug them all in, turn it on. If the circuit pops, than you'll know it probably isn't safe. Besides, you could always turn off the two printers to conserve power or shut off monitors when not in use, there's always ways to save power!

best of luck on getting that home office set up.

 

[cnumartyr]

I would say it probably has 2 breakers.

The wires will carry the load just fine, there is no risk of a fire unless you have a ton of extension cords/surge protectors.

The wire is sized to carry atleast the amount of current the breaker is set to pop at... Unless you had a horrible electrician.

 

[bc4]

Printing (active): 350 watts
Ready, Sleep: 7 watts
Off: less than 0.1 watts
Energy Star compliant
Typical Electricity Consumption (TEC): 1.816 kWh/Week

Thats the spec's for a similar HP b/w laser. I don't see where Oki data posts spec's (I have a 5500n- color laser)

Thanks for all the responses. I already have most of the stuff plugged in and no problems. The other concern we have is 90% of the stuff is connected either via usb cables, or ethernet cable. Most of the stuff is run through a surge protector but the cable to the cable modem. Would anything other than a direct lightning strike to the cable line have a chance of frying everything? Data is backed up 1 a week to dvd but is redundent on each PC. Hopefully any surge would fry a router, modem or just one pc --- but if anyone is still checking the thread, What are the chances of everything being lost in one surge? all outlets are grounded, but cable to cable modem is not surge protected.

oh yeah, forgot to mention a seldom used fax machine (laser) and the 4 phones that can't draw that much power but do require to be plugged in