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    schwinn8Jaime Green
    12/09/17 2:37pm

    Don’t power strips have circuit breakers on them? All of mine do... so that should trip if “everything” is drawing too much power, shouldn’t it?

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      Enginerrrrrrrrrschwinn8
      12/09/17 2:58pm

      This is what I’m wondering. Isn’t that what the red switch at the top of the melted power strip is?

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      shelwoodschwinn8
      12/09/17 5:36pm

      Those are surge protectors. Power strips are virtually identical, but have no built-in circuit breaker. Power strips are usually cheaper. Much better to go with a surge protector (and many fire codes require them in businesses and ban power strips).

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    JibmoJaime Green
    12/09/17 1:24pm

    And also be wary of frequently used receptacles that have lost their “bite”. Being an electrician I’ve seen it happen many times where a plug that is loose in a receptacle will burn out the outlet as well as the plug. Definite fire hazard. Have a qualified electrician replace those old, frequently used receptacles. And make sure that if the outlet feeds out to other locations (more than one wire) that they are spliced through and pigtailed, not fed through via the extra terminal on the outlet. Feeding through on a mechanical connection that can come loose could potentially heat up the wiring due to the added resistance of a loose connection.

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      mike in So CalJibmo
      12/09/17 2:02pm

      first thing i did when i moved into my circa 1981 condo was to shut off the main breaker and replace all the wall outlets and switches. in the bathrooms, i tied the light and fan together and put them on a twist timer. hall and living room got motion detector wall switches, kitchen and bath all got GFCI’s.

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      The ever-present football-player rapistJibmo
      12/09/17 2:09pm

      That’s especially true for power strips. Rather than having discrete connections for each outlet, I’ve seen some that have what’s essentially a set of communal rails shared by all of them. That makes it much easier for the (shared) contacts to get loose and distressed, affecting neighboring outlets at the same time.

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    CyprianJaime Green
    12/09/17 6:51pm

    At my former office, a good third of the employees used space heaters at their desks, plugged into power strips, because an office of 75 degrees was “freezing”. When they were told they could no longer use them due to fire restrictions, they griped and complained loudly, and I think by now are back to using them. I tried to explain to them that those things are death traps, but they wouldn’t listen or would whine that the office was “too cold” and would press the maintenance guys to turn the heat up to 90. (I’m not exaggerating, they actually did say that.) And they would gripe about other people in the office being “rude and selfish” when they were putting everyone’s lives in danger with their heaters. They’re probably back to using them now; but I was fired and I don’t care anymore.

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      craycrayfishCyprian
      12/10/17 11:56pm

      To be fair, our office thermostat is set to 75F, but that only seems to be an average. My office consistently runs at 67F (though I deal with this by wearing a jacket), while other spots creep up closer to 80F. Hopefully your office has a better HVAC system. A truly 75F office sounds really pleasant.

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      Cypriancraycrayfish
      12/11/17 12:10am

      I kept a digital thermometer/hygrometer at my desk, out of curiosity (that office also got clammy with humidity sometimes), and it would read 75 most days.

      An interesting problem was that most of these people seemed to hate any sort of moving air. If they were near a vent that was pushing air...even if it was warm air....they were all OMG IT’S FREEZING IN HERE I’M GOING TO DIE OF HYPOTHERMIA I NEED MY SPACE HEATER NOW and I would just roll my eyes. I was going to propose we build a sealed enclosure with no ventilation so they could be happy sitting in all that hot, nasty, stagnant, overheated, unhealthy air and the rest of us could be comfortable at normal temperatures.

      I’m a fiend for fresh air, can you tell?

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    SeanJaime Green
    12/09/17 2:44pm

    What about smart outlets?

    I know many tout that they can be used for anything, but this has me concerned.

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      MindedOneSean
      12/09/17 5:23pm

      I mean, this seems like the best use case for them.

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      Cardcaptor_RLH85Sean
      12/09/17 6:50pm

      In that case, read the manual. See how many Watts the smart outlet is rated for and only plug-in that much stuff. The fire only happens when you draw too much load through too little wire.

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    Urambo TauroJaime Green
    12/09/17 1:35pm

    Good rule of thumb.

    Depends on the space heater and the power strip, though. And whatever other loads you have that are driving you to use a power strip in the first place, because it all adds up.

    The power strip shown in the picture appears to be this Tripp Lite unit, which claims a rating of up to 1800 watts. We don’t know what kind of space heater was used here, but I see two medium-duty cords plugged in, plus a third load. If they were using a 1500 watt heater like the one I have at home, it wouldn’t take much more than that to overload the power strip. And if they were using TWO of those heaters... well, you do the math.

    Or don’t do the math, and avoid using power strips instead.

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      lazarusUrambo Tauro
      12/09/17 2:03pm

      Also should be noted Power Strips and Surge Protectors are two different things that look awful alike. The surge protectors in my home (not to mention my wall outlets) would have blown a fuse long before this would have happened.

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      MorberisUrambo Tauro
      12/09/17 5:10pm

      If you had 2 1500w heaters plugged into an 1800w power strip you would... pop the breaker. You would not pull 3000w through it. The breaker for that plug is only rated for 15A. You wont be able to pull 30a or 24a through it and not trip it.

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    Jane *is* the... blue passportJaime Green
    12/10/17 7:41am

    The key thing that nobody ever told me about a power strip is that the total limit is cumulative. Sounds obvious, huh? But if yours is rated 13 amp, that doesn’t mean each socket can handle a 13 amp appliance... you’d think they’d point that out somewhere. This is why daisy-chaining is also a Bad Idea!

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      BIMming ItJane *is* the... blue passport
      12/11/17 12:40am

      “you’d think they’d point that out somewhere.”

      Explaining even the most basic concepts of electrical engineering is a pretty monumental task for a consumer product. I worked at Home Depot in the electrical department for a few years when I was younger, and it is shocking how little people understand electrical systems while also being ambitious about DIY. Had a guy tell me he was tapping a 200A panel, for his garage, from his 100A house panel... I spent about 20 minutes explaining why that won’t work, in very basic terms, and he only got upset that I wouldn’t give him what he wanted.

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    AnisopteraJaime Green
    12/09/17 1:37pm

    Actually, I’d say don’t ever leave your space heater unattended just generally. They can catch fire if they overheat, and they sometimes can overheat.

    Yes, this happened to me years ago, it had been on for three hours on max and it suddenly burst into flames, with fire coming right out of the grill. Thankfully someone was there, or who knows?

    It was bloody scary.

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      BrainJeniusJimSpanfellerAnisoptera
      12/09/17 1:47pm

      Or live in a climate where the only winter jacket you need is a hoodie and don’t have to have those fire hazards around. That said remember living in colder climates and how nice those things can be when you are freezing your butt off (why don’t live in those climates any more).

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      shelwoodAnisoptera
      12/09/17 5:44pm

      If you don’t have any choice but to leave a space heater running — fear of freezing pipes or sleeping humans, for example — using the oil-filled radiator type of space heater is the safest choice.

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    SaviorSixJaime Green
    12/09/17 1:58pm

    Always check how many watts an extension cord or power strip can handle.

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      MorberisSaviorSix
      12/09/17 5:12pm

      Unless your bying from china theyre all required to be rated for 15a or the max power your wall plug can deliver without tripping. This iant a story of a power strip being used beyond its rating its about an old worn out strip being used when it should have been tossed.

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    metJaime Green
    12/09/17 5:36pm

    The power strip in the pic is a surge protector, but there’s a sticker on the back that says “will disconnect the surge protector at the end of it’s useful life but will maintain power -now unprotected.” So did it fail or does it not matter and overheat anyways? Surge isn’t samething as overheat right?

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    BurninatorJaime Green
    12/09/17 2:16pm

    And as always, remember that dry Christmas trees are lying in wait to kill you. The families of firemen are pretty conflicted about the Christmas season - on one hand, presents! On the other hand, Dad keeps sending haunted glances at the trees in mall displays and surreptitiously brushes against them to check if they’re a) real or b) tinder-dry. At which point he (and you) will be talking to the manager. Again.

    Buy a length of clear tubing and a funnel. Zip-tie the tubing to the trunk of your tree, with the end wedged into the tree-stand. Every morning, break out the funnel, grab the loose end of hose in the back of the tree, water tree. Fin.

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