Electrical fires due to aquarium???

[Scooterman]

Sorry for the dumb question. So Scooty You reccomend the DJ power srtips but don't plug any other types of power strip to it correct? This electrical stuff cunfusses me since I know very little about it.

I don't think any questions are considered dumb, smart to actually ask and be certain.

Yes as you said that is correct.

Also as Bob mentioned, keep then out of the way from splashing water, use drip loops etc, anything you can to avoid any water getting near the power strips.

 

[roscoe]

This I already do.

Another silly question. So for instance I have 2 wall plugs and each has 2 recepticle. So am I able to run 4 Dj power strips between the 2 wall plugs and utilize all the recepticale on the DJ power strips. If there was a over load on the DJ power strip would the fuse just blow on the DJ power strip or would it trip my breaker also?

 

[Scooterman]

This I already do.

Another silly question. So for instance I have 2 wall plugs and each has 2 recepticle. So am I able to run 4 Dj power strips between the 2 wall plugs and utilize all the recepticale on the DJ power strips. If there was a over load on the DJ power strip would the fuse just blow on the DJ power strip or would it trip my breaker also?

Now your talking about a lot of unknown variables here, but probably would trip the DJ first. The thing here if you fill both wall outlets with DJ strips & fill them all up then your asking for troubles, you need more DEDICATED circuits. Are these two outlets on the same circuit? Probably so then for sure you need additional circuits so you can safely split up your loads as mentioned. Even If you do not use up the 80% just by plugging in an additional item you could go over the limits, no electrical system is designed to run 100% all of the time, this is where Load sharing is very important. Start by listing all of your electrical devices as mentioned above, find out how much power they consume each & post up the information, all of the information is important, so we need each circuit your using & exactly what is on them & what breakers are rated etc. Start at the top of the thread & re-read throughly.
It is important to be through to accurately be helpful!

 

[roscoe]

Now your talking about a lot of unknown variables here, but probably would trip the DJ first. The thing here if you fill both wall outlets with DJ strips & fill them all up then your asking for troubles, you need more DEDICATED circuits. Are these two outlets on the same circuit? Probably so then for sure you need additional circuits so you can safely split up your loads as mentioned. Even If you do not use up the 80% just by plugging in an additional item you could go over the limits, no electrical system is designed to run 100% all of the time, this is where Load sharing is very important. Start by listing all of your electrical devices as mentioned above, find out how much power they consume each & post up the information, all of the information is important, so we need each circuit your using & exactly what is on them & what breakers are rated etc. Start at the top of the thread & re-read throughly.
It is important to be through to accurately be helpful!

Thanks Scooty!! Once I get the 180 here this weekend. I will try to get a list of equipment and post.

 

[Curtswearing]

I have mentioned before that our company does x-ray inspection and we have a customer that brings in items that have caused house fires to verify what happened. I would have to say that power strips are the most common item they bring in. And then battery chargers, laptops and others. The cheaper outlet strips don't seem to have a very good track record. If it was up to me, I would use a better quality outlet strip like a stereo grade...more expensive but design for more power. Also the salt spray is a big issue...try and locate them somewhere to avoid the drips. I have seen acrylic shields to prevent splash that looked promising.

When I had my fire, there was no excessive draw, there were drip loops, there was no salt spray....yet the cheap 8 dollar powerstip was to blame. When I had my fire, the fire marshall said it was definately my cheap Home Depot powerstrips that caused it. He said it was caused by arcing that eventually caught the plastic on fire.

Insides of a good powerstrip.....non-flammable ceramic outlets.

Insides of a piece of trash HD plastic powerstrip....3 thin copper strips fastened to plastic

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4483&highlight=yikes

 

[roscoe]

Man Curt that is scary! I'm going to have to rethink how I am going to power this sytem.



Scooty, I will have this tank in my computer room and I beleive that room has its own seperate 20amp circuit I'll have to check again. Here is a list of equipment what I plan on running.

WM skimmer pump- Sedra 9000HO pump
Return- eheim 1262 and 1260
lights- IC 3x 250/400 watts, 4 39w T-5, fuge light- HD lights
Chiller- PCI CL650 1/4hp
water cirulation- 2x Wavysea, 2-3 k5/6 or sun sun pumps, 2x Vortech MP40, possibly tunze 6100w/ controller
Controller-ranco, AC3 or RK2
Heater- 2x 300w titanium heaters
Reactors- Geo 618/818 calcium reactor and a magnetic driven kalkwasser reactor.

I already have most of this stuff. So scooty how much amp would you guess it takes to run this system with the above mentioned equipment.

 

[Myteemouse]

Rosco get those power wires from Radio shack that have one plug and it splits to 4-5 wires about 1' each wire like an extension cord splitter!!!
No cheep copper strips!
Or get the expensive 50 dollar power strips in stead of 10 dollar strips!
Some power strips have a $25,000 replacement guarantee with them!!!
I have one that has $25,000 equipment guarantee if the outlet is wired correctly!!

 

[roscoe]

Rosco get those power wires from Radio shack that have one plug and it splits to 4-5 wires about 1' each wire like an extension cord splitter!!!
No cheep copper strips!
Or get the expensive 50 dollar power strips in stead of 10 dollar strips!
Some power strips have a $25,000 replacement guarantee with them!!!
I have one that has $25,000 equipment guarantee if the outlet is wired correctly!!

I have a few heavy duty Monster Cable power strips. I am pretty big on electronics (my other hobby) lol. The monster cable has a $50,000 replacement gaurantee.

 

[Curtswearing]

Heck, you have to read the thread I linked to know the half of it. If I hadn't had insomnia, I wouldn't have seen the lights flickering and that powerstrip would have burned my house down.

 

[roscoe]

Heck, you have to read the thread I linked to know the half of it. If I hadn't had insomnia, I wouldn't have seen the lights flickering and that powerstrip would have burned my house down.

Good thing you were awake when that happened!! This is freaking me out LOL. I might end up setting this up in my garage where I have a dedicated 30amp circuit because I'm paranoid of causing a fire.

 

[Scooterman]

Man Curt that is scary! I'm going to have to rethink how I am going to power this sytem.



Scooty, I will have this tank in my computer room and I beleive that room has its own seperate 20amp circuit I'll have to check again. Here is a list of equipment what I plan on running.

WM skimmer pump- Sedra 9000HO pump
Return- eheim 1262 and 1260
lights- IC 3x 250/400 watts, 4 39w T-5, fuge light- HD lights
Chiller- PCI CL650 1/4hp
water cirulation- 2x Wavysea, 2-3 k5/6 or sun sun pumps, 2x Vortech MP40, possibly tunze 6100w/ controller
Controller-ranco, AC3 or RK2
Heater- 2x 300w titanium heaters
Reactors- Geo 618/818 calcium reactor and a magnetic driven kalkwasser reactor.

I already have most of this stuff. So scooty how much amp would you guess it takes to run this system with the above mentioned equipment.

On the back of all your equipment you will see a wattage or amperage rating, write those down. Then you need to discover your circuit, usually breakers are for on or two rooms at most.

 

[roscoe]

On the back of all your equipment you will see a wattage or amperage rating, write those down. Then you need to discover your circuit, usually breakers are for on or two rooms at most.

I will try to get those numbers up when I get home from work tonight.