I’m lying beside a small window AC, have a monster of a laptop with AI GPU, printer, and an electronics workbench with soldering station, hot air rework, lighting, PCB tooling (drill press/table saw/ultrasonic bath), 3d printer, and HEPA air purifier, 5.5d multi meter, oscilloscope, bench power supplies, router, and a desk fan…

I haven’t burned down yet. There are 3 power strips daisy chained. The thing is, I know what each device is capable of, and limit what is on at the same time. I also have my room on a 20 amp breaker in the box. Kill-a-Watt has never shown over 12 amps.

The neon bulb in power strip switches will flicker eventually as it builds up junk inside, that doesn’t matter at all. Inside most power strips it is just a couple of metal bars running down the length with the plastic molded to hold the plug in alignment for contact with the bars. On the end with the switch, there will usually be a metal oxide varistor MOV. This is a little coin shaped electrical component that has two metal leads coming out and is coated in a hard plastic that looks kinda like a badly shaped M&M. The MOV is connected to the Live and Neutral lines and is there to short circuit any voltages higher than its rating. This is a varistor AKA a variable + resistor, so it actual changes its resistance with voltage. These devices wear out over time and especially if they are exposed to surge events. One common source of surge events is from cheap appliances like desk fans that do not have a bypass filter. Magnetic fields take time to collapse. The field in the motor windings must have somewhere to go or it will spike the voltage as the field collapses; relay coils (all magnetics) do the same thing.

When any switch mode power supply is plugged in but the device it powers is inactive, they are usually quite efficient. They do not require much power and have low power losses.

Of the stuff you mentioned, most of it is low power. Think of monitors like some of the brightest lights in your home because they are if you take off the masking filter and optics films. So little of the light makes it all the way through the stack that the actual backlight is monstrous. The rest of that stuff is just annoying to find places to plug it in.

Keep in mind that 20 amps on the mains line is 2400 watts. Convert all of your power to watts and add this up. Don’t make the mistake of adding up amps. There are dozens of circuit blocks with various voltage regulators and power supplies in ever single device you own. Having a bunch of wall worts is a pain, but really no different than what is happening inside the devices. The only time it becomes a more serious issue is with a setup like mine where the connected devices can interfere with test and measurement equipment.

• main computer and one monitor into the UPS – gives you enough time to close your browser and gracefully shutdown when there’s a power problem
• if you’re running everything off a laptop (with a good battery), then a UPS isn’t quite as critical
• most UPS have built-in surge protection
• surge protection for power surges, power spikes
• UPS for power outages