Electricity concern

Amen, brother. :slight_smile:

I was thrilled when I set mine up and the problems went away. I had started to think my brand new audio interface was defective!

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how much equipment can I connect to just one socket without concern ?
for exampel an average sized studio from the ā€œyour setupā€ thread. would that be OK with just one socket ?

If an outlet in your house caused damage to your gear then you have some serious wiring problems and the house is probably not safe for people to live in. I seriously doubt thatā€™s the case. A properly wired house has redundant safeguards to prevent things like that from happening. Itā€™s far more likely that you had faulty components in your monitors. However as someone who remodels old houses for a living Iā€™ve seen wiring inside of walls that gave me chills. When in doubt, have the landlord call an electrician to do some tests. Laws about who can perform what tasks regarding wiring vary wildly from place to place and things only get inspected when the overseeing agency is told that work has been done.

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Whelp thatā€™s that: getting mā€™self a Furman: 10A Standard Power Conditioner, 230V | Furman Power

Who knew one could be hyped for a power conditioner??

Thank you everyone for all the wisdom! :purple_heart:

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It depends. The way houses are wired there are several outlets per circuit. Each circuit has a breaker (or fuse in an older wiring scenario) which will have a certain current supply capacity (the unit of measure for current is ā€œampsā€) and this is shared by all outlets in the circuit. For example; say you have a circuit witch is rated at 20 amps (20A) and there are 6 outlets in that circuit, that means that you could draw UP TO 20 amps of current total from the combination of those 6 outlets divided anyway you want. That could be 20A from one and nothing from the other 5, or it could be 10A each from 2 of them and nothing from the remaining 4, or 5A each from 4 and nothing from the remaining 2, etc. Of course itā€™s good practice to leave some headroom and not run a circuit at itā€™s max current capacity since you donā€™t want your breakers to be turning themselves off.
So what you need to do is figure out how many outlets are in the circuit you want to use and what is plugged into them. You also need to determine how much current is available for that circuit (look for the switch in your breaker panel, it should be labeled). Then you just add up the current draw of all of your gear. Then compare the combined current draw of your gear and whatever else is plugged into that circuit against the available current for the circuit in question. Easy. I guess what Iā€™m saying is not to think of an outlet as an isolated supply device but rather as part of a larger system that acts in a relative way to others.
Also, aside from amplifiers, gear with tubes, and a few odd ball pieces, most of what we use these days is fairly low current draw. I hope that isnā€™t too confusing, Iā€™m trying to simplify as much as possible.

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Not music related but I have clients with servers and all their network peripheralā€˜s in one outlet on a 20 amp circuit and no issues. That also includes UPS and line conditioners. I donā€™t think the average studio is going to be a problem.

thanks a lot for that detailed answer. I think I understood most of it.
one more question: When my circuit on one fuse can handle
my equipment easily but I have one very cheap component in the system (like a super cheap multisocket) could that cause a fire ? or am I safe with the fuse ?

You donā€™t have to draw a lot of current to cause a fire. Poor quality components or faulty wiring can cause sparks or overheating without drawing enough current to trip the breaker or blow a fuse.

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I use maximum of 2,5A out of 10A on my power conditioner for all my studio, and I have a big sub. Electric kettle would draw way more power than that. So I would say it is safe to use whole studio on one socket, if you use up to 3-4 amps. Probably the power conditioner would break its own fuse before something would be wrong with the socket.

It is highly unlikely that the gear would just cause fire, but if you want to be sure, you would need FID/RCD/RCCB device, if the house could have it.
Where do you live / are there older electric standards? I live in 38yo eastern-european house and the electricity system is old and working fine, but it does not have additional ground/earth wire - only two wires, so no way to have RCD switch, but I do not have any problems or noise in the system.

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Basically what @PofM said. The fuse/ breaker isnā€™t the issue when it comes to using a splitter as long as youā€™re not drawing too much current. The issue is the quality of the splitter itself. Itā€™s one of those things thatā€™s worth paying a bit more for better quality if you really must use one. The cheapest ones cut corners wherever they can to keep costs down (blade thickness, wire gauge, quality control, etc) which might be okay for brief intermittent use for a simple device like a drill but not for long term installation or for sensitive equipment like whatā€™s being discussed here. Fortunately the high quality ones shouldnā€™t be too expensive.

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As pointed out above cheap splitters can be problematic but from my experience these issues generally show up when youā€™re putting a fair load on them. By that I mean electric heaters etc. If you imagine a 3kW heater itā€™ll be pulling close to 12.5A from the supply and your splitter is likely rated at 13A. The Octatrack for instance is rated at 7W so itā€™s drawing 7A/240v = 0.29A Or 290mA. Basically nothing in terms of current. Do the maths for all the gear plugged in and work out the total current drawn. Iā€™d be surprised if your pulling even a couple of amps. And itā€™s higher currents that cause the issues with these splitters. Not saying youā€™ve nothing in the world to worry about but I doubt very much whether even a cheapo splitter would cause problems down the lineā€¦as I say itā€™s higher currents that lead to heating in the plug and socket connectors and ultimate failure.

Iā€™ve used them for years without issue for my gear. Iā€™m a time served electrician but I donā€™t fancy installing 30 socket outlets in one room so splitters are ideal.

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Worth putting this here for any folks interested. These two formulas are handy to know.

Ohms law -

V = I x R

where V = Volts, I = current in amps and R = resistance in ohms

The power triangle -

P = V x I

Where P = power in watts.

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Can all you wise, helpful people answer one more question:

Is this the cable I need to get 11 of to use with the Furman?

Am I overlooking something? Is their length going to be an issue?

If you use it for speakers/sub or mixer, you can use only a cable like that: Stairville IEC Patch Cable 3,0m BK ā€“ Thomann UK
Choose length what you need, it can be any.

For synths with the power supply you are right, but you can also use a splitter with IEC cable:
https://www.apc.com/shop/dk/en/products/APC-UPS-Power-Strip-Locking-IEC-C14-TO-4-Outlet-Schutzkontakt-CEE-7-3-230V-Germany/P-PZ42IZ-GR?isCurrentSite=true

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Take this advice with care: if youā€™re knowledgeable or adventurous you can manufacture your own IEC splitter by cutting one standard splitter and then attching one IEC lead to it.
Also in case you donā€™t want to invest in a Furman, use something like this - an over and under voltage protector SVPā€‘916 230V 40A Adjustable Automatic Over Under Voltage Reset Protection Device | eBay
moreover, you can combine it with a nice splitter like this one: Premium-Protect-Line 120.000A extension socket with surge protection and USB-Charger 14-way DUO 3m H05VV-F 3G1.5 | brennenstuhlĀ®
this has 3 circuits and each circuit is made by 5-6 sockets in series then all are coupled in star topology. And they have RF and DC filters. I know because we opened one and peeked inside.
If you just want cheap splitters just go to IKEA, theyā€™re a few Euros and darn good for the price.
I know all this because I have like 25-30 total combined outlets in my room.

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Ahh I was dumb and didnā€™t think to go IEC to IEC for pc and monitor. Will think about that. That splitter is also nice though a bit expensiveā€¦

@s2 Iā€™m not about to trust myself to make my own cables; I like my electronics given to me on a platter :slight_smile: But the rest of your info is doing my head in: I was thinking thereā€™s got to be more economical solutions for small setups. I might still go with the furman, but this is solid info. Thank you.

You havenā€™t seen the audiophile power units then :smile: they cost as much as anyoneā€™s music setup on here.
Sure, not really needed though.
The Brennenstuhl power splitter is in fact not that much considering itā€™s almost 3 good splitters in one.

Oh I use to follow closely the audiophile world, I know. I mean if you got the means for these things, all power to you, but at some point it just comes off as questionable.

I found some brennenstuhls around here. Will research. Thank you!

Edit: @s2 I understand you confirmed the filter, but did it make a difference in your use? Furman has such a steller reputation yet I canā€™t find any opinions on these Brennenstuhlsā€¦

Buy a socket tester - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Automatic-Electric-Polarity-Neutral-Testing/dp/B07DWPZH63/ref=sr_1_9?adgrpid=52849226573&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwp86EBhD7ARIsAFkgakjOR_dCfSHS6E3TIWfTTJZ2mxVgXdcIRLXHTnBCf6awGJJLYS8NamMaAk18EALw_wcB&hvadid=259085844880&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9046886&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=16495597111452441017&hvtargid=kwd-298625066137&hydadcr=28148_1821043&keywords=socket+tester&qid=1620292271&sr=8-9

When I moved into my house one of first things i did was to test all the sockets.

Then after that make sure the fuse in the plug is the right rating for your gear.

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Sorry for hijacking this thread as I donā€™t think my problem would justify a new thread as it also deals with electricity concerns.

A few weeks ago I was working in my studio and while setting a few things up while my main mixer/soundcard (PreSonus 32R) and the computer were running I turned on one of my DJ mixers and a few seconds later I noticed that almost the entire room went out of electricity. I switched the fuse back on and after a lot of error search it turned out that the mixer developed a fault and had to be sent in for repair. The mixer itself booted up and the open channels still sent signals but I couldnā€™t use it via USB nor network to control it, hence the repair.

Now fast forward 3 weeks, the mixer comes back from repair, I install everything, set up the software while the mixer is running and everything works. The next evening I start things up, enjoy my first night with proper studio setup and everything works fine. Then today all of a sudden the same thing happens: room without electricity, fuse back on and the same god damn fault on the mixer! And what really leaves me completely clueless: everything was turned off! The only thing running at that time was my computer and the internet router which are plugged completely seperately on the opposite wall from all the gear.

I really have not a single clue what might have caused this (again). Absolutely everything still works fine besides the mixer so it canā€˜t be the general power supply, am I correct? Thereā€˜s not too much voltage for one outlet because everything is set up on four different outlets and I barely power on a lot of gear at the same time. The main rack were almost all synths etc. is placed runs on two outlets, the whole DJ equipment with a few extras on a seperate one.

Iā€˜m in a mixed state of cluelessness, anger and sadness right now as I just got it back and the same shit happened again while everything was turned off. The whole setup worked fine for months before it happened the first timeā€¦ and no issues either during the time the mixer was in repair. What the hell is going on? :man_shrugging:t2:

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