Anyone here an Electrician?

DirtPoorGuy

I have a query, I don't want to burn my flat down or blow the breakers.

I only have 2 sockets at either side of my bedroom and I am having trouble running my PC and other equipment.

I had an idea of getting 2 x 6 individually switched socket gang extensions, both with surge protection, how safe is it to have them both plugged in to the same socket?, would it be possible to rewire them with a longer cable and plug both of them into the same socket with an adapter?

The items that would be plugged in would be:

PC
External HDD
Monitor
Speakers
Cable Modem
Printer/Scanner
2 mobile phone chargers
Lamp
Home phone

mikey72

DirtPoorGuy wrote: »

I have a query, I don't want to burn my flat down or blow the breakers.

I only have 2 sockets at either side of my bedroom and I am having trouble running my PC and other equipment.

I had an idea of getting 2 x 6 individually switched socket gang extensions, both with surge protection, how safe is it to have them both plugged in to the same socket?, would it be possible to rewire them with a longer cable and plug both of them into the same socket with an adapter?

The items that would be plugged in would be:

PC
External HDD
Monitor
Speakers
Cable Modem
Printer/Scanner
2 mobile phone chargers
Lamp
Home phone

So long as everything plugs into the socket through a 13A plug you'll be ok.
The old style double or triple unfused adaptors caused the problems, as it was possible to plug up to three 13A plugs into one socket, and draw 39A, and that caused overheating.
New extensions are fine, as they ultimately plug into a single fused 13A plug, so no overload happens.
Don't plug both into an adaptor, plug them into separate sockets, or daisy chain them.

DirtPoorGuy

mikey72 wrote: »

So long as everything plugs into the socket through a 13A plug you'll be ok.
The old style double or triple unfused adaptors caused the problems, as it was possible to plug up to three 13A plugs into one socket, and draw 39A, and that caused overheating.
New extensions are fine, as they ultimately plug into a single fused 13A plug, so no overload happens.
Don't plug both into an adaptor, plug them into separate sockets, or daisy chain them.

Just to be clear when you say daisy chain them do you mean plug one of the extensions into another?

Is it safe to replace the 2 metre cord on one of them with a longer cable to reach the socket?

mikey72

Yes, plug one into the other.
It's only safe providing you can do it, and get the right size cable, not a smaller one.
They sell longer ones for only a few pound more, I'd just buy a 5m or 10m one.

DirtPoorGuy

mikey72 wrote: »

Yes, plug one into the other.
It's only safe providing you can do it, and get the right size cable, not a smaller one.
They sell longer ones for only a few pound more, I'd just buy a 5m or 10m one.

I would just take it to B&Q or Maplins and buy the same grade cable to extend it, I have done that before, I did shop around but everything with surge protection and switchable sockets only seemed to come in 2m cable lengths.

Thanks for your help, it's appreciated.

mikey72

DirtPoorGuy wrote: »

I would just take it to B&Q or Maplins and buy the same grade cable to extend it, I have done that before.

Thanks for your help, it's appreciated.

Get one that will carry at least 13A, and you'll be fine.