Safe Use of Low Watt Radiators on an Extension?

[Savo]

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone could give me a little bit of safety advice on connecting heaters through an extension lead.

From reading through other posts on the forum, there seems to be a general rule that extensions should not be used to supply power to a heater. However, in our hall, I need to plug in a telephone and a 0.7kw oil filled panel heater and we only have a single power outlet available.

I read that as a general rule a 13amp extension can take 3000w of appliances. I'm a bit confused as the heater is 0.7kw but has a 13 amp fuse on it, so would that be the only appliance I could plug into the 13 amp extension, or would it be safe to plug other electrical items in as long as they don't exceed the 3000w?

I just don't want to take any risks as the heaters are left on all the time and we have 4 of them throughout the house and as they are left on overnight during the winter to provide background warmth, I just want to make 100% sure I understand what I am allowed to do.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ian

 

[winston1]

Ideally you change the single outlet socket for a double.

Many extension leads are poorly made so best to keep the loads below 1 KW or so. The telephone is negligible so your 700W heater is OK.

 

[ericmark]

In the main fuses are to protect the cable and we have reduced them to just two sizes a 3A and a 13A and since 700W is quite close to 3A limit I can understand why a 13A is fitted.

However 700W is quite small and there is unlikely to be a problem if used together with a phone. The standard small extension with around a meter of cable and 4 way socket should work without a problem.

There are always exceptions to a rule and using an extension with the cable coiled could be a problem but should be no problem with standard short one.

 

[big-all]

your heater is about 3 amp [230w=1amp ish] so you have another 2200 watts
you can use assuming your extension is 13 amp and not say 6 amps then its 700w

 

[Savo]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the quick responses. The extension is just a standard 4-plug/1 metre cable so sounds like it should be ok then.

I would change the socket to a double outlet rather than a single but the heater lead isn't actually long enough to reach the power outlet so I would still need an extension anyway to enable me to wall mount it in the place where I want it.

Can I just double check whether I have correctly understood that the extension could in theory take, for example, 2 x 3 amp plugs and a 13 amp plug (19amp total) as long as the actual appliances are below 1kw (e.g. 700 watt heater, a telephone and a phone charger (total less than 300w)?

Thanks again for your help.

Ian

 

[Savo]

your heater is about 3 amp [230w=1amp ish] so you have another 2200 watts
you can use assuming your extension is 13 amp and not say 6 amps then its 700w

Sorry, sent my reply before seeing your post. Your post has pretty much answered my follow up question so that was really useful.

Thanks again!