I had a space heater on in a bedroom. I know, dumb idea, but it was plugged in to a power strip, which was plugged into a standard outlet. It was on for about 30 minutes. Then, it just shut off. I thought nothing of it, but when i unplugged the heater and later tried to plug other things into the power strip, the light on the power strip was on (the one that is always on if the strip is getting power), but nothing plugged in would work, even after resetting it. My house s circuit breaker did not trip. After unplugging the power strip, the outlet still works if I plug somethig in. This is probably insanely paranoid of me, but could this cause damage to my home s electrical wiring? Could this cause an electrical fire after everything has been unplugged?Thank you.
Don't use power strips with space heaters. I think you burned out the power strip, somehow. Maybe the built-in circuit breaker failed while tripping. It's very unlikely, verging on impossible, that your house wiring was damaged in this event.
It can not burn out the wiring without blowing the fuse. Space heaters operate at 120 which means the current is twice as great as at 240, therefore twice as much potential to overheat the wire. A space heater is about 1500 watts.At 15 amp service you have 1800 watts on the entire branch.
Yes space heaters can. it isn't common but may be possible. Surge protectors aren't extention cords they are a device to protect electronic devices from an electrical over charge or surge. So under high wattage use will fry the electrical connections in the protector. That's probably what happened here. Other times they can catch fire and maybe a small explosion. The largest electric space heaters are around 1500w and draw about 12 amps. Most home outlets are rated at 15A or even 20A. So in good working order most heaters won't hurt an outlet or wiring if that is the only thing on that breaker. If things do go higher the breaker should trip and cut power. If the breaker is old or damaged it may not trip and then somethings gotta give next either the outlet or the wiring normally it's the plug but if two things on two plugs the wire may catch fire. also don't use cheap extention cords they will catch fire you can use extention cords but rated at least 14G for 15A or 12G for 20A.
