Need... More... Power... 437
MikeDawg writes "After dealing with the headache of never having enough electrical outlets, not having a cable TV coaxial, not having a telephone hookup in the right places of my apartment, I found this article at CNN. It is nice to see that college dorm rooms are getting filled with outlets to provide students with enough hook-ups with for all their electronics. My question to you (renters/dorm-room dwellers) is does your dorm room or apartment have enough outlets, whether it be electrical, cable, telephone, or anything else you may need? What do you do in a situation like this? Do you load up each socket with a 10+ port power strip (or battery backup as it may be) and pray that you don't knock-out the circuit everytime you start burning a CD?"
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
He made it for fun: I NEED it
Re:Well... (Score:4, Interesting)
So no more data loss, but still an annoyance. Then I was stupidly toying with the inside of the light switch for the living room and sparks flew and I blew the circuit. Lucky for us, this led me to discover that there was a 3rd circuit (yes, two circuits was not nearly enough*) for our floor dedicated to a single light bulb that must have been added years after all the other electrical stuff.
So we ran to Home Depot (g-d bless you overpriced bastards) and back and hacked in a 4-port outlet and we were golden ever since.
So the moral of the story: when you don't have enough outlets, make more. As a geek you have a instinctive understanding of electricity.
*The ancient washer and drying in the basement would trip the other circuit if they ran together
Re:Well... (Score:4, Interesting)
I also haven't turned on all the machines at once, because I'm fairly sure it would kill the circuit. I used to have half of these machines spread in my basement, and the load they would generate if they all switched on simultaneously, as the drives and fans were spinning up, was enormous; it would trip the breaker every time.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Umm. This is a dangerous suggestion man. Geeks may have an understanding of electricity, but certainly not instinctive. Unless a geek is an engineer or physics major, they probably shouldn't go fooling with building circuitry.
Then again, if we rid the world of a bunch of geeks, then there will be less competition for those tech jobs eh?
Weasly idea. Good one.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
They fancy themselves "intelligent enough" to figure it out on their own and don't expect it to be at all complicated because, after all, uneducated folks do it. They then get stuck in this mindset and won't listen to explainations that sound "complicated" because they've already decided it should be easy. My father, an electrical engineer, was surprised when I showed him my electrician's reference book containing formulas for things like load balancing. He thought, for big jobs, electricians worked off pre-made plans drawn up by someone "educated" who did the calculations for them. I imagine many PhDs think carpenters don't know anything about structural engineering, or that auto mechanics are totally ignorant of mechanical engineering. Ivory-tower arrogance can sometimes work just like thick-headed stupidity.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Interesting)
It pisses me off when people choose to explain otherwise simple concepts in very complicated terms. Then, you have to deal with the aftermath, where people are so convinced that computers are a difficult thing.
I was explaining a rackmount chassis to my girlfriend, and she kep
Re:Well... (Score:5, Informative)
None of these produce any usable power of course.
Serious answer (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Serious answer (Score:2)
mmmm! Yummy! I wonder what's in 'em?
Power Consumption (Score:5, Informative)
have you considered using a bicycle generator? i.e where you have to pedal for 5 hours a week to charge up a battery which can supply enough power for a TV for an hour or so?
I've thought of that before. You know, it's a great idea for a few reasons:
I do have to wonder about how bad this dorm room power crisis really is. Let's consider appliances with realistic maximum power consumptions:
Note that many of these loads are intermittent or mutually exclusive. Most laser printers only pull any amount of power when the printer is actually fusing a page. The boom box probably won't be playing loudly at the same time as the computer speakers. And, unless you like to leave the door open, the beer fridge's compressor should be off most of the time.
And some of these appliances will become duplicates in a shared dorm room, so the realistic likelihood of them being on at once is small.
1830 watts is the total power consumption for the list of appliances above. In my jurisdiction, commercial buildings (including University residences) have one outlet per 1500W circuit. Most circuit breakers are thermal (takes time to heat up a bimetallic strip in the breaker) and therefore act like slow-blow fuses. And unless you're printing a massive pile of course notes while playing the boom box and computer speakers loudly and doing it with the beer fridge door jammed open, the loads are probably going to be too transient to trip the breaker. So you may have a whole load of power bars plugged into that one outlet, but in reality, it's likely to be perfectly fine.
On the other hand, dorm rooms are small. It's in the students' best interests - forget power consumption - to slim things down:
Noting that this scheme is merely a common-sense approach to giving you more space in your dorm room (and making moving at the end of the year that much less painful), your maximum consumption will only be about 1260 watts. Which means that if you've got a circuit, you're fine.
I'd suggest to universities that they point out in their residence brochures something along the lines of "Moving into and out of residence can be unpleasant. For that reason, we suggest that students attempt to travel as lightly as possible. LCD monitors and video cards with TV inputs will save you space by avoiding having to carry around bulky CRT displays." Maybe offer a small rebate to students who use an LCD monitor and TV-in video card to replace a CRT-based monitor and TV set.
Re:Power Consumption (Score:3, Funny)
It's called The Library. Not only are there desks there, but you don't have to block out the ambient noise of three idling computers in an enclosed concrete 10' by 8' space.
Those Pesky Ungrounded Outlets in Bathrooms (Score:5, Informative)
In my first dorm there were 5 outlets, 1 of which was ungrounded (above a mirror). We were allowed hair dryers,
Heh... Note that those ungrounded outlets built into bathroom light fixtures are normally for electric razors only.
What's different about them?
When they say "RAZOR ONLY" beside the outlet, the outlet is usually on a small 1:1 power transformer. It's called an isolation transformer, and in those applications, they're usually only built to handle something under about 50W. Don't plug a hair dryer into it!
What does it do?
Ordinary outlets have a "hot" side and a neutral side. The neutral side is tied directly to ground at the distribution transformer and usually (depends on local electrical codes) at the fuse box. The hot side is connected to a winding on the distribution transformer which is putting out 120V with respect to ground. The power is then referenced to ground - usually to a cold water pipe which comes directly into the building through the earth.
Outlets also have a wide blade and a narrow blade. The wide blade is supposed to be connected to neutral, the narrow blade is supposed to be connected to hot.
Theoretically, you should be able to touch the wide prong and the ground (round prong) at the same time without getting a shock. The whole point of this is to allow you to accidentally touch the large part of a light socket base without getting a shock. Back in the day, lots of radios and TV sets used a "hot chassis" which was tied directly to one side of the power line - this should have been the neutral. (Most of them also predate polarized power cords, so depending on which way you had it plugged in, you had a 50% chance of the chassis being at 120V or neutral with respect to ground. Be careful!)
The isolation transformer removes that reference to ground, the potential difference exists only between the prongs of the outlet. This is good if you accidentally drop your electric razor into a sink full of water, because there will be no ground current through you - the only current would be from one wet point within the razor to another wet point within the razor.
Isolation transformers are a very important safety feature. Personally, I like them better than ground fault interruptors. The biggest problem with isolation transformers is that making one which will handle the current of a hair dryer or other large (power-wise) appliance requires a lot of heavy iron laminates and copper (expensive).
Re:Those Pesky Ungrounded Outlets in Bathrooms (Score:3, Informative)
" The wide blade is supposed to be connected to neutral, the narrow blade is supposed to be connected to hot."
then wouldn't you only get 1/2 phase?
Nope.
Neutral is tied to ground, it serves as a reference point. The hot side alternates between +120V and -120V with respect to neutral.
It's like the body in your car - it's "ground", and the +12V from the battery is referenced to it. In the case of a car, it's not for safety reasons, but for convenience - to power a light, all you need to do is run one wir
Nope (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nope (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Nope (Score:4, Insightful)
People say that, but it doesn't make any sense. North American outlets are generally rated and have breakers/fuses for 15A. Breakers on power bars are generally rated for 10A. Plugging a power bar into a power bar into a power bar, and sucking a few watts here and a few watts there with silly fat transformers driving wimpy low-power devices shouldn't cause any problems at all.
As soon as you hit 10A, your first breaker goes. As soon as you hit 15, the branch circuit breaker goes.
How is this dangerous?
Now if you're one of those nuts who's response to blowing a breaker is to put in a bigger breaker, then you'll heat up your wiring in the walls, make the insulation brittle and weak, until some day the insulation cracks, a short appears and that over-rated wire surrounded by dry, warm building materials bursts into flames.
Re:Nope (Score:2)
I do a basic count of how much power there is to use, and don't go over it. At the moment out of the 2400watts I can pull from a wall socket I'd use about 1800 if every device used its maximum power, and that's extremely unlikely.
If I were to plug the 2 servers that I currently have in another room into this wall, then I could have problems, but apart from the power requirements the noise is a good enough reason for them to be off across the house.
Re:Nope (Score:3, Insightful)
I have 6 plugs to work with (compared to 4 this year), which
Re:Nope (Score:2)
This was an easy Ask Slashdot! (Score:4, Funny)
Of Course not! I'm a geek :O)
What do you do in a situation like this? Do you load up each socket with a 10+ port power strip (or battery backup as it may be) and pray that you don't knock-out the circuit everytime you start burning a CD?
yes, of course!
Dorm rooms and small apartments don't lend themselves to large power generators. Maybe you can get a excercise bike and hook up a line! :)
Re:This was an easy Ask Slashdot! (Score:2)
Good fire prevention policy (Score:5, Informative)
One of the reasons they're doing this is that students often tend to use multiple extensions on a single outlet, which is the second leading cause of fire deaths, according to this [fire-extinguisher101.com].
In fact, the recent Moscow dorm fire that killed dozens and injured hundreds more was caused by such a fire, by a computer science student with dozens of electrical devices in his dorm. I suppose universities don't want such a thing to happen here.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 2001802164_dormfire27.html [nwsource.com]
Re:Good fire prevention policy (Score:3, Insightful)
Rewiring old buildings is expensive, replacing them even more so, so people had to put up with restrictions. Many of these buildings may be several decades and possibly centuries old, so it may have been a while since the wiring has been given an update.
Re:Good fire prevention policy (Score:3, Informative)
I lived in a building like that 5 years ago. I think it was built sometime in the 30s. We were allowed to have refrigerators, but microwaves, toasters, and space heaters were strictly forbidden. You could get in trouble (written up and somehow punished) if any authority figure saw your contraband. However, that didn't really stop a lot
Re:Good fire prevention policy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good fire prevention policy (Score:3, Informative)
Max amp rating on a wall receptacle can be 20A. A cheap Wal-Mart extension cord is rated at 13A. Power 19A worth of load through a 13A cord plugged into a 20A r
Extension cords and current limits (Score:3, Informative)
A 13 amp extension cord is usually 16-gauge, sometimes 14-gauge for the longer ones.
19 amps running through 16-gauge wire (4.094 ohms per 1000') converts about 1.48 watts per foot to heat.
You'd have to run this extension cord through some amazingly perfect thermal insulation (carpeting won't do it) before anything could get to flashpoint.
Standard amperage limits are based off acceptable voltage drops, not heating.
Re:Extension cords and current limits (Score:3, Interesting)
True. I was leaning more towards a point based on susceptibility to damage of cheaper cords; I've never seen a 12ga extension short out from being closed in a door. I have, however, seen cheap extension cords heat up enough soften the insulation. Stick it under a metal table leg and an extension cord with soft insulation doesn't HAVE to heat up to flashpoint to cause a fire. Besides, citing what the gauge of a cheap cord should b
I have plenty (Score:2, Interesting)
Easy (Score:5, Funny)
Saw-zaw
Screwdriver
Wire Cutters
Electrical Tape
Cinnamon Rolls
Gloves
Using the sawzaw, carefull make an incision in a wall adjacent to the next dorm room. Put on the gloves and extremly carefully use the wire cutters, electrical tape, and cinnamon buns to wire in this "new found" power source.
You may want to use some "mud" and sheetrock to restore the wall surface to its original state.
Enjoy!
Not close to enough power... (Score:2, Interesting)
a) run ac and cook
b) run my computer and ac
c) run my computer and cook
but not all three at the same time. (at least, not without having to take trips out to flip breaker switches).
Re:Not close to enough power... (Score:5, Funny)
You have an AMD, right?
Circuit breakers (Score:2)
16 amps @ 220 volts gives a power rating of 3520, a power consumation I won't ever reach with 2 computers and my lighting and stuff. The power intensive machines (washing machine, electrical oven and fridge) are on the other fuse.
If I were in america, I'd probably consider using one of the 220 volt out
Re:Circuit breakers (Score:2)
For the US the standard is 15 Amps @ 110V shared over 6 Outlets and / or Lights. So a single room may have 4 duplex outlets (8 plug points) plus the lights on a single breaker.
In the house I am in now... 6 overhead lights, 12 Vanity Lights, 4 power outlets (8 plug points) all on 15 amps. No wond
Re:Circuit breakers (Score:2)
Here in america, we use only one of those phases EVERYWHERE. it is extremely rare to find a 220 outlet anywhere except the washing room and never in a kitchen, except for an electric stove..and it's a 50-50 chance of having it there as most prefer cooking with gas and therefore use a gas stove and that 220 volt electrical outlet is not there.
99% of the power used in an american home is the single phase 12
Re:Nit: all single phase (Score:3, Informative)
In the US, three phase installations tend to be 120/208 wye connected for office and light industrial and 460 delta connected for the heavier stuff. In Sweden, virtually all houses have three phase delivery, 220/390.
Dorm room, how about a house? (Score:2, Insightful)
Even then I ended up running additional circuits to the garage for tools and lights, basesmet for tools, network, and server. The upstairs room I picked for the desktops had randomly been assigned two different circuts for the wall outlets.
I don't know what I'd do for power in a 10x15 dorm room, an
Re:Dorm room, how about a house? (Score:2)
There is no such thing as a Negative AC voltage. Current flows in both directions through the conductors in an AC circut. This is not saying that getting the hot & nuetral mixed is not a bad thing. I have seen some poorly constructed equipment where you may be able to contact what is suppose
Back when I was at college. (Score:2, Interesting)
I only had two double point outlets in my 9' X 12' room, and used two surge protected power strips to run everything (6 and 4 port).
With this, I managed to run a stereo, clock radio, fish tank, desk lights, computer, TV, VCR, powered internal aerial and PlayStation, with sufficient flexibility to be able to run a fan and other various electrical items on the spare ports. This was a pretty standard load for the rooms in the college, although some people had some fairly fancy kit setups (like major tropical
Re:Back when I was at college. (Score:2)
when i lived in a larger room (a double, the first was a single), i had a similar setup with even more outlets on each
PC Power for Peripherals (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:PC Power for Peripherals (Score:3, Informative)
-
Re:PC Power for Peripherals (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is, I guess, that because so many devices use different voltages, and draw different amounts of power, it might be difficult to provision for every possible device, and you might need a huge PSU. I am not sure whether a normal PSU would be able to supp
Re:PC Power for Peripherals (Score:2)
I think the reason many components use different voltages is mainly because they can. I doubt that the fact that USB only provid
Re:PC Power for Peripherals (Score:2)
Computers could take a hint from automotive (Score:5, Informative)
In practice you'd like a power bus fed by some big central PS that doesn't depend on the computer. This PS would provide for standby power to peripherals, like the ATX standard. Compliant peripherals would take a trickle of power from the bus during "sleep", and wake up (turn on their main power supply, reset and boot) on some electrical command. Some other command, or a sustained period of inactivity, would set them back to the sleep state.
This is pretty much what many cars have today, using the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus. CAN modules "sleep", some with their RAM powered on and all with their comm chips running, on less than a milliamp. The speed is not up to computer specs (0.5 mbit/sec or so), but the techniques could easily be adapted to something like FireWire if the will existed or one manufacturer had the pull to create a de-facto standard. With something like this you could have a "power strip" like a laptop brick, putting out 12-14 VDC for a host of peripherals and maybe the computer as well. You might not get rid of all the wires (though a combined power/data bus could do that too), but you'd certainly get rid of all the wall-warts. It would make backup pretty trivial, too (just hook in a deep-cycle battery). Who wouldn't want that?
the low power devices.. (Score:2)
i live in a 'cell' apartment(share the kitchen and wc with 2 other guys), and have around ~6 plugs around the room. 3 computers would go to them just fine, but switch, charger, tv, dreamcast, amplifier & etc take few sockets as well even if they don't pull all that much. none of them really take
LAN Party Power (Score:2, Informative)
It depends where you are... (Score:2)
However in the old rooms, the infrastructure can only handle 5A per room, and the whole flat (6 people) only gets 25A. Someone turns on a hair dryer and everything trips off
Re:It depends where you are... (Score:2)
My university accommodation c.1993 had a 3A power supply (at 240V). All I needed to to do avoid tripping the circuit was to avoid switching both PC and monitor on at once (as in, flick the switches simultaneously: monitors take quite a lot of power as they start up, but then settle down to quite a low drain).
Obviously we didn't plug in hairdriers or electric fires (hairdriers and vacuum cleaners got plugged into the 13A sockets in the hallway).
If you're alwa
Re:It depends where you are... (Score:2)
More outlets = good (Score:2)
The two complaints I have
Re:More outlets = good (Score:5, Insightful)
It's good advice. I regret not doing extra drops (cat 5e at the time) when remodeling. I have a minimum of 3 ports per room, and I find that I'm always running short. Coax for the television is even worse - the electrician who did that drop only did one drop per room. This is very inconvenient if you want to put the tv on the side of the room opposite the coax outlet.
The most important thing if you're doing new construction is when doing the blueprints, design the house so that all of your water, cable, and electricity runs are accessible, and centralized. Residential contractors build so that you won't want to do maintainance - they staple wires in place, embed pipes in concrete, and do other things to discourage you from "upgrading" your house. Don't forget to put electrical, networking, and cable in cabinets (you'd be surprised how handy that can be - I wish I had done it), and give your garage/attic/basement a double-helping of everything, plus a main feeder big enough to supply another sub-panel/subnet worth of power/bandwidth. In this case, I told the idiot architect to give me a 80amp run to the attic (don't ask me why, just run it), but he ended up omitting it and not telling me.
By coordinating all of your runs via a central location, and making sure that you can access it, you can leave room for future expansion. Better yet, locate all your networking equipment there also, and soundproof the sucker. I sort of have this arrangement now (centralized location), but all the runs are embedded in drywall
Remember, if you hire a contractor, YOU MUST CHECK THE WORK. If you hire an architect/general contractor to implement things, YOU MUST CHECK THE WORK. This is year 3 of living in this house, and I'm still fixing electrical problems, correcting defects in cabinetry, patching walls and stucco, and replacing worn out plumbing. No, I didn't hire these guys, if I had, I would have kept a closer eye on em.
Re:More outlets = good (Score:3, Interesting)
By this I mean, if you build storage cabinets, put outlets and network jacks in them, in case you want to put in a microserver, or a ReplayTV/Tivo. Extra speaker wires are also nice, in case you want to hook speakers to a central MP3 player, connected to that power and network in your cabinet. Power outlets in cabinets are also handy for keeping battery rechargers out of s
There can never be enough outlets... (Score:2)
I have one telephone outlet. In it, I have the ADSL, a phone and a wireless phone connected.
I have no grounded electrical outlets. I had an electrical shock when plugging my S-VHS cable to the GFX card (without having the computer on, but having my speakers connected and turned on).
I have four (2x2) electrical outlets. Two in the kitchen and two in the living room (both on the side opposite the computer). I have 10+ metres filled with cables for extra ou
Lovin (Score:2)
Of co
Outlets are a start.... (Score:5, Informative)
A lot of apartments suffer from this problem as well no matter what their age... I have lived in an apartment that was over 20 years old, and it had a total of three ten-amp circuits for the entire place (not counting the circuits for the appliances which are pretty much dedicated). This was not exactly optimal for supporting five PCs and their peripherals along with a SUN Ultra 450. I've lived in newer (5 years old or so) apartments that had the exact same problem.
It's my opinion that the best thing you can do is go to Radio Shack and invest in one of those Circuit Detectives [radioshack.com]. Use that to determine what outlets correspond to which breaker, and how much power you have through that breaker (the ratings are printed on their for your sanity). Once you have that figured out you can begin learning the fine art of load-balancing on your outlets. "Let's see, I have 2 amps for my PS2 here on circuit A, and 3 amps for my TV on circuit B, and 2 amps for my PC on circuit A...."
Re:Outlets are a start.... (Score:2)
Heh. My apartment has two 25-amp circuits -- appliances included.
My three computers are on the same circuit as the fridge, microwave, toaster and popcorn popper. If we run any three (or sometimes even two) of these appliances at the same time, the fuse blows.
Blown fuses are especially common during the summer, when I have to add on an air conditioner.
Why are plugstrips so expensive? (Score:2)
Please post any links you have to reasonably priced plug strips. (They are also called power strips [google.com].) I don't see why 12 outlets should cost about 2 dollars [google.com] per outlet.
Note that a plug strip [tripplite.com] should have the outlet orientation [tripplite.com] that allows plugging in three outlet adapters [allelectronics.com] without the adapter outlets interfering with each other.
Oh yeah, I blew a circuit (Score:2)
At the time: Computer, laptop, 19 and 17 inch tubes, klipsh speakers, 200watt-second studio strobe, slave light, and rice cooker.
What's to be done? I ran an extension cable from the other side of the room. A few days later, they reset the breaker and everything worked again.
I am sooooooo clever.
Above all else... (Score:2)
DIY for fun and profit (Score:2)
My apartment was an outbuilding with no cable TV and all underground wiring.
So, I bought a 100 foot fish tape and a roll of RG6qs. I was able to pull cable and ethernet thru 1 inch wide conduit under the parking lot to the basement of the main house.
Got my cable modem, and used the ethernet to share the Internet service back to the main building. The 4 tenants paid for my service.
Lived there for 5 years before I bought my castle.
Other projects included installing cable, phone
Multi device plugs (Score:2)
http://www.standsunique.com/accessories.html
No way, man! Fight for your rights! (Score:2)
Re:No way, man! Fight for your rights! (Score:2)
Tsk tsk. Kids today... (Score:2, Funny)
Zing!
What i do (Score:2)
Scale back... (Score:3, Insightful)
First, when a previous employer laid me off, I gave their extra computers that I had been storing (Really, we were storing equipment because the company couldn't afford storage space.) back. When I showed up with the stuff they all thought that I was nuts.
Then, I stopped doing contract work on weekends. Now I don't ever have tables covered with Sun systems laying around.
After that, I got sick of dealing with hard disk issues on the Ultra-60 I never used and sold it.
When my college-student sisters desktop started croaking, I gave her my old 700mhz Athlon machine.
After I finally gave up on trying to keep driver and Direct X versions compatible with my games, I stopped using my Windows box for anything but the occasional blackboad.com login, so it sits cold all day.
Most recently, a storm finally wiped out my poor little firewall, after four years of R2D2-like service, and I haven't fixed or replaced her yet.
So now I'm down to just using my iBook most of the time. Makes life nice and simple, and honestly, I don't really mind the silence that comes with all of those other computers being turned OFF.
Designed for connectivity - and still not enough (Score:2)
So am I set? Not really. It's funny how when you build a house, you think you know how you are going to use each room. Then you move in and change
Use less? (Slightly OT) (Score:2, Insightful)
Rewire to 220 volts (Score:3, Funny)
A friend had a dorm mate that had brought a 220v stereo from overseas... they found that half the room was on one 110v circuit and that the other half was on another. So, they connected the stereo to the "hot"s of each circuit, and they had 220 volts total. Or something close enough.
Ok, it's not to code at all and is dangerous because some appliances (like lamps and toasters) will have electrified enclosures. But, it would work as long as no appliances touched each other, you, your dog, or a real ground.
Re:Rewire to 220 volts (Score:2, Interesting)
The way the friend wired the stereo wouldn't get you more power in the room; you get double the power to your device, but you also use double the outlets.
But, if you were to go back to the breaker box and rewire your outlets there, you'd get double the voltage at each outlet.. the amperage won't go down (unless you plan on rewiring the wires in the wall and replacing the sockets), so you'll have double the power.
True, countries that use 220v can get away w
Re:Rewire to 220 volts (Score:3, Interesting)
Also potentially lower risk of fire in various situations.
Re:Rewire to 220 volts (Score:2)
The amount of power would be the same for each of the two 110v legs, measured individually.
I don't think the students are to blame (Score:2, Insightful)
"It looks like Circuit City in some of those rooms," said Dan Bertsos, director of residence services at Wright State University near Dayton, Ohio.
And also:
They power a color TV, stereo, compact disc and DVD players, video game player, desktop computer and laptop, printer, scanner, refrigerator, microwave and two fans. Then there are rechargers for a cell phone, hand-held computer, camera, electric razor and toothbrush.
Yeah, but I bet Dan has all of these things at home too. Most of these new appli
I'm a University of Wisconsin Madison student... (Score:2)
Re:I'm a University of Wisconsin Madison student.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I hate my schools network policy too.
Alternative to high-voltage AC outlets? (Score:2, Interesting)
apartments & dorm rooms (Score:2)
My apartment also has (nearly) enough outlets. Our major complaint is that it is a 2 bedroom and 1 bedroom has a TV outlet (used for cable modem and mythtv [mythtv.org]). The other room has a phone outlet.
A lot of electronics don't use too much power... (Score:2, Interesting)
Our room was one of 3 doubles set up on the same circut. We w
Try the traditional approach (Score:5, Funny)
Hint: Hide all of this under a pile of clothes or under your bed so the fire inspector doesn't see it.
Underpowered dorms GOOD! (Score:5, Funny)
Just do the math (Score:5, Informative)
1) Determine the rating of the circuit -- I imagine each dorm room will have one circuit. (Maybe two)
2) Determine which outlets go to which circuits. If outlets are close together, then they are probably on the same circuit.
3) Calculate the amps of everything you are plugging into the circuit.
4) Add them all up.
5) If they are close to or over the amp rating for the circuit, then you have a problem, and you will have to unplug stuff.
Important points to remember:
* Don't forget to check the rating on any power strips that you use! Most are rated at 15 amps, which is probably the same as the circuit you are plugging into.
* Circuit breakers can momentarily handle more than their rated amps. ie: it might be able to handle 17 amps for, say, 30 seconds before tripping. The higher the amps, the faster the trip. A direct short will (er, should) instantly trip the breaker.
* Not everything has the amps listed -- some devices only list the watts. You can calculate the amps by dividing the watts by the voltage. ie: your 400 watt computer running on 120 volts will have a max amps of 3.33.
* If you are in a situation where you have two circuits near your computer, and you overload one, keep this in mind: It is generally a Bad Idea to plug some peripherals into one outlet and others into another. Subtle differences in voltage and phase can lead to a net difference in voltage between your equipment and lead to permanent damage.
* This may be unfounded (someone correct me if I am wrong), but I always think that it is more dangerous to overload a power-strip than an outlet--meaning that I trust the circuit breaker in the closet more so than I trust the power strip.
I hope this helps. If you read this and go kill yourself, it's your own damn fault. Use at your own risk. Use common sense, and remember that this IS slashdot.
Re:In the closet (Score:2)
Re:In the closet (Score:4, Funny)
A large ABC rated fire extinguisher might also be a good idea...
Re:In the closet (Score:2)
Groom:Geek oxymoron?
Re:In the closet (Score:3, Informative)
Re:yeah..they all need more double adapters (Score:2, Insightful)
Dorm rooms were
Better idea (Score:2)
Re:Better idea (Score:2)
The main problem with this is the voltage drop in the line. If the conversion point is too far from the usage point, you're wasting a lot of electricity in heat, pushing extra current to your device, unless you use oversize wires.
The other problem is that you need to size a transformer big enough to handle maximum load. As you well know, even when there's nothing on the other end (ie, your cell phone), the wall wart and associated tra
What I did for my home office... (Score:3, Informative)
We currently have one 15-amp circuit (120) and three 20-amp (120) circuits run in here. That's about 9 kW of power if I need it. I strongly recom
Re:Need power strip for surge protection (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Need power strip for surge protection (Score:5, Informative)
Sure you can get the type that goes in the breaker box (a good idea in fact), but that doesn't stop the same level of surgers as the power strip will.
so your lack of knowledge is dooming this guy to have sub-standard wiring. Very Nice of you.
most quality whole house surge supressors are at least 20 times more effective than the crap you can buy even for $100.00 as a plug in strip.
My IsoBar whole house supressor with replaceable surge and filter modues was not the top of the line for whole house and still had ratings that were far higher than even the "audiophile" quality power strips.
plus it's reaction time is at least 300% better so the power spikes dont get past it... unlike all power strips as they lack a solid ground to drop the surge to... they can be fast but they dont have a ground that is effective for dropping a 4000 volt spike.
I really feel for people buiulding a house and taking advice from amateurs that really dont know what they are talking about.
USE WHOLE HOUSE supression, period. if you have a home theatre, add a second whole house supressor and noise filter if you really think you need it.
A properly designed electrical system in the home with the correct surge equipment at the front end (the electrical box) solves all these problems. from surges in the house from flipping on grandma's 40 year old stand mixer to nasty surges from the factory down the street.
Renovations - electrical and gray water (Score:4, Informative)
A properly designed electrical system in the home with the correct surge equipment at the front end (the electrical box) solves all these problems. from surges in the house from flipping on grandma's 40 year old stand mixer to nasty surges from the factory down the street.
Agreed. But there's still more to it than that.
Surge suppressors on the power entry, just after the main switch. *Large* breaker box.
And if you're building the house - or doing extensive work involving the removal of lots of drywall anyway - rewire the whole house. Build it to commercial specs, even if your residential requirements are lighter.
My suggestion is to use conduit for all wiring, and make sure that you put in extra conduit all over the place so that you can fish network and phone cables into any room as required. Put each duplex outlet on a separate 15A circuit (20A circuits are against code in residences in most jurisdictions). GFI outlets aren't just for bathrooms - they're not very expensive, so put them everywhere - they can save your life and your electronics from damage (say your stereo has a ground leak and you connect it to your computer). And make sure that you have an outlet at least every 10 feet in every room.
While you're doing all that, of course, you should be installing a residential sprinkler system. (Why? Sprinklers massively improve the fire safety of a house or commercial building. And it's a lot easier to clean up water damage than fire damage.) The reduction in your insurance rates over a few years might well pay for your entire renovation costs, and talk to your insurance company about the fact that the building is wired to commercial standards for another potential savings.
Other things to consider: While you've got the house apart, insulate the piss out of it, whether you're in a warm or cold climate.
You might also want to install a gray water system for the toilets. It's against code in my jurisdiction, but I don't really care because it's a good idea. The premise is simple: my toilet is almost 50 years old. It's not one of those stupid "water-efficient" toilets that takes 6 flushes to get rid of dark matter. And I don't like urinating in perfectly clean water - there's no point. So I put a 55 gallon drum in the basement. The bathtub U-trap (unscrew the washout nipple and find a piece of pipe of the same thread, make sure you still have a bend in the hose for a three-way U-trap) and washing machine now drain into the barrel. Using bleach in a cotton white cycle not only keeps your shirts blindingly white, but also keeps algae out of the barrel. Near the top of the barrel is an overflow pipe which takes excess stored water to the drain. A burglar alarm magnetic switch on the toilet's float now controls a relay which turns on a small pump. Gray water is pumped through a small hose up into the toilet tank, using a fountain pump with 15 feet of head.
Since I live in a cold climate and like hot showers, not only am I reclaiming the water, but I'm also reclaiming the heat. The water in the barrel cools down slowly, releasing its heat into the house. Saves me over $200 a year in heat and water costs.
A fringe benefit is that warm soapy water in the toilet dissolves stuff better than cold tap water, so the toilet doesn't need to be cleaned as often.
Re:Need power strip for surge protection (Score:2)
Re:Need power strip for surge protection (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway enough ranting for a good home entertainment setup you would want at least one dedicated circut perferably 20 or 30 amps if you can use the 30 amp back 20 amp front recepticals in your building code . A single line surge or UPS unit might also be a good idea (something in the nice back APC RM line but thats over a grand in UPS) especialy for the Tivo and Replay users but also for the big screen TV guys. I say UPS simple because loosing power is hell on any device while it's working and the brownouts are also hell when you remember that modern eletronics are never realy off unless unpluged remotes and all that.
Re:It's not that complicated... (Score:5, Informative)
Computer - From 350 to 550 watts. monitor? flat panel LCD - 20 watts. a 17 -19 inch regualr monitor? 170-200 watts. Speakers? from 30 watts to 200 watts or more.. PDA 20 watts charging.. usb hub 15 watts, small 100 base switch and/or your smc firewall to hide and protect 60 watts.
now that is just a base computer. no printer (80 watts for a cheap inkjet 300 watts for a small laser printer)
Let's add a cheap fridge.. a $59.00 cube fridge= 500 watts. almost every dorm room has one. as the crap 6 can fridge from think-geek is worthless for a dorm.
my 9 inch TV here uses 160 watts on it's own.. and then you mention a stereo... maybe a cheapie boom-box will use 300 watts, a regular stereo uses from 500 watts to 3,000 watts depending on equipment, amp power, speaker load, etc....
and your 300 watt misc load... is a bit low...
anyways.. being conservative on the above figures.. I get 2070 watts drawn.. at 120 volts (average US voltage in the wall socket.)
I get 17.25 amps... enough to completely hose and set fire to a cheapie power strip. (if you did not pay $50.00 to $100.00 for your power strip... it's a cheapie.)
that will strain a 20 amp breaker (inrush current will be much greater than 20 amps.. more like 35 amps if you were to turn everything on at once.)
and it is rare that contractors wired the place correctly with 12 gague copper and 20 amp breakers. most contractors cheap out and run 14 gague and use 15 amp breakers... betting that your dorm room is on one breaker for it's outlets and one for lighting, ahared with others..
and from what I have found myself in the 80's in college, and my nephews now in college... this is true. each room is given 15 amps typically for 2 people to share. the above list is not a workable load and therefore usually the stereo get's chucked and they use the computer as a stereo.
god help the students if they are geeks and have 2 computers.
Re:It's not that complicated... (Score:5, Insightful)
anyways.. being conservative on the above figures.. I get 2070 watts drawn.. at 120 volts (average US voltage in the wall socket.)
My quarterly electricity bill is approximately 45 all year round. The power costs about 5.6p/kWh, so anybody with a calculator can determine that the power draw of this house averages about 400W.
Peak power usage for the house (excluding hardwired appliances, i.e. cooker, shower and washing machine) is less than 1kW. Perversely, I can draw 3kW from a single outlet (13A at 220v) - and there's four per room.
However, what I really want to know is how a student in a dorm room requires two to four times the power of a house with two geeks, a half dozen computers, plus our other toys.
Re:AC Adapters (Score:2)
Re:fuel cells (Score:2)
For example, this one [ballard.com].