Multiple power strips daisy-chained, code?

A plastic box in a non-residential setting isn't my idea of safety.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/ 

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. 
Use another domain or send PM.

So? Use a metal one. You apparently think all faults occur inside the box ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 

Obama is about to make Herbert Hoover look like a financial genius

No, but I have seen the aftermath of faults that did. The box won't be the problem, the half mile of wire will be.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/ 

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. 
Use another domain or send PM.

If the church is wired all within conduit then metal boxes make sense.

If it's all Romex metal boxes are a pain to install and more prone to shorts.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 

Obama is about to make Herbert Hoover look like a financial genius

It's all in conduit. But there have been numerous upgrades already and those get full. Having to run new conduit means major pain. Ripping off drywall is not an option either because it could only be done from the hallway side and a member has done some beautiful paintings on that.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/ 

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. 
Use another domain or send PM.

Is this for equipment in a relay rack? If so, mount steel electrical outlets inside the rack nd install as many outlets as you need. Then one cord goes to the outlet.

If its not rack mounted, use something like this:

with the proper hardware. (It can be used in relay racks, but you may have to cut part of it off.)

As long as the wiring is rated for the full current, there is no real limit on the number of outlets on one circuit. The strip above has 10 outlets, and is five feet long. It can be mounted on a wall, or under a counter. It is $35, but rated for the full 15 amps at every outlet.

Another approach is square electrical boxes with the matching covers that hold two duplex outlets. Some conduit between boxes, and add all the outlets you need. You could even add a main power switch to shut down all the electronics if you want to make sure everything is off between uses.

--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html

aioe.org, Goggle Groups, and Web TV users must request to be white
listed, or I will not see your messages.

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm


There are two kinds of people on this earth:
The crazy, and the insane.
The first sign of insanity is denying that you\'re crazy.

This may be a wonderful idea. If I can legally add a switch to part of the strip.

That would be ok. We paid a whole lot more for this fancy remote switch strip that the inspector doesn't like.

On a semi-permanent structure that is often frowned upon by inspectors.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

So I guess the metal case power strips are much better at suppressing fires that the plastic ones?

cheers

That only happens when a maker buys OEM parts from a cheap Chinese house, and has their label put on it.

They should have bought them from one of our Chinese manufacturers. That company is defunct now though, here in Cali. It still lives in other countries though. All of their supplies were well built.

The Power One CRAP we use at work is about as lame as I have ever seen. Single sided, late sixties technology. Truly sad the CRAP they produce. Their name is big only because they underbid and undersold the competition, and stupid customers did not care about quality.

That would mean that the wussified, desk sitting weakling of an inspector would have to start lugging around loading tanks. All would be fine for all circuits behaving properly. What happens when he presents the load to the faulty branch with the non-breaking breaker? KABOOM! Or sizzle, sizzle, flame!

Yep. Exactly.

Now THAT is the right fix here. Even a pair of quads would be acceptable if installed properly.

Ever seen one burn or melt for that matter? As long as the fault return is present, it should do the same job. Acceptability in your locale is another issue altogether. But the vulnerability and safety changes very little if any. Otherwise they would not be acceptable products at all.

Cut the entire painting out of the wall, perform the change to the single or dual quad outlet, and then replace the mural where it was before. Easy, greasy, Japanesey.

Use two short strips. Turn off the one you want to cycle power on, and leave the other "up".

It stretches over the full room height and about 100ft long ... :-)

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/ 

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. 
Use another domain or send PM.

OMG! errr.. I mean OYG! Though it is likely the same entity. :-)

Yeah, you really need to people to do the job -- one to plug in the test load, and the other to stand by the breaker box with a fire extinguisher. :-)

Or I suppose you could use a wireless remote for the load...

At this very moment I'm watching a small boost converter here to make sure nothing dies at maximum load...

I would put a remote arm puller on the mains primary breaker than can be tripped from a distance, and have the extinguisher handy. The load would be nice to be remotely operated as well, and it would have to have a settable limit of its own. I would set it to 10% or 20% over the breaker rating, and have it gradually bring up the loading and move it through the breaker value at some point for some period of time.

That actually should be a requisite. That way a house could be certified as safe, instead of a mere visual inspection where the first time a branch gets used is by the home owner. How we ever got this far without live load testing amazes me.

The 15A breaker in the service panel is to protect the wiring from the panel to the outlets, as required by NEC. The 15A breaker in the strip? I don't know. I've got strips both with and without it. Maybe the breaker is there to sell more strips by making people think that the strip is safe because it has a

15A breaker. Maybe breakers are required in strips now, but weren't in the past.

You're looking for a technical answer. My answer was only to state why the inspector flags it: because he sees it as dangerous.

I'll explain below with a little more technical, but only a little more. Bottom line, you wouldn't sign off on something you thought was dangerous, I wouldn't, and the inspector wouldn't. And none of us would say that an overloaded strip is not dangerous, or potentially dangerous.

This is the little more technical answer: But (either or both breakers) do not matter. For example, the permanent wiring must be installed per the code, regardless of the fact that they are protected by the breaker in the panel. The NEC does not look at the wiring as safe, simply because there is a breaker. A whole lot more is required. For example, the NEC does not give a hard technical fact on how often and how far a particular size wire can be bent before it will break, but it does give a technical spec for bending radius, and it does insist on installing the wire so that it is properly supported and won't move around a lot.

Now we get to the outlet strip where the requirements for permanent wiring cannot be applied. The additional safety afforded to the permanent wiring by it being run where it is not so easily damaged by being moved, stepped on, bent etc is not afforded to the plug connected outlet strip.

So, the inspector knowing that the NEC requires a lot more technical things to be done for permanent wiring than is done for power strips, has that reasoning to bolster the fear that the eleven receptacle jury rig is unsafe. He has undoubtedly heard and read more stories of fires caused by overloads and defective power strips than he has of fires caused by defective permanent wiring.

It all nets out to him seeing the setup as potentially dangerous, whatever you, or I or anyone else thinks. He may be able to sign off on it if it is under engineering supervision, but in the absence of something that gets him off the hook, he's not going to pass something he sees as dangerous.

There actually can't be a hard set of technical facts, since there is no way of knowing what will be plugged in. So there's no way to state how hot things will get or how much current will be drawn. All we know is that the strip itself and the wiring from the strip to the plug are not as well protected as the permanent wiring, and the strip and its cord are in an area where it is easily possible for flammable material such as paper or fabric or ?? to come in contact with them.

Ed