Does anyone know anything about electricity or wiring?! (Advise on plugging stuff in)

Ant000

I just moved into my mom's house for about a year...it's a smaller place that was overhauled and refit in the 1970s I think. The problem is the room I'm staying in only has one outlet with two 3-pronged sockets in it!

I'm a technology loving dude with a computer that needs to be plugged in, which also has a wireless mouse base that needs to be plugged in, a set of Klipsch computer speakers with a subwoofer, an LCD monitor, a cable modem...and then the other set of stuff I need to get powered up is an LCD TV, an Xbox360, an HD cable box, and a small stereo....

One outlet with two (3-pronged) sockets doesn't seem like much to me so I'm a little concerned. I've got a few power bars so getting everything technically "plugged" in isn't going to be a problem, but I don't want to put more into an outlet than it can handle. The outlet says 15A/125V on it, but I have no idea what that means or how to use that as a guide to how much power the sockets can afford me. There's one more socket in the hall I could run an extension cord into my room with too if I need to for a total of three 3-pronged sockets.

What's the difference between a Watt and an Amp? Is there like 1000 Watts in one Amp, or is it more complicated? Everything I have to plug in looks like it has a wattage number on it, but only some things have Amps listed.


(TL/DR.) So I guess to summarize:

A) I need to know how many Watts each socket can handle at a time, and I need to know what the heck an Amp is, and if I need to be concerned about how many amps are plugged into a socket...How do I find this stuff out?! I tried some Googling but I honestly didn't know what to look for.

and Is there anything I need to know about running an extension cord from the hall to power a lot of stuff? Does going through a long cord decrease the amount of power you can draw from the socket/have any electrical risks I should know about?

I also have no idea how Volts fit into any of this....fuck electricity? .

Fantasma

Look, this is only an advice. Be very careful with electricity, if you are asking these questions, you clearly don't know of the dangers involved such as fire or electrocution.

If I were you, I would play safe and let an electrician do the wiring you need.

Big Dookie

I'll try and cover the Voltage/Amperage stuff for you, and maybe someone else can cover the practical side of how much your outlet can handle.

An Ampere (or amp) is a measure of electrical current. Think of it like water flowing through a pipe. It is basically a measurement of how much charge (measured in Coulombs) is moving through a given cross-section of wire per second. Basically, one Ampere is equivilant to one Coulomb/Second.

A Volt is a measure of electric potential. Using the water example above, think of it as a tank with a given amount of pressure built up in it, and this pressure pushes the water current. It is a measurement of how much potential energy (Joules) exists in a given charge. Basically, one Volt is equivilant to one Joule/Coulomb.

A Watt is a measure of power (this is just in general, not just for electrical circuits). A Watt is generally defined as energy per second, or joules/second. In an electrical circuit, it can also be defined as Current*Voltage. Note that when you multiply the units for Current and Voltage, you end up with joules/second. So basically, in an electrical circuit, Wattage is a measurement of the power given or absorbed by a specified current flowing across a specified voltage difference.

You can also define Wattage in terms of Resistance, which is generally more useful in circuits. Resistance is exactly what it sounds like - it is the resistance to the flow of current in a circuit element, and is measured in Ohms. In terms of resistance, Wattage can be defined as: Wattage = (Current^2)*(Resistance), or Wattage = (Voltage^2)/(Resistance).

That's all I have time for now, but hopefully that's something to get you started.

EggyToast

Hey, cool, I actually know the answer to this one

Background: I bought a house last summer, with some odd wiring choices. We've got 100amp service, and at inspection we found that the 3-prong outlets were all ungrounded. We made them ground the downstairs, since it was much more serviceable, and each upstairs room had one grounded outlet already. After buying it, we found that the entire 2nd floor, including the lights, were all on one circuit. Popping one (which we did when we took down the fan in the hallway, which happened to short-circuit a wire and set up a loop that popped it) made the entire 2nd floor dark. nothing worked.

We were planning on having an electrician do some work anyways, and we were actually happy that we discovered what we did. He set up the 2nd floor circuits so that the room with all the computers and music equipment (my room) would have its own 20amp circuit. In between his first visit and his second, we had to figure out how the breaker box was actually going to everything in the house. We added up the different usages in the house, to come to a total of 400amps?! But we only had 100amp service?

It turns out that the box works with a series of breakers -- the 100amp is the max service, and it's rare that everything is used at once. This is also the reason why kitchens typically have multiple breakers servicing them -- one specifically for the dishwasher, fridge, and more. Lamps, computers, and a lot of other things don't exactly draw tons of power all at once -- not like a microwave.


Here's the short of it -- test the breakers in the house. Find out what else is on the outlet in your room. If it's another bedroom, one that only has, say, a lamp and a clock, you should have no problem. If it's anything that draws a lot of power, you should try to balance the power usage -- try to move things to different outlets or rooms while you're living there.

If you're using power strips, try not to daisy chain them. Still, the major problem comes from faulty wiring and "octopus" outlets, where you have a ton of adapters plugged into a wall and a short circuit at the plate can spark and cause a fire. If you have things set up on power strips, they SHOULD trip and disable themselves at signs of a short -- which is the entire point of using them.

Honestly, the biggest problem you likely have is going to be at the fuse box. Hopefully that room is on its own circuit, in which case you should have no problems. Many musicians intentionally set up computers, equipment, and more on a single outlet, set up on its own circuit, in order to remove ground hum (interference from having slight variations in the power signal). The biggest problem occurs with high-draw items, like microwaves, not computers.

Ant000

Thanks for all the responses guys, I appreciate the time invested to help me out .

khain

EggyToast wrote: »

Hey, cool, I actually know the answer to this one

Background: I bought a house last summer, with some odd wiring choices. We've got 100amp service, and at inspection we found that the 3-prong outlets were all ungrounded. We made them ground the downstairs, since it was much more serviceable, and each upstairs room had one grounded outlet already. After buying it, we found that the entire 2nd floor, including the lights, were all on one circuit. Popping one (which we did when we took down the fan in the hallway, which happened to short-circuit a wire and set up a loop that popped it) made the entire 2nd floor dark. nothing worked.

We were planning on having an electrician do some work anyways, and we were actually happy that we discovered what we did. He set up the 2nd floor circuits so that the room with all the computers and music equipment (my room) would have its own 20amp circuit. In between his first visit and his second, we had to figure out how the breaker box was actually going to everything in the house. We added up the different usages in the house, to come to a total of 400amps?! But we only had 100amp service?

It turns out that the box works with a series of breakers -- the 100amp is the max service, and it's rare that everything is used at once. This is also the reason why kitchens typically have multiple breakers servicing them -- one specifically for the dishwasher, fridge, and more. Lamps, computers, and a lot of other things don't exactly draw tons of power all at once -- not like a microwave.


Here's the short of it -- test the breakers in the house. Find out what else is on the outlet in your room. If it's another bedroom, one that only has, say, a lamp and a clock, you should have no problem. If it's anything that draws a lot of power, you should try to balance the power usage -- try to move things to different outlets or rooms while you're living there.

If you're using power strips, try not to daisy chain them. Still, the major problem comes from faulty wiring and "octopus" outlets, where you have a ton of adapters plugged into a wall and a short circuit at the plate can spark and cause a fire. If you have things set up on power strips, they SHOULD trip and disable themselves at signs of a short -- which is the entire point of using them.

Honestly, the biggest problem you likely have is going to be at the fuse box. Hopefully that room is on its own circuit, in which case you should have no problems. Many musicians intentionally set up computers, equipment, and more on a single outlet, set up on its own circuit, in order to remove ground hum (interference from having slight variations in the power signal). The biggest problem occurs with high-draw items, like microwaves, not computers.

While all this is good advice and correct it doesn't really answer his question as you can not pop the breaker but overload a outlet on a normal 20A breaker as the majority of outlets, and the one he is using, are rated for 15A. Though regardless you probably won't have a problem since outlets are rated at less than what they can potentially handle. If your still concerned though look on the back of your devices and they should say the Amperage(A), Voltage (V), and the Watts(W) that the device uses, if they don't have A listed then use W = A*V to find it as Big Dookie pointed out. If its below 15 your fine if its above then split the load between two outlets and as EggyToast pointed out you may have a problem if both are on the same breaker.

lifeincognito

I'm a little confused by what he OP said in that the outlet said 15A/125V and by what khain said about the outlet ratings. You seem to be implying that despite what his fuse box says his breakers are labeled, an outlet can be at something different? Regardless, I second EggyToast's idea to test the breakers and if you had or the previous owner had a decent electrician the box should be labeled so you know what goes where in your home. Of course you could just plug everything in and see what happens because that is why you have breakers in the first place. If they heat up and cut off your current then you know you have a problem.

Your B question is a bit more interesting as well. The extension cord needs to be rated for your usage needs and typically people pick up whatever and all is well. However you might be using this for a computer or other electronics that are a bit more picky than a clock/radio or a mobile charger. I recommend getting one o those big orange or other obnoxious color construction extension cords just to be safe. They typically have a smaller gauge wire which allows for higher current flow, try to pick up 10 gauge if you think it'll be 15 amps or 8 if 20 or more amps. Assuming your house isn't huge and this hallway is moderately long (read: 25 feet ish) you really won't notice any loss of power over the line, but if you were stringing this across a football field you'd see some loss in typical household extension cords. Which is why they, the electric companies, jack the voltage up on their transmission lines for sending it around country; but this does nothing for your questions.

And volts really doesn't fit into this that much because your fuse box mainly cares about current more than anything else. Granted you are pegged to to one voltage in your breaker box but each item you plug in can draw a different current. This is simply done because it is much easier to measure current and therefore charge you on your bill.

khain

lifeincognito wrote: »

I'm a little confused by what he OP said in that the outlet said 15A/125V and by what khain said about the outlet ratings. You seem to be implying that despite what his fuse box says his breakers are labeled, an outlet can be at something different? Regardless, I second EggyToast's idea to test the breakers and if you had or the previous owner had a decent electrician the box should be labeled so you know what goes where in your home. Of course you could just plug everything in and see what happens because that is why you have breakers in the first place. If they heat up and cut off your current then you know you have a problem.

So there are two different things here. One is what the fuse on the breaker is rated at, this is normally 20A but can range from 15-30, the second is what the individual outlet plug is rated at, this is lower around 15A given in the OP but can range as well. The reason they do this is because multiple plugs, lights, etc are on a breaker and in normal house design and usage there isn't ever a need to carry a huge load on a single plug so they can use cheaper parts and not need to support as high current. The problem then becomes though that if you daisy chain power strips off a single plug you could surpass what the plug is rated at but not what your breaker is rated at so the breaker won't trip but the plug may break etc, even if you do this most likely nothing will happen but there is potential there.

Your B question is a bit more interesting as well. The extension cord needs to be rated for your usage needs and typically people pick up whatever and all is well. However you might be using this for a computer or other electronics that are a bit more picky than a clock/radio or a mobile charger. I recommend getting one o those big orange or other obnoxious color construction extension cords just to be safe. They typically have a smaller gauge wire which allows for higher current flow, try to pick up 10 gauge if you think it'll be 15 amps or 8 if 20 or more amps. Assuming your house isn't huge and this hallway is moderately long (read: 25 feet ish) you really won't notice any loss of power over the line, but if you were stringing this across a football field you'd see some loss in typical household extension cords. Which is why they, the electric companies, jack the voltage up on their transmission lines for sending it around country; but this does nothing for your questions.

Extension cords should say on them what Amperage they carry on them though most likely that regardless of what you do in a normal environment you aren't going to surpass even the low end ones.

And volts really doesn't fit into this that much because your fuse box mainly cares about current more than anything else. Granted you are pegged to to one voltage in your breaker box but each item you plug in can draw a different current. This is simply done because it is much easier to measure current and therefore charge you on your bill.

Just to explain more of this voltage in the US to households is suppose to be 120V +-5% so its effectively constant this is so that everyone can assume a voltage and then base their devices off it either by changing it themselves or just using is at that voltage.