On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 17:12:41 -0500, Shawn D'Alimonte
wrote:

Leonard Caillouet wrote:

That still does not make the load irrelevant. Those fuses are only of use
in the case of a short in a unit. The capacity of the circuit is not
unlimited.

I think what was meant was that the number of devices plugged in does
not matter as long as the total load is kept under the rating of the
circuit (and the rating of any extension cords, power bars, etc.)

Right...people are so busy fighting with this guy all the time that
they don't clearly see what he intends to explain sometimes, but he
doesn't help with his wording either. That being said, the number is
not irrelevant, as, at some point, the limit will be exceeded, even by
a large number of tiny loads, as you explain below..


For example, a normal North American 15A circuit can supply 1 15A
device, 15 1A devices or 100 0.15A devices.

A computer is probably around 600W max, which at 220V (The original post
was from Britain, right?) is a bit under 3A. If the circuit can take
13A you could plug in 4 of those computers without a problem (assuming
nothing else is connected).


600 W sounds high for a PC, to me. I wish I had had more opportunities
to connect PC's to the Sencore (metered) variac where I used to work.
I do recall that some older PC's were typically under 100 W, around
600-700 mA. I know that it is higher today, but if 4 were connected
together, they would be unlikely to be peaking at the same time
either, I'd think.

Tom