What you’ll need to find in order to know if you’re overloading a circuit or not is the amount of current you’re drawing from it. How much current are you drawing from the circuit? Make sure you include the bulbs in any light fixtures in the circuit as well. You’ll have to add up the wattage of each device plugged into all the electrical outlets on the circuit. How many watts are you trying to get out of the circuit? An easy way to think of it is the higher the voltage, the more “power” the circuit can deliver. Voltage is often described as the “pressure” of the electricity in a circuit. The ones that look like a standard plug with vertical prongs are 120-volt outlets, and outlets that fit a plug with diagonal prongs are 240-volt. You’ll also want to find out the voltage of the electrical outlets you want to plug into. The amp rating of most circuit breakers is 15 or 20 amps. Find the amp rating of the circuit breaker that governs the outlet you’re plugging into. Since you’ll need to do a calculation based on everything plugged into one circuit, you’ll want to map your circuit breaker panel so you know which outlets and lights in your home are connected to each one. How many amps can the circuit breaker handle? How Much Is Too Much?įinding the answer to this will require you to learn a few things about your home’s electrical setup. Breakers and fuses detect the amount of current in the circuit and cut the connection if the current level gets too high. This is why homes are equipped with circuit breakers and fuses. This heat can build up until the conductor, whether it’s a wire, an outlet, or any other part of the circuit, gets hot enough to start a fire. When too much electrical current is flowing through a circuit, the conductor starts to heat up to disperse the energy that it can’t conduct. The reason for this is in electrical current. The United States Consumer Protection Safety Commission reports that there are over 5,000 electrical fires in American homes caused by overloaded electrical outlets. There’s actually a serious risk of an electrical fire if you overload a circuit with too many gadgets.
Plugging too many electrical items into one outlet can do more than just trip a breaker. At this point, we usually wonder “how many things can I plug into one outlet?” The Danger of Overloading Electrical Outlets However, most of the time we end up tripping the breaker and finding out that you can only plug so many things into a pair of electrical outlets. There are times when we just have to plug a couple of power strips into a 4-way outlet adapter to make one outlet into enough plug-ins for all of our gadgets. Blain’s Farm & Fleet will show you an easy formula to help keep you and your family safe. At best, you’ll trip your circuit breaker.
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