Power consumption/Wall outlet?

[j282]

I apologize if this is not the correct forum. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me if it was safe to have all of the following plugged into one wall outlet and running at the same time. I'm just a little worried because I know that the xbox, pc, and LCD use a lot of power. Thanks for your input.

32 inch lcd
xbox 360
PC
Modem
Printer

 

[HardwareGuru]

It's not a problem. Those do not draw that much power to where it will trip the line. All of those items running at once is well below 1,000 watts. If you have a vacuum cleaner running a hair dryer and microwave running all at once then that's alot of power.

 

[Tantrix]

The common household breaker is 15 amps, if it were too much then you would have done tripped a breaker by now. Like the previous poster mentioned, the things you listed aren't going to draw 15A anyway.

 

[HardwareGuru]

15amps x 125V AC = 1,875 watts total

32 inch lcd - 150 watts
xbox 360 - 160 watts
PC - 250 - 300 watts typical
Modem - 10 watts
Printer - 50 watts on a inkjet printer

Total - 620 - 670 watts.
Not even close to tripping a 15A line with 1,875 watts

 

[Sunin]

I apologize if this is not the correct forum. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me if it was safe to have all of the following plugged into one wall outlet and running at the same time. I'm just a little worried because I know that the xbox, pc, and LCD use a lot of power. Thanks for your input.

32 inch lcd
xbox 360
PC
Modem
Printer

I have 2 21 inch lcd's, 2 UPS's, 4 Q6600's, 1 P4 with 1950 all at 100% loads folding, more info here: www.hardfolding.com. But that is all on one outlet and I'm pulling: 1100 watts, which is well below what a 15amp circuit can handle. In fact on this same circuit I also have a 28inch lcd, another Q6600 and another E6600 with 2x 8800GTX. Plus various routers, modems, switches, oh and a PS3 etc. Again everything at 100% load.

So in the end don't worry about. I pull nearly 2000 watts from one circuit without blowing it.

I'll admit it is a new building so YMMV

 

[rsaotome]

I'm planning on buying a Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W PSU, I'm probably not going to hit 1200W's, but i'm sure my future system build will probably reach an avg of 600W+, depending on what the future GeForce 9900's will pull in SLI.

My current build idle's @ 320W & runs @ 460W or so at full load, which is often (i do a great deal of video encoding).

My home was build int 1968 & I'm not sure if it uses 10 or 15-20 amps, and still has all it's original wiring & i'm currently running my computer, along with a 24 inch LCD monitor, cable modem, a 5.1 speaker system, scanner, printer & gaming 17 inch notebook (pulls around 200W+) and some of which is running through a UPS, do I have anything to worry about?

 

[Baditude]

It's not a problem. Those do not draw that much power to where it will trip the line. All of those items running at once is well below 1,000 watts. If you have a vacuum cleaner running a hair dryer and microwave running all at once then that's alot of power.

If you my friend are an electrician you could answer that question correctly. If you are an electrician you need to be more careful and ask what else is on the circuit and findout the exact nameplate rating to give an educated answer. The breaker size also needs to be included. Never assume anything. How do you know he is not running an old school laserjet that can pull as much as 12 amps or more??? There are alot of factors to consider. Get all the facts before you burn his house down.

To answer your question correctly you must provide the name plate data of all the devices that you plan on plugging into the receptacle. Everything that has a cord that you plug into a wall receptacle has a a nameplate somewhere on the device. This is mandated by UL. Please provide the amps or wattage of the devices. This will only give you half the answer, You also have to know which receptacles are also on the same circuit. Then provide the same ratings for those devices as well. Just becuase the someone is a hardwareguru does not make them an electrician. This remends me of almost everytime I go into Home Depot and over hear the uninformed $8 an hour clerk tell someone how to install something incorrectly.

Hardwareguru, you may be correct in you answer but there is a slight chance you might have answered incorrect and then what is this fellow going to do when is house is in ashes?

J82, I have 28 years experiance as an electrician and a Genreal Foreman for the last 15 years. Pm me and I'll be glad to provide you with an educated answer.

 

[Baditude]

I have 2 21 inch lcd's, 2 UPS's, 4 Q6600's, 1 P4 with 1950 all at 100% loads folding, more info here: www.hardfolding.com. But that is all on one outlet and I'm pulling: 1100 watts, which is well below what a 15amp circuit can handle. In fact on this same circuit I also have a 28inch lcd, another Q6600 and another E6600 with 2x 8800GTX. Plus various routers, modems, switches, oh and a PS3 etc. Again everything at 100% load.

So in the end don't worry about. I pull nearly 2000 watts from one circuit without blowing it.

I'll admit it is a new building so YMMV

May I recommend you go to your electrical panel and feel how hot your breakers are when you have everything turned on at full load? I bet it is very warm to the touch. You might even want to load balance your panel to lower your light bill some. Look folks, you are not suppose to daisy chain you house together with electrical cords and multitaps.

 

[Sunin]

May I recommend you go to your electrical panel and feel how hot your breakers are when you have everything turned on at full load? I bet it is very warm to the touch. You might even want to load balance your panel to lower your light bill some. Look folks, you are not suppose to daisy chain you house together with electrical cords and multitaps.

Not warm at all. I don't have multitaps. All my power cords are rated at 15 Amps so no issues with crappy power cords causing issues. I have 2 power cords and they are the Heavy Duty Appliance Power cords that are very thick and rated at 1875W and 15Amps.

But your right you should be very careful with how you do it. I've had these loads for weeks and no issues. Again be careful!

 

[HardwareGuru]

Goint point man. The printer I was just assuming he has an inket printer. But, your right, a Laser printer will use alot of power and he did not specify what type, model printer he is using. Thanks for the correction on this. That's why we have other forum members to keep us in check.

If you my friend are an electrician you could answer that question correctly. If you are an electrician you need to be more careful and ask what else is on the circuit and findout the exact nameplate rating to give an educated answer. The breaker size also needs to be included. Never assume anything. How do you know he is not running an old school laserjet that can pull as much as 12 amps or more??? There are alot of factors to consider. Get all the facts before you burn his house down.

To answer your question correctly you must provide the name plate data of all the devices that you plan on plugging into the receptacle. Everything that has a cord that you plug into a wall receptacle has a a nameplate somewhere on the device. This is mandated by UL. Please provide the amps or wattage of the devices. This will only give you half the answer, You also have to know which receptacles are also on the same circuit. Then provide the same ratings for those devices as well. Just becuase the someone is a hardwareguru does not make them an electrician. This remends me of almost everytime I go into Home Depot and over hear the uninformed $8 an hour clerk tell someone how to install something incorrectly.

Hardwareguru, you may be correct in you answer but there is a slight chance you might have answered incorrect and then what is this fellow going to do when is house is in ashes?

J82, I have 28 years experiance as an electrician and a Genreal Foreman for the last 15 years. Pm me and I'll be glad to provide you with an educated answer.

 

[Baditude]

Not warm at all. I don't have multitaps. All my power cords are rated at 15 Amps so no issues with crappy power cords causing issues. I have 2 power cords and they are the Heavy Duty Appliance Power cords that are very thick and rated at 1875W and 15Amps.

But your right you should be very careful with how you do it. I've had these loads for weeks and no issues. Again be careful!

If you touch your breaker and it feels warm at all may I suggest you have an electricain take a load reading with an amp meter. Also just becuase it's warm is not necessarly a sign of a possable overload. The screw could be lose on the breaker or the finger that attach to the bug could be a little lose as well. As a good rule of thumb, never load a breaker past 50% of it's rated amperage and you should not have any problems with heat or overload conditions. The max you load a breaker is 80% of the rate capacity. No more than 12 amps on a 15A , but 7.5 ensures a problem free operation.

 

[Baditude]

Goint point man. The printer I was just assuming he has an inket printer. But, your right, a Laser printer will use alot of power and he did not specify what type, model printer he is using. Thanks for the correction on this. That's why we have other forum members to keep us in check.

Sorry if I came off a little strong, but we are dealing with someones home and I could not let you place him in possable trouble.

 

[Jcdenton69]

how about this, my room only has 2 outlets, each of the two available places to plug things in i have a power bar, currently have two decent PCs, one E8400 machine with a 9800GTX, the other an AM2 X2 5000+ w/ 8800GTS, a 32" LCD TV, 22" Monitor, and 19" Monitor, both LCD. do you think im going to be safe when summer rolls around and i plug in an Air conditioner?

 

[[Spectre]]

The max you load a breaker is 80% of the rate capacity. No more than 12 amps on a 15A , but 7.5 ensures a problem free operation.

Want to try and explain that more correctly than that before someone else does

 

[oboyco]

The National Electrical Code does not want a circuit calculated at more than 80% of the breaker rating for some leeway of that circuit. In other words a general outlet is calculated at 1.5 amps, meaning no more than 8 outlets on a 15 amp circuit.

You can load up that circuit any way you want even to 16 amps and still not trip the breaker most of the time. Internal house wire sizes will handle that without a problem. The major cause of electrical fires are small extension cords which are not capable of handling that kind of current. Don't use extension cords and you really have nothing to worry about, that is the purpose of a circuit breaker.

The 80% figure is only used when calculating loads per NEC.

 

[Sunin]

If you touch your breaker and it feels warm at all may I suggest you have an electricain take a load reading with an amp meter. Also just becuase it's warm is not necessarly a sign of a possable overload. The screw could be lose on the breaker or the finger that attach to the bug could be a little lose as well. As a good rule of thumb, never load a breaker past 50% of it's rated amperage and you should not have any problems with heat or overload conditions. The max you load a breaker is 80% of the rate capacity. No more than 12 amps on a 15A , but 7.5 ensures a problem free operation.

Having tripped the breaker 3 times one purposely, the other time I put an iron in the circuit and pop... teh other was to test my three UPS's. So I know the breaker works as it is supposed to. The real problem is I am in a 600 ft Condo and I have 7 Computers, a ton of electronics and I have used the UPS's to figure out the Wattage and to spread that among circuits. I now have my TV, HD DVD, Onkyo 939 and my Gaming Machine all running off a seperate circuit. I have room I would guess for 2 more machines before I have to call an electrician and if I do then I'm dropping in a 30 amp circuit right into the mini data center which then I can load to hell and back and not worry too much! But do be careful people this could be your life if you aren't very cautious!