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plug strips

I remember a great Aunt having a generic plug strip in her kitchen which was severely limited on outlets.

And yeah, those were really dangerous because one could easily plug way too many things into it, there was no ground, and there was no polarity reference.

The modern day equivalence of a plug strip is a product called Plug Mold made by LeGrand.

Frankly, it seems like a much easier way of installing outlets on any counter space. One nice feature is, it can be installed just under the upper cabinets, so it isn't seen. It also gives uniform coverage with a plug every 12" or so. Also, no need to rough in outlet boxes before wall finish. This would also be good for those looking to add outlets to an existing kitchen without doing any ripping out of walls. They are surface mounted and sleek. If one installed a GFI breaker for the kitchen outlet circuits, one would be ready to go. All you need is a wire from the breaker box to sticking out the wall at the height for the plug strip.

As for the distribution of circuits in a home, it is interesting that the majority are in the kitchen or laundry. If one were building or remodeling, it's clearly much easier to put the main panel in the kitchen, ideally under a base cabinet.
Also, wires run inside a cabinet are legal in most places. Or conduit can be used. But it can be done after wall finishes are installed.

The outlets used in bedrooms and living rooms, are often powering low voltage items, or items like lights which don't draw much.

Now if only Lisa Douglas had a power center in her nifty farm house. Those were the days when electric was only used for lighting. That's why some places are only wired with a single circuit. I love that simplicity, though.


delaneymeegan++11-10-2015-12-43-6.jpg
 
Lord save me from angry, hysterical family members ...

... who make things ten times more stressful, time consuming and complicated than need be.

Back to topic:

"One new high-amperage feed, slap in the Kitchen Center and voilà: Instant 'modern' kitchen!"

My grandfather made the same observation about any kind of behind-the-walls renovation. Many old houses have irregular framing/studs, random cross studs for reinforcement, etc. behind the plaster and horse hair. The frustration of dealing with that was a strong disincentive for him to do any major renovations and the high labor costs discouraged him from hiring someone else to do it. I don't think he knew about these.

"... I should have doubled amount of the outlets..."

Yes, almost like the reverse of the problem 50 years ago.

However, if you actually did double the number of outlets you'd have people warning you about how you're 'overloading' everything. It amazes me how many people think that over loading a circuit or playing it safe is determined by the number of items plugged in. I.e. they think that having 20 4-watt LED lamps plugged in and only 5 turned on is 'a lot', but 2 12,000 btu a/c units plugged into the same socket is just fine because there are only 2 things.

Really.... sometimes I wonder how we discovered fire.

Jim
 
The breaker panel in our house is under the kitchen in the basement, as is the panel in my grandmothers home, and a few other homes I know. The house was built in 1990 but was wired better than average back then... Except for the kitchen, that only has 4 circuits, one of them was for the electric range that is now gone. So 3 circuits, one for each wall basically. Used to have issues on one wall when the microwave, coffeemaker, and can lights were on it, being used. Moved the coffee maker to one of the other two walls and don't have anymore issues.
 
"modern day equivalent of a plug strip"

Delaneymeegan made reference to Plugmold, a Wiremold product by Legrand. This product has been available for many years; in fact my research indicates it was being made at least as early as 1938 - nearly 80 years ago. So it's nothing new by any means. Circuit breaker panels are nothing new either; I have a 1939 Westinghouse catalog with a selection of them. The people of 75 years ago weren't living nearly as rustic of lives as some of you must believe. Check out the Building Technology Heritage Library on Archive.org to see the wide variety of products available in those days.

The light duty plug strips with the attached cords were not inherently dangerous if used as intended. This means for such things as lamps, clocks and maybe something like a hand mixer. The problems arise when things such as toasters, irons, griddles and other heating appliances are plugged in. The obvious result will be the overheating of the strip and its cord - which can easily cause a fire if there are combustible items nearby.
 
@torquiosedude,

That box works like this, the circuit selector switches between the two plugs. The cooking time is how long the plug that's currently in operation stays active, and the timer on the clock turns the whole thing on.

This is basically the same timer that operates the Westinghouse cooker, just on steroids.
 

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