Electrical for retro consoles

[cobaltdriver]

Hi everyone. I've posed the question before here in the forum asking if having many things plugged into a single power strip would be an issue or not since I have never had the number of devices plugged into a single circuit as I do currently. That being said I have 11 retro consoles, my 27" crt TV, several led strips, an lg cx oled tv, a sound bar, hdmi switcher, a ps5, Xbox one s, a ps4, a nanoleaf, and a 16 port switch all plugged into two separate power strips that are both plugged in at the same socket which I am assuming are both on the same circuit. Obviously not all of these things are on simultaneously however I could see at some point I could potentially have the leds, the nanoleaf, the crt, the oled  TV, one of the new gen consoles, and maybe one of the old gen consoles, and the soundbar all on at the same time. I know these old consoles don't particularly require a ton of power  but I wanted to know if having that combination of devices on at the same time could potentially cause a problem since some of the other devices are getting power even though they aren't on. Also is this too much to have on one circuit even if it's not all on at the same time? For a little more detail the retro consoles, crt, hdmi switcher, 16 port network switch, and two of the led strips are all being powered off a single 24 outlet tripp lite power strip, and the ps5, ps4, Xbox one s, oled TV, sound bar, and nanoleaf are all powered off a single 12 outlet tripp lite surge strip. Each of which are plugged into an outlet at the same spot on the wall. Could I just have a bigger breaker installed for this circuit or would that not help? I would have a separate circuit ran to offload some of the devices onto but my walls are all finished and would have to be cut out most likely to run a new circuit since the joists would all be in the way of fishing any wire through and my breaker box is on the other end of my house. Any help or experience with such a situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[cobaltdriver]

In addition I do plan on adding a few more consoles down the road so I want to take that into account also.

[cobaltdriver]

One correction. The 12 outlet power strip is actually daisy chained onto the 24 outlet power strip. I'm guessing this is probably not a great idea however the same applies as in my earlier comments where only certain things would be in use simultaneously. I also forgot to mention that all of this is turned off every night when I am done playing and the things that are in use before being turned off are typically only on for a couple of hours a night. Ocassionally they will be on for an entire day once in a while but it's rare.

[tripredacus]

It sounds like a poor setup, but no one can say for certain what is and isn't right for you. If you really want to know what is the ideal amount of things connected to a circuit (not an outlet) then this is what you need to do:

- first determine what is and what isn't on the circuit
- determine the wattage for each device on the circuit and the total wattage of all devices on the circuit

Then calculate the electrical load. You can find many websites that help for this, a lot of them are going to be on websites for electrical service companies like this: https://www.sanfordelectric.net/calculate-circuit-loads-overloading-circuits/
Because they get a better google rank than websites that are for education and research.

One thing to remember about determining circuits. Do not think about the walls or room layout to determine a circuit. You are going to have to be testing with the circuit breaker to match up what is connected to where. People who build houses and homeowners take shortcuts with electrical. For example when I did circuit mapping for my basement, I found that all of the basement lighting was actually on the circuit for the appliances in the kitchen. This meant that when I had to turn off the circuit to replace a light fixture, I had to remove power to my refridgerator.

[cobaltdriver]

Thanks for the info. I do know my houses electrical circuits are kind of wonky because I turn breakers that are labeled for one part of the house and it turns off something else that would seemingly have nothing to do with it. I'm pretty confident that the majority of my basement is on the same circuit as far as lights and outlets go but what you're saying makes sense. I'll have to take a day and have my dad give me a hand with figuring out what all is on what circuit and then do like you said and figure out the load from what I'm using simultaneously. I guess my main concern at this point until I can do this is would it be a fire hazard or would I simply have to worry about tripping a breaker from too much load?

[tripredacus]

Well the math will tell you when you can get to the point of tripping the break. As far as the fire hazard aspect, that is a bit more complicated. Now certainly the hazard exists if the circuit doesn't break, or doesn't break fast enough. Or there is a fault in the components on the circuit, or there is a grounding issue or wiring in the house, etc. It is really complicated and even if you did math everything out, it is really impossible to guage fire hazard.

Personally, I gave up on trying to do the whole "connect everything to one tv" idea a long time ago. Now I just have TVs in multiple rooms and have at most 1 game system connected to them. And of course I have more systems than TVs, so they get rotated out. Not necessarily meaning they get packed up into a box, but they are just not plugged into anything.

[cobaltdriver]

I considered the whole swaping consoles in and out as well and connecting them to the TV only when in use and I could still do that I guess however I've already cut holes in walls and ran cables through wire tracks and all that craziness to make it look clean and easy to use by just pressing a button on a rca switcher cause the sapce I'm using them in unfortunately wouldn't be big enough for more than the two tvs I'm using with everything else I have in the room and I don't have any other rooms open to be able to put other tv's in. Do you think it would be worth it to have an electrician come in and take a look at it all and tell me if I need to make any changes or would I basically just be leaving them an open invite to tell me I need to spend a bunch of money for something that isn't really necessary to have new circuits ran and breakers installed?

[tripredacus]

The caveat for getting an electrician in to do an inspection is that they may find problems in your systems or aspects that do not meet local code requirements.

The other option is to find a local company that installs Home AV equipment, although I am not certain whether or not they provide that type of service without having purchased anything from them.

[cobaltdriver]

Good point. I'll have to look into the av company thing. Not sure if best buys av installers do anything like that without purchasing anything from them to have installed though.

[oldgamerz]

A Fire Marshall once told me, that I should ONLY have ONE multi powered device plugged into any outlet at a single timeframe. OR it could be dangerous.

What you are doing @cobaltdriver I would not recommend,

What I do is I unplug all my game consoles when I'm not using them, and I plug one in at a time, into only one surge protector. with other devices also in usage. That I heard is OK. but never daisy chain things together, or it could be a fire hazard. Also according to the one of my console safety guides, it recommends I unplug all AC adapters that are in usage like cell phone chargers for example. and other AV adapters when I am not useing them.

I know it can be inconvenient but I'd recommend plugging one console in at a time, and unplug them when not in usage.

[cobaltdriver]

Thanks for the advice. I definitely plan on moving the second power strip off the daisy chain. I honestly am not sure why I even did it cause I'm an IT person for a living and I know that's a big no no and I'm honestly surprised with myself that I even did it. I think I did because the outlet where everything is plugged in has the top outlet powered by a light switch at the entrance to the basement while the other is always on. I wanted the smaller strip to be on the outlet that is controlled by the wall switch but I guess when I was connecting everything the plug was interfering with the outlet for the larger strip so I just plugged the second strip into the larger one so I could turn everything off at the power switch for the large strip. In hindsight I realize I shouldn't have done this. As for plugging in one at a time I could do that. It's a bit inconvenient but honestly once everything is wire managed it wouldn't be a big deal to plug whatever console in I plan on using and the TV for the retro consoles since I'd have to go to the power strip to turn on power to everything in the first place.