[hart]

ok, that which all over-equipped nerds worry about just happened. An extension cord under my desk overheated and started to smoke and spark. I dashed to grab a 5 lb bag of baking soda which I had always had in the back of my mind as a fire extinguishing chemical. It's miraculous! I yanked out all the cords and proceeded to get my heart back in my chest.

There is some melted stuff under there. I hope none of it is crucial cables. But that outlet represents about half of my equipment.

Looks like I'm going to have to drill a hole through to the basement to get at some other outlets to spread the load.

So, it CAN happen, beware the cable monster. and keep some baking soda handy.

[Weyland-Yutani]

Whoa [/keanu]

Glad you made it allright! That was quite an incident

cheers

W-Y

[Dakar]

Good to hear your quick wits saved ya.

I'll be sure to file this information somewhere in my head.

[ghporter]

Stopping fire: VERY GOOD!!!!

Overusing an extension cord: VERY BAD!!!

Isn't there another outlet you can use in that room? And what size extension cord are you using? I'd get a REALLY BIG extension cord-from your description it sounds like you were pulling more current than the wires in the burnt up one could handle, so get a HUGE industrial extension cord, one that's as short as possible to fit your need, and you'll be better off.

Of course the BEST solution is to have more outlets on separate circuits, but in "old construction" (that means stuff that's already built) that's sometimes just not practical.

[nredman]

reminds me of the movie A Christmas Story when the dad has like 10 cords in one outlet

[hart]

oh yeah, bad thing overusing extension cord. BAD BAD BAD. I'm in a really old house and power is hard to come by.. Nearest additional outlet is 220 we put in in the basement so I'm going to have to get out the drill and go through the floor. I have learned my lesson.

This is not what I needed on my plate for today. Although having my house burn down would have been worse. (extensive finger crossing, knocking on wood and heaving thankful sighs)

[wdlove]

Happy to hear that you are alright. Quick thinking saved the day.

[hart]

Originally Posted by wdlove

Happy to hear that you are alright. Quick thinking saved the day.

thanks guys. I always wondered if I'd remember that baking soda thing in a pinch.

looks like the only things lost are a fancy schmancy surge protector, the power cord and the cables for my Dell speakers which of course seem to be some Dell-only thing so the speakers and sub-woofer may have to go.

so, a trip through Lowes, Staples and a total rework of the distrubution of my power usage....one day shot.

[CMYKid]

hard to say without seeing exactly what you had plugged in but you dont necessarily need another circuit. you might've just had a crappy quality power strip with lighterweight wire or enough strands broken to cause a regular intermittent spark. A good heavy-duty one might be a simple fix.

glenn hit on the other important thing, a SHORT cord. it wasn't coiled or wrapped up was it? a length of cord wrapped in coils around something and with enough juice passing through it is a fire waiting to happen...

anyway, if you've got 220 nearby it wont be too hard to pull off one leg for a separate circuit.
go to a thrift store and get a replacement cable for those Dell speakers, i see lots of em around here. and pay up that proerty insurance! ;-)

[hart]

that wrapped up cord thing I didn't know. yeah, I had a lot of extra cord coiled. how does that make it a fire hazard? I'm ignorant.

insurance and new batteries in the smoke detectors, none of which went off.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by nredman

reminds me of the movie A Christmas Story when the dad has like 10 cords in one outlet

Gods I love that movie.

Too bad he can't change a tire as fast as that fuse.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by hart

that wrapped up cord thing I didn't know. yeah, I had a lot of extra cord coiled. how does that make it a fire hazard? I'm ignorant.

insurance and new batteries in the smoke detectors, none of which went off.

CMYKid makes some excellent points. First off, total up the amount of current being used by all the devices plugged into the power strip. If the current exceeds the maximum recommended load, you need to get a heavier duty power strip. Whatever you do, do not exceed the maximum rated load of your housing wire. Double-check your fuses to make sure that they're set to trip under the appropriate load (which should probably be lower for an older house due to deteriorating wires).

Resistance (i.e. heat) is proportional to length and cross-sectional area of wire. Wrapping long lengths of wire concentrates heat, and warmer wire drops in conductivity and heats up even faster. You also don't want to run extension cords under carpets and blankets for the same reason.

[hart]

I gotta study up on the miracle of electricity. Thanks for the info. I'm going on an expedition to the basement to look at the fuses. This house predates electricity so the wiring is somewhat catch as catch can. They had to weave it in amongst the gas light fixtures. When we moved in in 1995 we actually had to disconnect some of the gas light fixtures from the gas source.

Well, I hope at least this will get someone else to look under their desk and make sure they're not getting ready for a conflagration.

[Oneota]

Well, if your house predates electricity, you should probably pony up the dough to have an electrician come in and get the job done right throughout the place. Get rid of the fusebox, put in a circuit breaker, replace old wiring, add more outlets, the whole nine yards.

Expensive? Yeah, but better than burning the place down, right?

[ghporter]

Coiled cords get hotter than bundled cords. By simply wrapping the cord into a twist (sort of like a twisted bread) you correct the effect. It happens through induction; the magnetic fields around each coil interact with those from every other coil. By "squishing" the coil together, you reduce the amount of interaction significantly. Of course using just exactly the right length of cord is best-no coiling or bundling needed-but when you can't do that, wrap the excess like climbing rope and you're better off.

[CMYKid]

damn, you beat me to induction.

but yeah, bundling or big loose coils, thats the way to go.

in my concert touring years somebody at the shop had thought it'd be a good idea to invest in a bunch of those plastic extension cord reels. of course, combine a short run with a new guy who didnt unreel the whole thing and then plug some really high draw equipment into it and those orange reels catch fire and melt pretty damn quick.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Coiled cords get hotter than bundled cords. By simply wrapping the cord into a twist (sort of like a twisted bread) you correct the effect. It happens through induction; the magnetic fields around each coil interact with those from every other coil. By "squishing" the coil together, you reduce the amount of interaction significantly. Of course using just exactly the right length of cord is best-no coiling or bundling needed-but when you can't do that, wrap the excess like climbing rope and you're better off.

Induction could be an issue if you wrapped the cord near or around a conductor, but I'm not so sure it's an issue for wire coiled around air (not at this power and frequency at least).

[misc]

Originally Posted by CMYKid

damn, you beat me to induction.

but yeah, bundling or big loose coils, thats the way to go.

in my concert touring years somebody at the shop had thought it'd be a good idea to invest in a bunch of those plastic extension cord reels. of course, combine a short run with a new guy who didnt unreel the whole thing and then plug some really high draw equipment into it and those orange reels catch fire and melt pretty damn quick.

Multi in figure eights and feeder in big coils.