Are daisy-chaining power strips dangerous? If so, why?

Power strips are widely used in households and offices. Much of the time they are used because there are not enough outlets to meet the electrical demand. The proper use of a power strip usually does not cause a hazard. It’s the improper use that can cause safety issues, such as creating a potential electrical failure and/or a possible fire hazard. An example of using power strips unsafely is when they are “daisy chained” together.

Anything is dangerous in the hands of someone who doesn’t understand what they are doing. This is another thing that if done right is totally fine, if done wrong it is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

The circuit breaker has an amp rating, the wire from the breaker to the outlet has an amp rating, the outlet has an amp rating, and each power strip has an amp rating.If you exceed that rating you will hopefully just cause the breaker/fuse to trip, but could also start a massive fire. You see, when you draw more amps (aka current) than a wire is rated for then it gets hot, draw too much more and it will catch the plastic of the wire on fire. Ever notice that booster cables have very thick wires? Attach a standard wire with alligator clips (usually 16–18 AWG) and it will INSTANTLY catch fire.

Actually all electric heating devices (stove tops, hair dryers, curling irons, etc) use this principle to create heat.Daisy chaining power supplies can allow you to easily exceed any of those amp ratings if you plug in high amp draw devices (vacuums, microwaves, power tools, or other small appliances/electrical motors).

Even worse is if you connect a small low amp strip to the wall, and then daisy chain a large high amp strip off of that. When you plug 12 amps of devices into the second daisy-chained power strip it will overload the 1st one; if you are lucky it has a built in a fuse and will trip, if not it will overload the power supply, burn the wiring, and possibly damage the devices plugged into it.

This is even more compounded if you use use an extension cord that is not rated high enough (12AWG is good for anything you would plug into a normal wall socket. 14 AWG can handle up to 15 for short run, 10–12 for long cord).

So, in the face of the daisy-chaining power board, what should we pay attention to?

it’s all about how much current everything draws as a total, and if the AC circuit the power strip surge protector usb are plugged into can supply adequate current for every plugged-in item (preferably with a few amps of capacity left over for in-rush current peaks if an item draws such upon powering on (like a CRT TV) and safety’s sake in general). More importantly, there’s also how many amps the strips themselves are rated for—most are usually 12 to 15 amps max.

The best way to see how much everything plugged in would be drawing current-wise would be to use a “Kill-A-Watt” meter plugged inline between the power strips and AC outlet.

In any case, each of us should pay attention to the safety of electricity. Pay attention to the safe use of the plug, which is also responsible for our own safety.

                                    

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