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I am totally new to the science of electricity and power circuits... I have a large number of 4.5V Switching Mode Power Adapters, (4.5V, 1000mA) for a miniature scale village that I am building. I would like to create a custom power strip (AC) with a larger than usual number of sockets (around 15-20 sockets) and was wondering how many of these switching mode DC adapters can I actually plug into a single power strip before I risk overloading the power strip itself?
 
Your power adaptors can supply about 5 watts, so they are not going to be consuming as much as 10 watts each.
So 100 of them would consume under 1000 watts, less that a kettle or a fan heater.
However being switch mode, there are possibly waveform transient considerations.
I don't think you would have a problem using 30 of them from a single supply. (and incidentally that 300watts or less will be mostly dissipated in the lights, not in the power supplies, so I don't forsee an overheating problem - but keep an eye on that though)

However I would discourage you from DIY'ing a large number of sockets when you can buy properly manufactured strips to do the job. For example, two of these would presumably work for you:
 
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Thanks for the feedback.. you are correct, the prebuilt strips are the way to go... Was not sure how to figure out the correct load... Each one of these power adapters is rated at 1000mAh, so I guess a 12A or 15A rated strip would be more than sufficient.
 
Thanks for the feedback.. you are correct, the prebuilt strips are the way to go... Was not sure how to figure out the correct load... Each one of these power adapters is rated at 1000mAh, so I guess a 12A or 15A rated strip would be more than sufficient.
Twenty of your power supplies will take less than an amp (assuming your mains voltage is 220 - 240)
So you will be absolutely fine with a strip rated at a few amps. 12A more than enough.
 
However....... what might scupper you is leakage current taking out an RCD with that many. Have you considered just using one or two larger units to produce DC instead?
 
However....... what might scupper you is leakage current taking out an RCD with that many. Have you considered just using one or two larger units to produce DC instead?
Although leakage is not going to be an issue if the plug in power supplies have a plastic earth pin or a symbol on the back that looks like a square inside a square.
 
I considered that, but could not find any larger DC unit that offers multiple leads/outlets...
Do you not just need one source of energy distributed through a network of switches?
 
Seeing you already had the power supplies, I answered the question.
But as others have suggested, you could use one supply for everything.
Something like this?
 
Seeing you already had the power supplies, I answered the question.
But as others have suggested, you could use one supply for everything.
Something like this?
Sorry, my mistake - you want 4.5 / 5V. Forget that!
 
For this you could use one or more breakout boards/ distribution boards, for example a couple of this sort of thing.

If you had a 5V 40A or 50A power supply, probably a good idea to have fused circuits as above ?
It looks like this might be the thing that will get me to where I need to go :).... I would then create my own leads to the individual powered devices instead of having tens of switching adapters clogging a bunch of power strips..

I basically have 50+ DC adapters, so plugging these onto power strips is clunky and in my view dangerous... Will research how to setup fused circuits such as this one you pointed out, I would need about 5 of these working in tandem...
 
Are your lamps LED? If so then the actual total current you need may be well under what people are talking about.

Don't forget that each transformer will have more capacity than is actually needed.
 
Most of these are tiny LED lamps, mainly used for Lemax model houses, some are used to drive small motors....
 

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