My 1970s house is very lacking in wall plug sockets and has a measily single plug socket where the TV and associated kit needs to go.

However I need to power :

CRT TV (20")
Sky box
DVD player
PS2
Cordless DECT telephone
AV Amp
Video

So that's a total of 7 things ! I also want to add a powered sub woofer at some point.

At present I've got a 6 way extension cable with a 2 way adapter in one of the sockets giving me the 7 sockets I need.

Is this safe enough ?

I don't know a huge amount about electricity but as far as I understand it it's the wattage at any one time that's the important bit ? I'll never have all the things in use at the same time although all of them remain in standby.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

This is almost certainly safe enough, I assume that you have a 13 amp cable into the 6 way adaptor.

If you want to absolutely sure just add up all the wattages of the appliances (with them on not standby) and check that they're less than the adaptor, if its a 13 amp one they definitely will be.

Where it can get dangerous is when you have multiple sockets stacked into each other and the physical weight makes them half fall out etc.

I would not advocate using 2 way adaptors if you can avoid them. They tend to be all too easy to dislodge or fall out if the leads plugged in are tight or move.

The most important thing though is the total load. Though with a 13 amp capacity that gives you 2990W to play with at a nominal 230V mains. The biggest loads on your set up are the amp and TV. But you are unlikely to get close to 100W on either in normal use. So load shouldn't be a problem. Just don't go plugging your electric fire into the lead

It would be best to get an eight way block though and also go for one with surge protection built in, eg...

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st...clickfrom=name

or

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/stor...m=null&tm=null

Thanks ! The one from Argos looks the job.

Our local Argos was selling surge protection multiblocks off cheap last week.

I definitely agree, I would never have all that equipment plugged in without surge protection, for the low cost of surge protection it doesn't make sense.

I have my A/V & HiFi equipment powered up through a linked series of gang-sockets with one sub-group which needs permanent power and other sub-groups which can be turned on and off as one unit.