Just as a matter of interest, if you don't know how much power you are drawing through your extension leads and are worried about the consequences.

I know Chris and others have from time to time given rough estimates of what certain items use.

Now Argos are selling an extension lead with a bar meter and power on led which tells you how much you are using/have left, sounds like £19.95 well spent to me!

Spin

I use 2x 6 way gang sockets which have similar bar meters on them and yes it does give you adequate warning of when you're close to the limits. I believe they were cheaper than £19.95 though about £15 each.
PaulS

The rule of thumb is that the maximum load drawn on any of these is 3150 Watts - however the plastic on some of these is likely to warp / melt before reaching this target .

I would generally advise that you limit them to around 2500 Watts.

I gave up buying the £1.99 Makro specials, after 6 months on the road they either fell apart or became dangerous. Instead I made up my own using heavy duty MK rubber trailing scokets, 15A Flexible Arctic Grade Cable and Rubberised fixed hardwired RCD Plug (So you never forget to plug it in or lose it!). All in all it cost me around £20 but will outlast 10's of the cheap'n'cheerful variety over the years.

The Bargraph ones sound a good idea, but has anybody checked the accuracy or is it just another one of those novelties like see through plugs?

QUOTE

Now Argos are selling an extension lead with a bar meter and power on led which tells you how much you are using/have left

I have one on the computer at home, and plug every thing into it (obviously not everything!!!!-lol), com,printer, digi cam etc.. and only 1 or 2 bars come up when working.

I use one of the LED bar graph "current loading" adaptors.

I've tested it using a 3 heat settings fan heater, which gives me 1kw, 2kw or 3kw output (plus another 100 watts or so for the blower) and the readings were as spot on as you would expect to get with only 8 or 10 LED's on the unit.

The LED reading does however get very confused when using a crossfading dimming controller, but thats inductive loads for you.

£20 for a 6 way lead, with power loading indicators is a pretty good price, although the 1 metre lead on it is a bit restrictive at times.

I suppose you could always buy the 1m leads with bars on, but plug them into another lead. Means more cabling and more problems, but a short-term solution until longer cables can be found.

Glad you started this thread Spin.

I've just added to my lighting and when I've just added it up, I've realised that it could peak at 4Kw if I turned everything on and the controller happened to put all 4 channels on at the same time (which it does in some patterns).

I used to run the lighting on one extension lead and the sound on another, both from different wall sockets. Looks like I'll now have to plug the controller into a 3rd wall socket as this alone could hit 2.4Kw.

Chris, where did you get that wattage & current meter from?

Just a thought...

Back in the early days of this thread, I mentioned the power handling of a wall socket as 3120 watts... A figure calculated by the known current rating of a wall socket (13amps) multiplied by the voltage (240volts)

However...arent we now at 230volts here in dear old UK-land? (Good grief...anything to short-change us!...nicking 10 volts like that)

If so...then the original calculation works out at 13amps multiplied by 230volts...a mere 2990 watts....

OK, thats still alot of pygmy bulbs...or CD-decks, etc....but I know of one disco that used to run over 3000watts of lighting via a matrix controller, who might have to have deleted any "all channels ON" steps from his controller.

Take a DJ using 2 bars of 4 Par56 lights each with 300W lamps. Running in single chase mode doesn't present a problem since only one channel is active at a time meaning 2x 300W lamps = 600W from the mains. However, take a typical multi channel controller such as a Ryger, where two or three channels are on during a particular pattern, and suddenly the wattage leaps up. Add a few 250W moonflowers, and a 1000W amp and you have meltdown .

Always be sure to add up your total current usage, and don't rely on a 13A fuse blowing to indicate an overload condition. Fuse's wont blow until the plug is seriously overloaded and it may be 15A or 20A before it ruptures leading to the possibility of a wiring fire.

As a rule of thumb once your total usage goes beyond 2500 Watts, plugs will start getting warm, if the brass plug pins are giving off some serious heat at the end of the gig, or the magic 3000W figure is close, then it's time to split up your usage between 2 or 3 different sockets!.

Smoke machines are usually the biggest consumer of Electricity, with machines ranging from 750 - 3000W. Basically they contain heating elements and so consume large amounts of electricity. Consider plugging your fogger into a seperate socket.

Amplifiers are a close second, especially those of you with 1kw or 2kw Audio Rigs. Amplifiers are very wasteful, with only 70 or 80% of their wattage actually reaching the speakers. Just because an amplifier is rated at 500W per channel doesn't mean that it'll consume a nice steady 1000W from the mains. More like 1150w or 1200W at full output.

I got into the routine of plugging my Audio and Lighting into seperate leads, fed from seperate sockets. In my experience, lighting effects are far more likely to blow or take out a fuse than audio equipment, and occasionally even a blowing bulb can take out the extension lead fuse. Plugging both Sound and Lighting equipment into the same extension lead is asking for trouble, not only do you risk the possibility of overloading the single lead, but also run a greater risk of getting interference from your lights over your audio, and if a bulb blows the fuse, then your gonna get an nice, long, embarrassing silence .

I'll have one Chris ...

Well, been to both and no joy. Asked the staff and they haven't seen them.

Also checked out both web sites and nothing there either.

Hey Bill, how about a group buy from your local Aldi??

I'll 'underwrite' the one that you've bought so far Bill, in case nobody else wants it.

Have you got a Paypal account or Nochex?, just thinking that it may be easier for members to pay you in advance if they want one, so you don't get out of pocket .

From experience, postage would be around 2.00 - 2.50 for 1st class, although you may like to make it recorded delivery for your own / members own peace of mind.

Lidls bosses will be wondering why all these have sold out within one day to people in vans ?

I am going to Lidls today...........

Yes Please! One over 'ere please...who do I pay?

I'll have one anyway, but, can you tell me if the unit has a resetable "Maximum wattage that passed through me, since the last reset" setting?

It would be handy to be able to look at such a reading at the end of a typical night, and find out how much wattage got pulled out of the wall socket where my amps plug in, or the other sockets where my lighting plugs in etc.

Bill

I'd really like 2 of them, payment no problem.

Suggest you all P.M Bill for his Paypal address.

Some good comments especially about the cheap and cheerful pre-wire extension leads. These may be great for home hi-fi/computer use that has the occassional plug/ unplug action but repeated action on these types show up cheap internal parts. This I have seen on a cheap lead that was getting warm with 1500 Watt load. Internal inspection showed this particular molded trailing socket made contact just on one side of each pin!

For the last 6 years I now buy premium grade re-wirable trailing sockets and have had no problems!

Cheezy

Even with all of these gadgets, you can't beat the good old durable rubber moulded 'Duraplug' style trailing socket, linked to a wired ELCB 3 pin socket by a good length of 15A Arctic Cable. Always flexible, never kinks and will easily resist a misplaced stilleto heel!.

This type of cable is also a must if you do Marquee or outside events.

Thanks Chris, I'll still go for two. Ive got some other uses for them too.

If the units sample the power every 5 seconds or so, over a few hours they should experience some highs and some lows...enough to build up a rough idea...eg: If at the end of the night, it says 3400watts was the maximum at "some" point that evening, then I know its time to split some of the gear off of that one socket etc.

Ok I have found a well known electrical retailer selling another make of these units but unfortunately I'm unable to post it here.

They are more expensive but look good quality and would be easier for me than running up and down to Lidl's

"Update" they also sell the black unit pictured above for £9.98 whilst stocks last.

Email me for the information.

Hi Nine lives,

I think you found where I brought mine from, but I didn't dare post the name of the retailer.

After a visit to Lidl at 7pm the item has now sold out