Over loading house circut

[Donut417]

My mom is a little concerned that Im going to over load the circuit. Firstly I have a gaming rig that has a 600 Watt PSU in it. Firstly according to my UPS software It might draw below 200 watts most of the time. I have a PS3, I use it for blu ray play back I don't use it for gaming, so most of the time its left off. I have my Samsung LCD TV, its an older model, only 720p. I have my 2.1 Logitech speakers which I mostly use for my TV and on my computer on occasion. I have a gaming laptop, but most of the time its off and not plugged in. I mostly use it for school. I have my ceiling light, and my desk clamped light. And a cable box. 

 

Now Im getting rid of the cable box in favor of running the modem and router in my room. I also have a window air conditioner. Im pretty considerate as I dont pay the electric bill and generally only turn that bad boy on at night. 

 

Here is the kicker. To my understand power is also shared with my moms room. She had a window air conditioner as well as a TV. Am I close to overloading the circuit? Is there any way to reduce energy consumption? 

[samcool55]

It depends on how many power the air conditioner needs.

Apart from that most of the devices don't need power.

LCD monitors don't need that much power, and your gaming psu doesn't always deliver 600w, also depends on what hardware is in it.

It's possible it only draws 300-400w under load.

 

Gaming laptop, probably 100w-ish when charging. 

 

Just check the air conditioning. they usually suck a lot more power than the rest. Oh yea how much it needs should be somewhere on it.

Usually it's sort of carved into the plastic.

[johnny5c]

A standard 15 amp household circuit provides a little over 1700 watts so do the math but if you haven't tripped a breaker yet I wouldn't worry.  I would also find out if your two rooms do actually share the same circuit by turning off the breaker for your room and checking if your mother still has power.  You could also get a Kill-a-watt meter for around $20-30 and know exactly what each device is using.

 

http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU

[Donut417]

Well I put my PS3 down in the Living room. I decided to order my monitor. I didnt use my PS3 or I think it was the best decision. I think my mom thinks if its plugged in its full draw. Well thats not the case. 

[Godlygamer23]

How many things are using the breaker those outlets are on?

[Donut417]

I have 11 things that draw power in my room right now. My mom has maybe 2. We only use the air conditioners in the summer, as Michigan is a frozen waste land 6 months out of the year. 

 

With adding the router and modem it will be 13. However my laptop is rarely plugged in, I take it and the power cord to school and charge it there. The desk fan I have on the list is rarely on, and only if its hot out but I dont want to run the air conditioner. Same with the oscillating fan. The TV generally is on to put me to sleep at night. I think if I put my computer to sleep before I run the air conditioner Ill be fine. I actually had a hard disk fry when my air conditioner kicked on before. Power surge took the fer out. Thats why I bought the UPS. 

 

However the PS3 could draw up to 300 watts, at least thats the PSU it had in it. All in all I think we will be fine. Years ago I had friends bring 2 other machines in here + screens, so I think we will be fine. 

[Godlygamer23]

[removed]

You can look at the specs of the devices and calculate the power draw. Most breakers support about 20A, but you may want to verify that. The voltage is somewhere in the neighborhood of 110-120V most likely. Once you have your amperage, use the formula (V)(A)=(W) where V is voltage, A is amperage, and W is wattage. And depending on your house, it may offer dedicated breakers for the air conditioners.

[ThomasD]

Of all those items the AC unit is the heaviest load.

That and your mom's hairdryer.

If you are not routinely tripping the circuit breakers you are not overloading the circuits.

What your mom is really saying has little to do with electrical safety and more to do with her desire to see you demonstrate interests in things other than electronics, eg school, sports, outdoors, humanity, girls, etc.

[ShiftHitTheFan]

Studying to be an industrial electrician here...

Your mom is overreacting. The only way you could overload the circuit would be if you were to run everything at the same time. Worst case, the breaker blows, and turns off the power.  It only becomes risky when you are repeatedly blowing the breaker. I trust you are smart enough to not do that.

[Imakuni]

We actually managed to shutdown an entire building at university by running simulations on 50 workstations......

 

 

..........then again, the building is actually over 110 years old, so I guess that explains why the circuit couldn't handle it  :lol: