I don’t have enough power outlets at my desk. I’ve actually got enough active outlets for what I need at any one time1, but I’ve got a half-dozen or more devices that I use only occasionally (chargers, external drives, etc.). So while I’ve got enough outlets, I have to swap out what is plugged in to them – this is a hassle and makes it hard to get my cables neatly tucked away.
I’d love something like a big 24 outlet surge protector that I could mount under the desk and would allow me to turn on/off individual outlets as needed so that I could avoid the plug/unplug hassles. Does anyone know if something like this exists?
- I use these surge protectors (Amazon affiliate link) and like them quite a bit.
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stick one of these under your desk? It has 24 ports….
this only has 16 ports, but use a standard plug, the other uses a twistlock.
I’m also not joking. These things can be pretty useful, and they will last absolutely forever.
I am not sure if you read Lifehacker or not but I recently saw a post that gives a decent idea on cord and power management.
I haven’t done this yet myself, but am planning on trying something similar.
Heh… So you’re all trying to convert your desks into datacenter-esk setups? I find that interesting…
I really don’t know that I’ve ever seen any kind of surge protector that would let you switch on and off single outlets on it. The closest thing I could think of off-hand would be a remotely-managed power strip / UPS / etc. that’s generally used in a datacenter environment so you can hard-cycle a machine remotely. And by that point, I don’t think the added convenience would quite be worth your investment for a single desk…
Adam and Mark’s ideas about using the huge power strip (again, like you’d find in a server cabinet) is probably the best idea. You wouldn’t be able to individually control each outlet, but you’d at least have plenty of room for everything you need. I’d probably plug all my core devices into it and then string off a regular power strip to the desk for easy access for one-off stuff (that’s what I do with my laptop(s) now, simply because I’m lazy).
Alex: 24 outlets seem like a lot of power going through one circuit. You might consult a local electrician to have him do a home run from your breaker to your office, then bring the conduit right under the desktop and then do the splitting. Will it cost more? Undoubtedly. But it would be a dedicated circuit, brand new conduit and wire, and capable of having power conditioning, etc. applied to it. Has to be worth your time and money.
That’s why I wanted individual outlet on/offs as well. I’ve been considering the electrician option too…
I’ve got a couple of the Kensington SmartSockets tabletop power strips on my desk, and I love them. The 16 foot power cord helps, too.
We all have this kind of problem. And yes, 24 is a lot of outlets, but most of the things you are talking about, external drives, USB hubs, and so forth use almost nopower. You could put 24 external disk drives on a 20 amp circuit and have most of the power left over. I really like the multi outlet strip from APC shown in an earlier post.