Extension boards cause more household electrical fires than almost any other appliance, and nearly always for avoidable reasons. This page is worth five minutes.
Load: the rule that matters most
A 6A board is rated for roughly 1400W in total, and a 16A board for roughly 3500W. That is the sum of everything plugged in, not the largest item. Typical draws:
- Laptop charger: 65W to 100W
- Router, set-top box, phone charger: 10W to 25W each
- LED TV: 60W to 150W
- Desk fan: 50W to 80W
- Electric iron: 1000W to 1800W
- Electric kettle: 1500W to 2000W
- Water purifier: 25W to 60W, but with a high startup surge
- Refrigerator: 150W running, with a compressor startup surge several times that
Anything with a heating element or a motor belongs on a 16A board, or better, directly in a wall socket.
Never do these
- Do not chain boards together. One board into another multiplies the current through a single cord and plug.
- Do not coil a cord that is under heavy load. A coiled cable cannot shed heat. Cord reels are rated lower when wound for exactly this reason.
- Do not run a board under a carpet, mattress or rug. Trapped heat plus foot traffic on the cable is a bad combination.
- Do not use a board in a wet area. Bathrooms, kitchen sinks, terraces during rain.
- Do not force a 2-pin plug into a 3-pin socket at an angle. It deforms the contacts.
- Do not use a board with a cracked housing, a damaged cord, or a socket that has gone brown. Replace it.
Signs a board needs replacing
- Brown or black discolouration around a socket
- A plug that falls out or sits loose
- Warmth you can feel on the housing or the cord under normal load
- A faint smell of hot plastic
- Crackling or intermittent power when the plug is nudged
- A switch that needs to be pressed twice
Earthing
A three-pin socket is only as good as the earth behind it. If your wall socket has no working earth, the earth pin on the board does nothing, and metal-bodied appliances become a shock risk. If you are unsure, have a licensed electrician test it. This is not a DIY check.
Working with our electrical safety gloves
Class 0 dielectric gloves are tested to 1000V but they are not a licence to work live. Inspect and air-test them before every single use, retest them every six months, and discard them at the first sign of a cut, crack, or swelling. Store them flat, out of sunlight, away from oil and ozone sources. Live-line work should only be done by qualified personnel following the applicable regulations.
Wiring work
We sell wires, MCBs, switches and sockets as components. Installation of fixed wiring should be done by a licensed electrician in line with local regulations. Isolate the circuit at the MCB and confirm it is dead with a tester before touching anything.