How much power can fit through a socket?
I have a small apartment. On one side is my PC, complete with accessories like two monitors and a hard drive. I actually wanted to power the entire setup up and down using two adjacent outlets via a smart socket. However, the circuit breaker blows quite frequently as soon as the PC turns on. The voltage spike when turning it on seems to be too high (a colleague probably meant the power supply).
For a while, I had a mini-fridge plugged into a nearby outlet. Every time the compressor kicked on, my screen started flickering and Windows Explorer restarted. It's on a different wall, but it's probably on the same line. My solution: a really long extension cable and plugged the fridge into the opposite wall. Now it works.
There's a small box on this wall where I grow microgreens. It also contains a lot of electronics, of course, but so far I haven't had any problems. The small box wasn't enough, though, so I've now gotten a more professional setup. It's at least three times as powerful as before, at least 500W; I wouldn't be surprised if it's more. Now I'm worried that since everything is connected to one outlet, and the refrigerator also runs on this power line, the fuse will blow, at the very latest as soon as the compressor kicks in.
How realistic is something like that? Should it be possible to plug everything in there without any problems? When I set up the Microgreenbox, it's positioned in front of the power outlet, and I can only get to it again after I take it down, so I'd like to know if that's absolutely impossible before I start setting it up.
I'm just worried that the box is drawing so much power that the refrigerator compressor will blow the fuse. Because with the PC, it was probably close, given the way the PC behaved, and I suspect the box is using more power than the PC. I just don't know anything about electricity or electronics. Are there any experts here who know what they're talking about and can predict what's likely to happen?
LG
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Usually the fuse limits the maximum current. At 240V it is normally 16A.
A supplement to this smart socket.
If that’s why the fuse falls, it would be interesting to know how the thing is switching. There should be no circuit disturbances in a relay socket.
It may occur in electronic circuitry.
Has less to do with the tension but rather with the laying type and cross-section, but usually Schukodosen are secured in the household with 16A.
However, there are also 13A circuits or less.
That’s why “normally.”
By the way: We officially have 230V in Germany (+-10%). We had 240V as an official tension in the United Kingdom and even there it is now officially 230V (because 240V is in +-10%).
Thank you.
Yes, this is partly normal when you catch the fresh to the net, unfortunately you can only handle limited and is quite independent of the other load on the circle.
This has nothing to do with securing, but is an EMC problem. I suspect there is a defect in the refrigerator, because it must not affect other devices according to EU guidelines (CE test).
Typically, sockets with 16A are secured so that good 3000W can be removed from a Schukodose. The 500W and the fridge are far away.
No, that’s a completely different problem. When the fuse is overloaded it switches off point, so there is nothing worse but either at or off and nothing in between.
Super this helps me a lot, thank you for the detailed answer. The refrigerator was actually quite cheap from Amazon, I have to worry about it and what to check off or I just let this thing run on the same outlet and just get out of it all is okay as long as I don’t notice?
In principle, you can barely check something out, but if the refrigerator is so behaved, I wouldn’t run it any further.
Either he’s defective or he doesn’t have a CE test mark from the front, so he can’t be sold here. In this case, it probably does not meet the requirements of electrical safety from the outset, etc., which is generally not advisable in household appliances for fire risk.
When the computer crashes when a compressor is started, this is not due to electrical interference fields, but simply because the compressor in the start-up draws a great deal of current, and (without triggering a fuse) the grid voltage present in the house collapses due to too high conductor resistance, and the PC no longer receives sufficient voltage.
Did you read the question?
When screens flicker and restart programs, not the PC is definitely not a voltage problem.
And if the compressor pulls so much power that the PC goes into an undervoltage then there is a massive installation problem, because the power supplies still work with 120V.
If the voltage around 100V breaks in for correct electrical installation due to the current flow, the magnetic overcurrent trigger must trigger and then there is nothing but simply out.
thank you!
the fuse will not fly out by the ohmic load, but the short-term occurs by the capacitive and inductive load when the devices are switched on.
Switching power supply parts, including PC power supply parts, draw a very large current when switched on and charge the promrondensator in the power supply almost in short-circuit fashion.
A 16A fuse should not trigger a PC power supply. However, if you also have a monitor and other devices fitted with a switching power supply, you can also connect the same (switchable multiple socket) to the same fuse. The easiest thing is to connect the devices one after the other.
have the PC directly on a socket and the rest on a multiple socket that extends in the socket (2 directly next to each other). Then I tried to turn on and off the Smartplugs with delay from a few seconds, which isn’t all at once, has rarely happened but has happened again and again, since I just let it happen.
But I could check again if the PC first concerns or first the other things, I think I thought so far would of course be doof if not ^^^
Usually, the circuits are designed and secured in apartments in such a way that a maximum of 16 amperes can flow, which corresponds to approximately 3800 W power at 240 V. If, of course, it can also be different in individual cases, it should be on the corresponding fuse.
As you have noticed, when switching on inductive loads/devices such as electric motors, power supplies (transformers and capacitors) or in your case the refrigerator compressor, the switch-on current flow can be briefly increased.
Whether and from when an overcurrent fuse triggers at a current peak is determined by its “ inertia class” (extinction characteristic).
The installation of wearer fuses is permissible only in certain cases and is generally prohibited in private households, as far as I am aware of my limited electrical knowledge, as the accident or accident is concerned. Fire risk in the case of defects of connected “normal” consumers would naturally rise, and is normally not necessary because hardly anyone runs a huge circular saw or a monster compressor in the apartment.
I am not a pro that when a refrigerator compressor is jumping on, especially with such a small one, it triggers a fuse, even if other consumers are already on the net, I feel very unavoidable.
I would therefore typify that what is wrong with the compressor and it draws excessive power when switching on (which would also explain the behavior of your connected PCs), or (more unlikely) that the automatic fuse has suffered over time and is now oversensitive. This could possibly be checked by an electrician.
🙂 the fridge is only a short year old, I wrote to the manufacturer what he says
Turn a dedusting mudul in between.
for which the problems 😀