Fraser wrote:

"w_tom" wrote in message
...
Power strips even for about $3 in Home Depot and Walmart
have the so important 15 amp circuit breaker. This fire was
not possible if that circuit breaker kept tripping.

Out of curosity, are you comparing these ones with others with no protection
whatsoever? I've got one strip that has an intregral breaker for my PC
setup, however this and all the others I have also have two normal fuses in
them. The first fuse is the one found in any standard UK plug, and the
second fuse is in the strip itself. Both are 13 amps.

Do these provide some element of protection that your US strips don't
commonly have? I'd always assumed that they should cover against
overheating.

There is no fuse in most US plugs, they are in theory protected by a breaker
some way up the line.

I vastly prefer the UK plug, generally the ability to pull ~3Kw through it
safely, on a fused plug outweighs the rather larger size.
It can be rather silly for devices smaller than the plug though, and it
sucks for portable devices.

--
http://inquisitor.i.am/ | | Ian Stirling.
---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------
'Where subtlety fails, we must simply make do with cream pies' -- David Brin