Extension cord and fire hazard

[Stevey87]

I have a coralife timer connected to each socket on a wall. Each timer has 8 sockets and most of them are plugged; 2 heaters, 5 wave makers, lights, protein skimmer, etc. My dad just told me don't plug in a room heater (not aquarium heater) to an extension cord or cuz if I do I will get fire. I've read stories of people's power cords burning and causing big fire but no ones knows for sure if it's cuz of too many cords or salt water dripping. I'm worried about lights plugged in mostly because 150W MH and total of 96W T5HO together or one for each socket is too much, along with other cords for wavemakers and such. What do you think? Am I worrying too much or is it legitimate concern?

I also got computers and other stuff connected to other sockets throughout the room.

[new but handy]

It's a very legetimate concern. But I bet almost all of us are guilty of over extending our power supply. I bet every outlet within 15 feet of that one is on the same circut.

[Myka]

You need to make sure that you aren't plugging in more power than the powerbar is rated for.

[o.c.d.]

You need to make sure that you aren't plugging in more power than the powerbar is rated for. This is very important,you can do this by adding up all the watts on each thing that is plugged in.Touch the cords to see if they are hot, that is a indicator of overload. Unless you test the draw on the plugs, it will be a guess. Have you popped the breaker?

[Stevey87]

This is very important,you can do this by adding up all the watts on each thing that is plugged in.Touch the cords to see if they are hot, that is a indicator of overload. Unless you test the draw on the plugs, it will be a guess. Have you popped the breaker?

What do you mean by popped the breaker?

Nothing is hot except the coralife timer only the part where the timer is. Both of the power bar I have are hot around the timer area. Not like MH hot but some heat. Packaging says up to 1875 watts 15 amp. So as for watts, I don't have to worry I guess? I'm assuming MH and T5HO are the high watts I have to worry about. Tell me if I'm wrong.

Assuming that part is taken care of, what if I have 4 of these plugged in the same room?

Holy ****!!! the room heater my dad told me not to plug into a power bar is rated at 1500W!!!

So worst case scenario 4 power bars rated for 1875 watts max in a room along with 1500W seperately. Is this safe?

I found this on google, http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=584645&page=1

Scary............

[e46er]

The room will only have a 15 amp circuit so the room will only handle 15 amps regardless of if you mix the cords around on the power bars

[Stevey87]

The room will only have a 15 amp circuit so the room will only handle 15 amps regardless of if you mix the cords around on the power bars

Do you mean everything I plug in is 15 amps or lower then I'm ok? Assuming I don't go overboard with max watts for power bars.

[e46er]

houses are wired with 14-2 wire which is good for running 15 amps depending on how old the house is and how cheep the builder was determines how many circuits there were my house every room is on a different circuit and ive worked in some houses that were on 3 circuits for a 2000 sq ft house..


to answer your question: the wires running from outlet to outlet in the room are all on the same breaker and id bet my left kidney its a 15 amp breaker becuase when you go up to a 20 amp breaker you need 12G wire which is almost twice as expensive so the wire in the wall will only handle 15 amps of current now it doesnt mean you cant have more than that in total it just means you cant have more than that running at once or the breaker will pop.

[Gizmo]

Not quite related to the house wiring, but I've seen some people using your Home depot special extension cords to bring power over to their aquarium, while an extension cord in general isn't a bad thing, using those cheap 18 gauge lamp cords is a major cause for concern. You can't pull a lot of juice through these cords without some major heat buildup in the wire.