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I have a question which may sound silly. How many plugs can you run off of a mains socket? I have 2 sockets in the wall and im using a 10 socket extension from one of those plugs but now need to use the other wall socket for another 10 socket extension so basically there will be 20 components plugged into 2 wall sockets. I have never read anything on the packaging of extensions saying not to do this but just wondered if anyone knew the answer?
 

Andrew Everard

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Mohsin:I have a question which may sound silly. How many plugs can you run off of a mains socket? I have 2 sockets in the wall and im using a 10 socket extension from one of those plugs but now need to use the other wall socket for another 10 socket extension so basically there will be 20 components plugged into 2 wall sockets. I have never read anything on the packaging of extensions saying not to do this but just wondered if anyone knew the answer?

It's far from ideal, but as long as the amperage of everything on the ring-main doesn't exceed the amperage of the ring main, there shouldn't be any prioblems.

In case you don't know, divide the total wattage by the voltage to get the amperage, so a product with a power consumption of 500W on a 240V supply draws just over 2 amps, and a 100W lightbulb draws just under half an amp.

But sounds like you you need some more sockets put in...
 
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Anonymous

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I am not a professional electrician, but I'd say that you could plug in as many as you can as long your fuse allows it. I think there shouldn't be any problems with voltages, because the socket extensions are wired that way (paralel?).

But I wouldn't know what does this bring to humming in your equipment and the performance...
 
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Anonymous

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thanks for the replies (oh and andrew can you help me out in the subwoofer suggestion post by hifi4life) Im not going to have 20 items but more like 13 and I have 2 extensions (10 sockets each) which I got from one of the IT guys at work, think they came from a CER room and are long metal things which can be screwed down. I dont think I have ever run all 13 things at the same time. The only other thing is that its not 2 seperate wall sockets but a double wall socket. So im guessing I can run a total of upto 3000w on a 240v power supply? does that sound right?
 

daveh75

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a domestic ring main will support upto 7200w, thats the important bit, you can plug as many things as you like in as long as you dont exceed this, but thats the entire ring main, not just that particular socket, and assuming that the sockt your using is part of the ring main, and not a spur,
 
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Anonymous

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Isn't it usually recommended that you do not exceed 13amps on a single socket (especially if it is an extention lead)? Surely 13amps on a 230v supply would mean that 2990v is the maximum?
 

daveh75

Well-known member
sorry yeah, mis read the post, the extension lead will most certainly have a 13 amp amp fuse so yes the maximum will be 2990w or 3120w if you work it out at 240v that can be run from it, as for the wall socket if it is part of the ring main it will either be on a 30 amp fuse or 32amp rcd/mcb, which works out at 7200w and 7680w, if you say that the voltage is 240v which is what electricians work to
 
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Anonymous

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I have not yet checked the fuse in the extension leads but considering they were used to run equipment in a power companies CER room im guessing both will have a 13a. There is a big red light which flickers but it does this on both and all the time even if nothing is plugged to them and I checked another cable in my current employers CER room and all the extensions there had the same thing with the light flickering so im guessing this is normal. I have used this extensions for about 2 years and they work perfectly but it can be annoying because there is no way to turn the extensions off other then to switch it off at the main socket.

Anyhow I got back in and checked all my equipments power consumption and this is what I found:

LCD TV - 160 w
HD TV - 35 w
Equalizer - 11 w
CD player - 15 w
DAB - 16 w
Minidisc - 13 w
Tape deck - 24w
DSP - 17 w
Amplifier - 315 w
Q acoustics sub - ?
HP desktop base unit - ?

I got all these figures from the back of the units they all read 240v and next to this figure was the power consumption. I cant see the total being much over a 1000w so the 2 extension leads should be ok running off a double wall socket? Each extension has 10 sockets but only 13 of the 20 sockets will be used.

Thanks to everyone helping with this post.
 

professorhat

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You should be fine, especially if you're not ever going to be using them all at once. 13 amps is a surprisingly large amount of current when put into perspective.
EDIT - just avoid plugging in an electric heater or something!
 

JoelSim

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professorhat:You should be fine, especially if you're not ever going to be using them all at once. 13 amps is a surprisingly large amount of current when put into perspective.
EDIT - just avoid plugging in an electric heater or something!

Or a Krell monoblock

ÿ
 
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Anonymous

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Your maximum load is very little indeed. You can safely stick 9 items into your 10way, then use the 10th outlet for the 2nd 10way to plug into like a daisy chain. Both need not plug in the wall. Its good practice to stick your higher power items in as close to supply as possible. That means your amp or tv will go in socket number1 of extension number1. Probably the tv unless you have you amp cranked up pritty high. I would imagine the tv is the noiseyest of all the devices so you wouldnt want it in extension number2 even if it were one of the lower powered devices. its noise would pass past the power outlets of all other devices. Computers are particularly noisey, and actually dump digital power/noise to earth/ground. a few pc's will knock out earth leakage breakers, there no joke. iirc you allow 5mA per pc, so 6 maximum per rcd which ofton means per house. Ofcource, diversity comes into play. Like your 13 devices, there not all in use at the same time.

Hopefully that clears things up. oh.. the pun.

The 2nd extension wants a fuse lower than 13amp. its just a nice thing to do. it helps when things go wrong. If a fault occurs on the second extension, like a short, then as currant rockets upwards into the high figures, you want the 2nd(faulty)extensions fuse to blow. With a 13amp fuse in each the first extensions fuse would blow though. it would see both the same fault currant, plus the items pluged in to its self that dont run through the faulty extensions fuse. It would be the wrong fuse that blew. safe... but bothersome to find without fuse discrimination. I would stick a 3amp in it with such a low load. A 3amp also covers the fact i dunno how long this first lead is, how fat it is, its fuse size, protection, nothing. I doubt you have a ridiculously long set of extensions though. They sound professional enough. If they reach right round a shop though then i would want to do the math before using them at all. Its non of the math in this thread, and im not going to attept to explain it unless asked. most sparks just pick up a good practice guide rather than fully work stuff out.

uk mains is 230v by the way. +10% / -6% tollerence. All maths is based on 230v now, and 230v sumations and ratings allow for the tollerences. Some publications are yet to fall in line, but its on the cards.
 
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Anonymous

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Friendly1 thankyou so much for your expert advise, the extension I am using has a 3 meter cable and quite a thick wire, I have found an almost identical one on the following link and this is also the same brand as mine.

http://www.canford.co.uk/Products/42-6015.aspx

I can see that it does not have any kind of a surge protector so im in a dilemma now. I can either replace the whole lot which would cost me and I havent seen many 10 socket extensions that are so discrete as this one, or I was thinking can I run a 2 socket surge protected extension lead from the mains (probably 1-2 meters long) and then plug both of my extensions into this?
 
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Anonymous

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looking good to me pal. A couple of them together will do you fine.

its actually a good thing there is no surge suppression in the 1st lead or i could never recommend adding a 2nd lead to it without a lot of testing. You actually need a strong surge for safety reasons. Picture your self frying on the end of one of these leads. You actually want the fault currant to surge as high as possible, as soon as possible, so as the fuse goes as quickly as possible.

Few of the amps ive built would benifit from surge protection. I like to use them donut looking toroidal power transformers. They have lower magnetic flux choking there opperation. This means they can respond much faster, which is surging. anti surge suppression? no thankyou :) I will just have the lightening arresters and a bit of noise filtering at most. Anti surge coils are not hifi unless your trying to limit dynamic performance. There for computers.

your leads are good from an electrical distribution point of view. My hifi head agree's.

Glad to be of service
 
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Anonymous

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You have got some serious amount of knowledge my friend.

Not to sound daft but should I connect these leads to a surge protected lead or not? The only fuse my leads have is in the plug?
 

drummerman

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I can only speak from limited experience and I usually think the less is in the path the better, for hifi anyway. I have a mostly unused tacima mains block/filter that does'nt often come into play for exactly the reason of stifled dynamics. Something's missing with the thing inserted and it certainly sounds more boring with a lack of drive but a bit cleaner, more hifi. There has been a couple of exception with a certain cable and some actives though which did'nt seem to suffer to any noticeable degree.

In a mates shop they use more expensive distribution blocks which I assume also inlcude some form of filtering but I never really looked/discussed the products. I would'nt know how it sounds without them though.

Trial and error, system and mains dependent.
 
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Anonymous

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If your happy with your sound, then as drummer says, dont complicate things. However if your system is to fast/dramatic/large and needs tieing down, choking its power supply could well help tame it. How you use that choke is another issue. All the system, or just some offending sources. There a useable tool, but only in some circumstances. His actives for instance could of used a standard transformer which dont surge as much anyway, so a bit of limiting will show less effect. You could even find they were never fast enough to notice anyway. I dont know what they are.

I dont think you need one. I dont think anyone does unless they have the wrong components for there needs or really really bad mains.

Thanks for the compliment. It makes me feel like ive some use here, despite my knowledge being mostly transfered from other areas of my life. :)
 

drummerman

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It can never be a bad thing to have an electrician around for free, the prices you lot charge.

As for the actives, they were ADM9.1's. I've seen you are contemplating a few changes to your system. I know they are over your set budget at the moment but if you can, go listen to a pair. I have heard a fair bit of new hifi and imo only a seriously expensive plinius/MA system was better. Even so the difference was'nt as big as some might think. It may be the only system you need. Glad to give further info if you're interested. I would'nt personally invest in ten year old electronics, electrician or not.
 
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Anonymous

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Not to sound daft but should I connect these leads to a surge protected lead or not? The only fuse my leads have is in the plug?

have I made things confusing? what im trying to do is a 4 socket surge protected lead connected to the mains and then my leads (the ones on the link of my previous post) connected to the 4 socket surge protected lead.

will it be ok?
 
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Anonymous

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drummerman:

It can never be a bad thing to have an electrician around for free, the prices you lot charge.

well i wouldn't want to be called cheap lol

you should point the finger at plumbers. there just as much and have no qualifications required at all. To be a spark costs the best part of a grand a year just to keep your basic cirtificates valied. Its not cheap to be an electrician compaired to any professional your ever likely to meet. Would you want a lifetime training bill of £35,000 and yearly testing that could see needed cirtificates withdrawn. We are under rated. people dont even know what electric is yet call us costly. its no life :( lol

The monitors sound interesting, but then i would need a pre-amp aswell and i do like making my own speakers. Its not really a path i want to tread. Ive some 10" morel cones that need a cubic meter to reach 20Hz and thats not at -3db its flat with a Q around zero. Im going to build around them next. A system for life would be nice, but its to final. i like building speakers.

Mohsin, Forget the 4way pal. Just use the 10ways unless you feel you need to slow things down a little. Its not a must have piece of kit. Nor can i guarantee your safety if you extend one. I have a duty of care worth 15years of free accomadation. I must advise against it from where im sitting.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Ok so what your saying is that I can use both my (non surge protected) 10 ways plugged straight to the mains? I completely understand its difficult for you to be 100% sure without testing but really appreciate the help.
 

up the music

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An interesting thread. I was aware of the volts * amps = watts rule, and have been careful not to exceed 3kw at a time in my room. You've given me a couple of little jobs to do in ensuring extensions further from the wall socket have appropriate (lower rated) fuses and trying to get TV and PC plugged as close to the wall as possible and in moving surge protected extension blocks after amps and subs in my chain.
This is all easier said than done though. I've a complex system which makes all of this something of an art. Now in addition to aesthetics, cooling, stacking smaller and lighter units above larger and heavier ones, ensuring cables can physically reach between components, cabling to avoid amps picking up hums etc, I've got to consider what mains plugs go where.
I should have another new toy coming soon so I'll rewire then.
I thought I'd got it all sorted, thanks Friendly Electrician from Nottingham for shaking me out of my complacency.

Lee
 
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Anonymous

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Nejc Trdin:
I am not a professional electrician, but I'd say that you could plug in as many as you can as long your fuse allows it. I think there shouldn't be any problems with voltages, because the socket extensions are wired that way (paralel?).

But I wouldn't know what does this bring to humming in your equipment and the performance...

A lot are fitted with 13amp fuses, do you have 3KW of equipment? =)

Do bear in mind though that a 60w amplifier probably draws more like 150w at the socket. They should all have a wattage rating by their socket as well as a per channel amplifier power.
 
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Anonymous

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Mohsin:Mr friendly_1 am I right in my last post?

Yes pal. You can just daisychain them as there are if you want. That leaves one of the wall sockets free still, so there is still a 13amp outlet for hoovering :) With what you have, you cant go wrong.

Some of what i have posted about the order of plugs&fuses really is perfectionist stuff. Its free though and good practice. All electricians worth there salt follow these principles. As audiophiles, so should we.

edit: perhaps as audiophile's we shouldn't de-rate the fuses in daisychained extensions. A smaller fuse is after all a limitation. Finding the blown fuse easyly is perhaps of secondary importance. its hardly a big distrubution network. More of a heap behind the telly lol.

just a note on yoyo reels. unravel them. Dont tightly coil any leads its making a choke. To loose excess speaker wire i coil it in loop a good 18" accross or lay it out under the carpet. little 3" coils wont do you any good.
 

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