Power Strip Question

[Carol]

So for some reason unknown to me, my power strip had what I call a "piggy back plug" on it.  You know those plugs that convert a 2 prong electrical appliance to a 3 pronger.  Don't know why because my power strip of course has the ground plug on it.  I hadn't used it for while but I purchased it for computer equipment.  I couldn't get the darn adapter off so I thought no harm done and ran it that way.  Well as you can see from the pics it melted!!!  OMG!!  This is why one should NEVER run their lamps when not at home!!!  Thank god all is safe and there wasn't a fire!!!  Now the surge protector is 100 percent fine.  Do you think there is a problem with the power strip not having enough wattage?  OR do you think it was just because of that adapter.  My REAL question is:  what are the common power strip/surge protectors that every one uses on here.  I am running 5 lamps and a small plasma light on it.  I do have an ace hardware, home depot and lowes local.  Are they like the dimmers and should I purchase one for incandescent lighting?  I thought because this strip said it was for computers and that they draw a lot of power I would be fine.  I can't seem to see a wattage or anything on the fine print on the back to even see what it is.  I just want to be safe.  What is the max lamps one should plug into a power strip?  Oh also it is a Belkin brand surge protector.

 

[VOXul]

HAHA, happy to help, though contact a certified electrician on specifics to your house wiring. That wall unit will work perfect, remember it wont battery backup though so if the power goes out so do your lamps.  It is funny when we get a neighborhood brownout, the whole block will be darkened but you can still see the TV in our house lighting up the room and watching mindless crap on satellite!

[Jim]

Word of caution to all you creative thinkers out there.  The battery backup does not have enough power to run your sump pump.  PC and lamps, yea, but you're gonna have to suck it up and shell out the bucks for a marine battery powered backup sump pump.

VOXul said:

If you want to get real fancy get a UPC battery backup made by APC! They will deliver 'clean power' to each socket, protect from surges AND you can run your lamps if the power goes out... for like an hour until the battery backup dies

[Carol]

Oh I know all to well about black outs!!!  When we had the big blizzard down here, a few winters ago, I had no power for 8 days!!!!  Thank god I have propane heat and a gas fueled fireplace that is big enough to cook the whole house if you crank it up.  Open flame you know!!!  Anyway, we have a pump, so we had bottled water and thank god I filled the bath tub up to flush the toilet.  We ran down to my mother's house which is down the other neck of the woods and she had power to shower and charge our devices while showering.  When we ran out of water, I was melting down snow for water.  You would be surprised the very tiny bit of water you get out of a huge porcelain crab pot of snow, lol!!!  Also, I'm a candle freak, so thank god we had plenty to light.  the porpourri of scents from lighting 10 different yankee candles at once was killing us!!!  Sadly I had no lamps then....We were burying our perishables out in the snow.  I felt like Little House on The Prairie days again!!!

[VOXul]

Good point Jim!, There are no - Daisy chain a few UPS blocks to adds power - tricks.

Jim said:

Word of caution to all you creative thinkers out there.  The battery backup does not have enough power to run your sump pump.  PC and lamps, yea, but you're gonna have to suck it up and shell out the bucks for a marine battery powered backup sump pump.

VOXul said:

If you want to get real fancy get a UPC battery backup made by APC! They will deliver 'clean power' to each socket, protect from surges AND you can run your lamps if the power goes out... for like an hour until the battery backup dies

[VOXul]

That is quite a bit of cold stricken days Carol. Sounds like you were prepared and braved that one out! No blackouts but a downed furnace for 5 days during a damn cold Colorado winter a couple years ago. Had to steal one of those plug in fake fireplaces from mom, warmed the couch area, oven on as a warm zone while traversing the house.

Jim, bringing up the sumps, you inspired me in that I may want to look into one. I am not on a floodplain but am a few blocks down from the last resort, overflow collection pond in a series of 3 or 4 I believe. My entire neighborhood was under voluntary evacuation during the '1000 year storm' or so they call it, heightened to mandatory after about 4 hours. Flooded like a mofo everywhere around here, the pond near me held but water levels rose to the top of the hump in my front yard, was crazy. Thinking a sump in the crawlspace might be a good ideaaa...

Carol Morrow said:

Oh I know all to well about black outs!!!  When we had the big blizzard down here, a few winters ago, I had no power for 8 days!!!!  Thank god I have propane heat and a gas fueled fireplace that is big enough to cook the whole house if you crank it up.  Open flame you know!!!  Anyway, we have a pump, so we had bottled water and thank god I filled the bath tub up to flush the toilet.  We ran down to my mother's house which is down the other neck of the woods and she had power to shower and charge our devices while showering.  When we ran out of water, I was melting down snow for water.  You would be surprised the very tiny bit of water you get out of a huge porcelain crab pot of snow, lol!!!  Also, I'm a candle freak, so thank god we had plenty to light.  the porpourri of scents from lighting 10 different yankee candles at once was killing us!!!  Sadly I had no lamps then....We were burying our perishables out in the snow.  I felt like Little House on The Prairie days again!!!

[Carol]

We arent in a flood zone here thank god!!! Even though pretty close to the delaware bay we r at the highest elevation in our little town. Lucily we braved Hurricane Sandy and Irene. Where do you go with 5 dogs. 2 dont really like strangers!!! We were thinking about investing in a gas generator though since the house water supply runs off of a pump. No city water here.