Rack electricity threat?

[Slashmaster]

I live in a building built in the 80s. I currently have four racks in one room, two per thermostat, one thermostat per outlet (three oulets in the room, another one has a computer and lights on it). My parents seem to think I'm going to overload the electricity in the place because it's an old building. Do you think this is something to worry about? Do multiple racks use up a lot of electricity and pose a risk? Is there anything I can do to prevent an issue?

[azmodane]

What are you heating with in the racks? I mean isn't 4" flexwat like 4watts per foot? so at most you are running what like 100 watts per rack? That's just my thoughts on it. I think you'd be fine.

[OhhWatALoser]

being an old building has nothing to do with anything. copper lets electricity flow the same today as it did in the 80's. racks hardly have any current draw for their size normally. If you really want to put their mind at ease, here's the math....

add up the wattage of all your flexwatt in the racks, hopefully you know, or know where to look up how many watts per foot it is. so if its 20 watts per foot and you got 6 foot in a rack, you have 120 watts for that rack. just add em up.

i'm going to guess and say a building that old most likely has 15 amp breakers/ fuses for outlets, your not allowed to have anything smaller today according to code anyways. So code allows you to only load a circuit up to 80% of the over-current protection (breaker or fuse) so 15 amp circuit shouldn't be loaded past 12 amps. so 12 amps x 120 volts (normal house outlet) = 1440 amps your allowed on a 15 amp circuit.

so unless your racks are pulling more than 1440 watts. you can tell your parents there is nothing to worry about as far as over loading it. Then the reality of it is, that total you just came up for your racks is full power. the thermostat is only going to allow a fraction of that to go through. you won't even be close to the total you came up with in normal operation.

[Egapal]

I live in a building built in the 80s. I currently have four racks in one room, two per thermostat, one thermostat per outlet (three oulets in the room, another one has a computer and lights on it). My parents seem to think I'm going to overload the electricity in the place because it's an old building. Do you think this is something to worry about? Do multiple racks use up a lot of electricity and pose a risk? Is there anything I can do to prevent an issue?

Ok I don't know how old you are but I have news for your. The 80's is hardly and old building unless you mean the 1880's. If you have a break box your breaker will flip if you draw too much power. If you have a fuse box the fuse will blow.

[RichsBallPythons]

If not mistaken each outlet of 2 plugs is rated at 1500 total wats at 15 amps.

Chanced of a rack causing the breaker to pop is rare. I currently have 6 racks running right now of over 50 ft of 3" FLexwatt 6watt. A laptop, 5.1 surround system, incubator and 1500watt space heater.

This room when everything is on full blast at once would be over 4000watts of power. But its never on all the same time,

[Slashmaster]

Thank you for alleviating my fears Sometimes I think my mom wants to find things to worry about.

[Balls Out Morphs]

Thank you for alleviating my fears Sometimes I think my mom wants to find things to worry about.

That what Moms do...