In this age of technology, many of us are entangled in a mass of cables and power cords which serve to keep us connected and entertained. Things are no different at Crest Avenue. When we started setting up the new living room, which included reestablishing the cable and internet service, I used a general purpose extension cord to initially get everything connected. I knew this would be temporary because, well, ... it is unsafe.
To remedy the situation, we recently bought one of these GE Outlet Surge Protectors, which is a much better way of handling the multitude of power cords necessary to keep us up and running. This particular model has ten outlets and two USB charging ports. The arrangement of the outlets on this model is particularly good because they have allowed for four plugs with built in transformers to have their own space; two on each end of the unit. That is not always easy to find on some of the power strips or surge protectors.
USB charging ports are becoming more prevalent these days. They are fast becoming a normal part of our everyday world. Even in the car. I have a dedicated USB port in my car. Having two more of these ports on this device is handy. There may well come a time when I need an extra USB port. If you have company and they need a place to charge their phone or tablet, this would come in handy. You might think that you could offer to let them plug in to one of the USB ports on your desktop computer. The problem there is, they are probably all currently in use. All the USB ports on my desktop computer are already dedicated.
If you are using general purpose extension cords to power heavy-duty entertainment equipment in your home, I strongly suggest that you consider upgrading to one of these units from GE or something similar. Fire incident history research has shown that a large proportion of structure fires are caused by extension cords that have been either damaged or overloaded. I know that at first the expense of $29.97 for this unit may seem exorbitant, but in the end it is very little to pay to save your home and family from a potential fire and to give you peace of mind.
These light-duty extension cords are not designed to handle the electrical requirements of today's sophisticated electronics, but instead were designed to offer a temporary wiring solution. You would use one of these to power a lamp, clock, radio or fan. And, it is generally recommended that only one device be plugged into an extension cord, no matter how many plugs may actually exist on the cord. Here, I had three separate devices plugged into one extension cord. It makes me uneasy just looking at this.
To remedy the situation, we recently bought one of these GE Outlet Surge Protectors, which is a much better way of handling the multitude of power cords necessary to keep us up and running. This particular model has ten outlets and two USB charging ports. The arrangement of the outlets on this model is particularly good because they have allowed for four plugs with built in transformers to have their own space; two on each end of the unit. That is not always easy to find on some of the power strips or surge protectors.
USB charging ports are becoming more prevalent these days. They are fast becoming a normal part of our everyday world. Even in the car. I have a dedicated USB port in my car. Having two more of these ports on this device is handy. There may well come a time when I need an extra USB port. If you have company and they need a place to charge their phone or tablet, this would come in handy. You might think that you could offer to let them plug in to one of the USB ports on your desktop computer. The problem there is, they are probably all currently in use. All the USB ports on my desktop computer are already dedicated.
If you are using general purpose extension cords to power heavy-duty entertainment equipment in your home, I strongly suggest that you consider upgrading to one of these units from GE or something similar. Fire incident history research has shown that a large proportion of structure fires are caused by extension cords that have been either damaged or overloaded. I know that at first the expense of $29.97 for this unit may seem exorbitant, but in the end it is very little to pay to save your home and family from a potential fire and to give you peace of mind.
