Howard Winter wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 20:17:40 +1200, Hopkins wrote:
>
> > House just down the road had a fire in there lounge
> because a multibox got
> > over loads :-{
> > So be careful.
>
> This had never occurred to me before - the American
> wiring scheme, where the only fuses/breakers are at the
> distribution box, means that there's nothing to stop you
> adding dozens of multi-way socket-strips to each other,
> and plugging into a single wall socket.  So nothing
> technical stops an overload until you exceed the whole
> circuit's rating - have I go this right?

Most power strips I've seen in Canada have a fuse or circuit
breaker that would limit the cascaded load you could put on them.
However, 6 way plug multipliers are readily available you it's
pretty easy to get to full load on a circuit if you're stupid
(or can't smell the melting plastic).

The bigger problem around here is the aluminum wiring that was
popular during the '70's & '80's. Improper installation
(e.g. Al/Cu rated plugs, junctions, breakers etc.) caused a
lot of fires because the aluminum 'creeps' under compression
and joints became high resistance, and very hot under high load.

> (As a matter of interest, in Britain we have fuses in
> each plug, with a maximum of 13A - approximately 3kW -
> so you can't exceed this via any single socket because
> extension leads/multiway strips have a fuse in their
> plug too).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Howard Winter
> St.Albans, England.

--
http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us!
email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body