Surge Protectors

Hi PB,
 
Not quite if this is what you are asking, but the surge suppressor/battery backup unit is only going to protect the units "plugged in to it." Anything plugged into the second wall (duplex) outlet will not be protected (or backed up by the battery).

In addition, you might want to make sure you are not too close to the circuit rating of the duplex wall outlet with all those units you intend to plug in. A typical newer home has 15 amp circuit breakers per circuit that can take up to about a 20 amps peak load (or  20 amps x 110 Volts = 2200 Watts). You may have other things already on that curcuit (air conditioner, toaster, etc.) that may kick you over that 20 amps and ruin your recording day by tripping the breaker.

Hope that helps!

h

polarbear
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I'm a total idiot at this stuff and I'm from the "that's an outlet and this plug fits in it" school of electricity haha.

But yes I definitely know that only the stuff in a surge protector will be protected and only the stuff on the batter backup will stay on in the event of power loss... I know all that.

I'm just wondering if it's safe to have like 20 things plugged in between two surge protectors coming out of the 2 outlets on one Wall. I wouldn't even know where to begin adding up watts and amps. I'm mainly worried about a fire or things getting blown or me dying haha.
 
EDIT: Oh and like I said... the 20 things are already plugged in in this room (minus like 1 or 2)... It's just half of them are plugged into a surge protector on the other side of the room. I'd rather have both surge protectors plugged into the same 2 outlet wall plate so I can just have all the wires under my desk and out of the way.

You are probably OK, but to be sure you could add up the wattage rating from the stickers on all those devices, to be sure you're not getting close to 2000 watts on that one circuit!
 
Most electronics these days use power supplies that convert to DC voltage with just a few amps per wall wart.
 
I would pay particular attention to any heavy wattage devices.  The biggest loads are electric motors and heating elements like toasters and space heaters.  The main PC power supply could hit 400-600 watts on peak load, depending on what you have installed, as far as discrete video cards and drives.
 
I would try to separate just the stuff I needed to keep running onto the battery backup, with everything else going into a surge protector, without backup.  I like to keep my cable modem, router, monitor and computer on the battery backup.  That way I can finish up and save my work if the power craps out.  The modem and router is typically low wattage, so if you shut down the PC, you can continue to keep your Wi-Fi running for a while longer to stay connected with a laptop, tablet, or phone.
 
Just having a bunch of stuff plugged in isn't necessarily a big issue, especially if they're not all being used at the same time, or if they are low wattage electronics.
 
And yep, those two outlets on that faceplate most likely share the same 15 amp breaker ...

You'll be fine. If you were overloading things, you'd know, because that UPS would complain about overload long before you hit the maximum load of the actual electrical circuit. So given that it is happy, you are way below what your line can handle.
 
Also, you really do want to do what you are talking about because having surge protectors plugged in to UPSes is bad news. Because of the way a line-interactive UPS works, and the way a surge suppressor's clamping works, they can get screwed up and blow each other out in the event of a power failure. So you never want to plug a surge protector in to a UPS.

polarbear

Sycraft

Also, you really do want to do what you are talking about because having surge protectors plugged in to UPSes is bad news. Because of the way a line-interactive UPS works, and the way a surge suppressor's clamping works, they can get screwed up and blow each other out in the event of a power failure. So you never want to plug a surge protector in to a UPS.

Oh no I know that much at least haha. I meant the UPS in one plug of the two outlets on the wall and a surge protector in the other plug on the wall. You know how every wall plate has 2 (or more) outlets. One in one one in the other. Not the surge protector into the UPS. :-)

And you really wouldn't want to see what I have going on behind my living room entertainment center and media center PC, LOL!!!  The good news is, no flames yet, but I do have a fire extinguisher in the utility closet 

polarbear
Oh man I make it sound like the question is just for my studio but it's 2 rooms that need this much power for me too haha. Ugh... We're addicted haha

+1
 
Yup, LOL!!!

The only things I connect to a UPS is the computer and screen, so I get enough time to save stuff and shut down cleanly or hibernate. Many UPS units can't reliably keep a PC plus screen alive for more than a minute or two, despite what the manufacturers claim. It's always a good idea to hook stuff up to the UPS then kill thenpower into the UPS to check it does what you expect, just like it's a good idea to restore a backup sometimes to check that the backups you hope will save you from data loss are actually any good.

Laptops don't get a UPS, they already have a battery.

Everything else gets just surge protection in case of power spikes or nearby lightning ground strike.

I've an insane looking number of wall warts in use, something like 16, and the ring main those are on also carries some other stuff in other rooms. Just because there are two separate sockets a distance apart, don't assume they aren't linked as part of the same ring that goes back to a single fuse/breaker on the mains distribution unit, typically somewhere around 13A in the UK, with typically an 80A building fuse in a domestic premises meter.

The total draw for the wall warts is around 3.5 amps by the way, many are rated at 500mA or more but the synths/fx/drive they're attached to draws nothing like that much. The rating on the wall wart tells you the maximum it can deliver, not how much it's actually being asked for which will always be less.