#280820 - 28/04/2006 15:24
Power distribution in a UK home office
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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I'm sure I am not the only person here who has a rediculous amount of devices in my home office. Doing a quick count I have:
- pc1
- pc2
- mac mini
- server1
- server2
- monitor1
- monitor2
- external hd1
- external hd2
- switch
- wifi
- router
- empeg
- amp
- printer
- usb hub
- lamp
- laptop dock
- battery chargers
- scanner
- fax
- shredder
- radio
I am trying to be more sensible and turn things off when I am not using them. At the moment everything is connected by a mess of a series of cheap/nasty 4 and 6 gang unswitched extension leads.
I want to improve on this. I want to be able to switch each device off separately and I want to be able to easily see which device is on. Ideally I'd like it all to not take up too much space...
The best I can come up with so far are cheap and nasty 8 gang switched extension leads from Homebase, which are huge and further add to the oil refinery look of my room at night...
Does anyone have any better ideas ?
P.S. I'm in the UK, so UK only solutions please 
Edited by andy (28/04/2006 15:25)
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#280821 - 28/04/2006 15:45
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14493
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
'm sure I am not the only person here who has a rediculous amount of devices
Sure you are. The rest of us muggles just have a ridiculous number of devices.
Ganged outlets ("power bars"), with individual device switches, are pretty much the only low-tech answer, I fear. But that's not a UK only solution. You folks do have the added burden of those humongous plugs for everything.
One tip is to ensure the switches are easily accessible, and not buried beneath a table or desk.
A back-burner project of mine here, is to finally assemble a solid-state relay box to let my 24/7 server switch things on/off on demand, like extra hard drives, lights, etc.. The server itself stays on, but it only chews about 18W or so, steady state.
Cheers
Edited by mlord (28/04/2006 15:48)
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#280822 - 28/04/2006 15:53
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14493
Loc: Canada
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Hey, here's a thought.
Most of the stuff on your list probably uses IEC cords. So I suppose you might be able to construct a less industrial looking distribution point for those. Nip off the AC plugs from a bunch of those cords, and hardwire them into a custom switchbox, with one small AC switch for each cord. Requires more effort than a trip to Homebase, though.
A fanatic might even use electronic relays in the custom box, and have a PIC or gumstix processor control them, with a smallish desktop keypad as the blood'n'guts interface. Much less unsightly. Except for the B&G portion.
Cheers
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#280823 - 28/04/2006 15:54
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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I was actually going to jokingly recommend raised floor or an overhead ladder system for the wiring.
But I would certainly recommend an audit - find what can be grouped together and shut off at the same time. For example, group your "always on" items like server CPUs and disks on one set of circuits, monitors and other items that are only used while in the room on switched outlets, things like that.
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs
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#280824 - 28/04/2006 16:07
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andy]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/02/2002
Posts: 1904
Loc: Leeds, UK
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I've always wanted to have everything running of X10, all hidden away. You could distribute low voltage over a Cat5 network, going back to a central location where the wall wart would be kept. Make custom patch cords up using different pairs for different voltages so you don't blow your stuff up. To turn something on and off just select it from a web page etc... Maybe not the most practical solution, but it sure would be cool  The more I think about this idea, the more I think it's total rubbish  There should be better solutions to these sorts of power problems... Cheers Cris.
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#280825 - 28/04/2006 16:27
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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I really wish there was a standard low power specification. How difficult would it be for manufacturers to agree on something like USB to power all DC devices ?
It is silly that I have to have a dozen AC-DC power bricks in the room.
I think this question might have been posed here before...
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#280826 - 28/04/2006 16:55
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andy]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
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Quote:
I think this question might have been posed here before...
I think this is the thread you mean.
-Zeke
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#280827 - 28/04/2006 18:02
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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You really want something like this:
I'm too knackered to find a picture of one with individually switchable outputs although they do exist.
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Cheers,
Andy M
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#280828 - 28/04/2006 18:18
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andym]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/10/2000
Posts: 4931
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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One of our distributors carries devices from China like that.  Like this or thisSince those come from chinese companies that just slap your name on anything, I'm sure there are versions for other plugs/voltages available.
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-Rob Riccardelli
80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#280829 - 28/04/2006 18:25
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andym]
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old hand
Registered: 07/01/2005
Posts: 893
Loc: Sector ZZ9pZa
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Thing is, I count at least 10 things in the list which have power adapters, which means a 'wall wart' or an in-line brick. As cool as rack mounted power distribution is, I don't think its gonna work in this home-office. How about Dado Trunking? You could run this above or below a desk, maybe 2 rows of it would be appropriate, 6 double sockets in each row. RJ45 outlets, telephone, tv/satellite outlets... it can all go in there. The trunking itself comes in many different types, with shielded compartments if you want to seperate power and data further than just a strip of PVC. Shielded boxes are also available to put your RJ45 outlets into. Use flat bends, inside bends, outside bends and endcaps to create a masterpiece It will definately do the job. If you want more details, let me know, I'm an electrical wholesaler so I do sell the stuff!
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#280831 - 28/04/2006 18:45
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: robricc]
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old hand
Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1039
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.
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I use something nearly identical to that Elation thing... http://www.starlight-online.com/copilot.htmIt's from American DJ (a chinese company). They have a UK version of it, but the picture shows american style sockets.
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#280832 - 28/04/2006 18:46
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: larry818]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/10/2000
Posts: 4931
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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Elation is the "higher-end" line from American DJ.
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-Rob Riccardelli
80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#280833 - 29/04/2006 04:21
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
I really wish there was a standard low power specification. How difficult would it be for manufacturers to agree on something like USB to power all DC devices ?
A recent EWeek article was talking about this very thing. The overall power consumption of the average server room is starting to be an issue for some companies. Going to DC is one possible way to cut it down. APC is leading the charge, if I recall correctly from the article. It's gonna be quite a while before we see server rooms with all-DC equipment...
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#280834 - 29/04/2006 04:54
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
Going to DC is one possible way to cut it down. APC is leading the charge, if I recall correctly from the article. It's gonna be quite a while before we see server rooms with all-DC equipment...
Nearly every Proliant had an option for DC power supplies instead of AC ones. I was always surprised at how there weren't that many companies looking to order them. I think the blades did help though, as they can have two big DC power feeds run into a rack to power the whole thing, instead of having to feed multiple PDUs for a rack. The Blades all ran DC, and if a customer wanted AC, they had to buy a 3U component in the rack that would do the AC to DC conversion before sending the power up the backplane.
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#280835 - 29/04/2006 07:10
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: tfabris]
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veteran
Registered: 01/10/2001
Posts: 1307
Loc: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Quote:
It's gonna be quite a while before we see server rooms with all-DC equipment...
Well, most telecoms (carrier) eqipment is (and has been) 48V DC.
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#280836 - 29/04/2006 09:45
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
- pc1
- monitor1
- external hd1
- external hd2
- printer
- usb hub
- scanner
If you've got a reasonable amount of gear that's attached to one PC, and always goes on and off in conjunction with it, one of these might help.
Peter
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#280837 - 29/04/2006 12:39
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: peter]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14493
Loc: Canada
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That's (really!) cute, but a regular outlet strip with a single switch would do the job even better --> by cutting the standby wattage from the PC itself, as well as being a totally passive (non power consuming) device (the outlet strip).
Cheers
Edited by mlord (29/04/2006 12:49)
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#280838 - 29/04/2006 14:30
Re: Power distribution in a UK home office
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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Kind of, but with that fancy strip you could set the PC to hibernate after a certain period of inactivity and then all the attached devices would also power off, which would be neat. I might just do that for my main desktop machine, at the moment I leave it on 24/7. I'd need to move my P2P apps to one of my servers though.
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