Too much power draw?

[Oseth]

Hello fellow PC master racers!!! I gots a dilemma. I recently moved into a new home. In this new home there is a beautiful den room which seemed to be perfect for all of my family's computer needs. We have three computers, 850watt PSU on PC1, 600watt PSU on PC2 and 750watt PSU on PC3.

 

Because my level of excitement was extremely high, I quickly started setting up all of the computer desks around the room in their predetermined areas, followed by plugging in all of the computers. Then the nightmare started! As it turns out this fantastic room only has one wall socket with two outlets in it. At first I thought "No problem, I will just run a long heavy duty extension cord to the farthest PC" and all was good with the world. BUT then the strangest things started to happen. The two computers which were plugged into the bottom outlet started shutting down on their own while the one that was plugged into the top socket was operating without any outage. My first step was to replace the power strip with another one I found in the house and this worked but I still get a random power outage on just those two PCs every once in a while.

So my question is: Do I simply need a better power strip that is closer to like a heavy-duty class strip or do I need to install another power socket in the room? If all I need is a better power strip can someone suggest a good one for two PCs with single monitors, router and cable modem?

The power strip that I am using right now is a small inexpensive one that holds 6 plugs with a simple reset switch but it seems to be working much better then the previous one I used which made my PCs reset like every 10 minutes.
The two PCs which are plugged into the single power strip are 600watt and 750watt. I live in the US where I get 120v per outlet and I think 15A per socket as well.

[Electronics Wizardy]

What year is your house made in?

 

You shouldn't be pulling to much power.

 

The psu wattage doesn't matter.

[Oseth]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What year is your house made in?

 

You shouldn't be pulling to much power.

 

The psu wattage doesn't matter.

The house was built in 1960s and none of the breakers have popped since we started living here.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Oseth said:

The house was built in 1960s and none of the breakers have popped since we started living here.

When your running all your systems, show a multimeter into the outlets. What voltage are you getting. You probably need to rewire this to do it right.

[Oseth]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

When your running all your systems, show a multimeter into the outlets. What voltage are you getting. You probably need to rewire this to do it right.

....how does one do without rewiring? Also, one is noob when comes to zappy electricity and has no multi-meter because derp. Assuming the power draw isnt too high for the socket, could it be the power strip?

[desertcomputer]

I don't think you need rewiring, as my house was built 1950s and I able to run 4 PC (1 Router/Sever/Main RIG/Second RIG) on one power outlet to a surge protector, it was pretty cheap like 30 dollars for 8 power slot and also running other smaller power such as access point/charging hub etc and it run with no problem. First i think better off getting better power strip, i would advise a surge protector as they are better built and see if that fixes your problem before rewiring your whole home. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, Oseth said:

Assuming the power draw isnt too high for the socket, could it be the power strip?

Its probably a bad wired house. Id get a electrician to take a look.

[Oseth]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Its probably a bad wired house. Id get a electrician to take a look.

Sounds like a good idea. I will first try a better power strip and if it doesn't work then I will get an electrician out here. Thanks for the feedback.

[scottyseng]

20 minutes ago, Oseth said:

Sounds like a good idea. I will first try a better power strip and if it doesn't work then I will get an electrician out here. Thanks for the feedback.

I would verify the size of the breaker for the circuit. If you're lucky, you might have a 20AMP breaker (Older homes do this, new ones not so much for safety reasons).

 

However, I think what may be hurting you is that you may not have a proper ground. Most old homes (Mine's included) have no proper ground.

 

Also, the plug itself may be bad. Replacing the plug might fix your problem. We've had several plugs go bad (though in a commercial setting) and cause issues like this because the plug was underrated for the load (Yeah, there are plugs rated for 10A (standard) or 15A).

 

In the worse case scenario, the wire is put together with some dodge wiring job (I've seen multiple wirenuts in walls before) and one of the wirenuts came slightly loose over time.

 

Also, 120V feels good. Join the electrician side and get "certified". 277V gets you down to the ground though.

 

I myself had to replace my outlet in my room because my UPS uses a 20A plug (The one with the sideways blade) and so I had to replace it.

[AshleyAshes]

8 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

I would verify the size of the breaker for the circuit. If you're lucky, you might have a 20AMP breaker (Older homes do this, new ones not so much for safety reasons).

 

However, I think what may be hurting you is that you may not have a proper ground. Most old homes (Mine's included) have no proper ground.

1) The breaker or fuse couldn't be a factor.  If that was tripping/failing, it would simply break the entire electrical circuit and every thing from computer to light bulb on that circuit could go dead.

 

2) The missing ground doesn't effect the operation of electronics. In an AC circuit all the power is flowing from hot to neutral.  The ground only serves to protect mushy human users from being harmed or killed by an electrical short in the device, the ground prong is just connected between the metal case of the appliance (PSU, fridge, oven, ect) to the ground lead so should that become electrically connected by physical malfunction, there's a path of less resistance than your body's for the electricity to flow.

[scottyseng]

6 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

1) The breaker or fuse couldn't be a factor.  If that was tripping/failing, it would simply break the entire electrical circuit and every thing from computer to light bulb on that circuit could go dead.

 

2) The missing ground doesn't effect the operation of electronics. In an AC circuit all the power is flowing from hot to neutral.  The ground only serves to protect mushy human users from being harmed or killed by an electrical short in the device, the ground prong is just connected between the metal case of the appliance (PSU, fridge, oven, ect) to the ground lead so should that become electrically connected by physical malfunction, there's a path of less resistance than your body's for the electricity to flow.

Yeah, but I've seen people put undersized wire on 20A breakers (Or in worse cases, 30A). The wire starts to receive insulation damage. Also, we've had breakers go bad where they would not trip no matter how much current was pushed through them. Also, some less savvy electricians will put mismatched breaker brands on a panel, and then the breakers will not trip even though they fit.

 

Interesting. We've also installed several AC units which refuse to operate without ground. According to the manufacturer, ground is used for the low voltage return (Not sure how true it is though).

[AshleyAshes]

21 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Yeah, but I've seen people put undersized wire on 20A breakers (Or in worse cases, 30A). The wire starts to receive insulation damage. Also, we've had breakers go bad where they would not trip no matter how much current was pushed through them.

 

Interesting. We've also installed several AC units which refuse to operate without ground. According to the manufacturer, ground is used for the low voltage return (Not sure how true it is though).

I don't think that's undersized wire on a 20A breaker, I'm pretty sure that's a breaker that's out of spec for the gauge of the wire in the walls.  You say the glass is half full, I say the glass is a serious electrical fire hazard.   If you have a breaker that won't trip when the wires could melt and short, 'power fluctuations' are the least of your concerns.

 

Also, that said, you'd have to run some pretty high draw appliances to be going over 1650w. (I'm assuming 110v system)  Even my i7 4930K and with 390X can't go over 380w out of the wall when overclocked and full tilt on CPU and GPU.  I really can't imagine three computers even getting close to the to exceeding wire of sufficent guage fro 15amps.  (Okay, I admit you could build some batshit crazy quad SLI boxes that would do it, but I'm assuming these computers are 'normal')

 

Your AC's probably have ground detection as an additional safety feature, which isn't unreasonable really.  Especially since an air conditioner is collecting water from the air an all that, if it's a window unit, part of it is exposed to the elements which makes it more susceptible to corrosion and other damage.  So it's just to keep you from making a potentially unsafe arrangement.

 

I live in an apartment building built in 1922, though it's hard a partial electrical reno, where the fuse box was once in a closet, and now there's a breaker box in the back of kitchen cabinet now.  Only the kitchen outlets have ground, all other outlets have no ground and all my Belkin power strips have their 'No Ground' LED lit up.  But at least I won't get shocked if my fridge gets shorted out.

 

I'd wonder if the OP's problems are somehow related to power sag from other things in the home. Though it'd take some serious sag to shut off a PSU.  ...It's also possible the the OPs PSUs are just both failing concurrently the same time an it's just a fluke.

[scottyseng]

36 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

-snip-

Yeah, we've fixed breaker panels that look like this where the breakers actually welded themselves to the panel and had to be removed using hammers:

 

Ah, the 1600W thing was a shopvac (I was stress testing my Eaton 2000VA UPS for the lolz). I think if I load both my PC and server, I managed 1000W.

 

I think you might be right with the ground detection, though this was a air handler unit, not a plug in window AC. I think the other issue we had was 220V (Which in the US is 120V in opposite phase). There's no neutral wire for 220V, so ground is used as neutral for circuit boards that run it.

 

Yeah, my Eaton UPS wasn't pleased at the lack of ground in my house. We have the crappy old large breakers for our breaker panel.

 

I forgot about power sag. At my house, the recent storms took a toll on the transformer, where the power oscillates from 100V to 120V, sometimes 80V now. In a different house, the power so bad that the lights started to dim when the neighbors started using a lot of power. It might be the issue, but as you stated, takes a lot of sag to do so.

[Oseth]

ALRIGHTY!!! Got it figured out. The second socket in the wall outlet has bad wiring. Tried to plug everything, 3 PCs, router and modem, into a single newly aquired surge protector and so far no issues at all. I checked my breakers and as it turns out they are nearly all 20a glass ones, so I guess YAY??

 

Anyways, everything is running smoothly. Thank you all for the feedback.

On 1/20/2017 at 9:16 PM, Electronics Wizardy said:

Its probably a bad wired house. Id get a electrician to take a look.

 

@scottyseng @AshleyAshes

[scottyseng]

14 minutes ago, Oseth said:

-snip-

Ah, glad you managed to figure it out. I hope it doesn't cost too much to repair though.