Every house needs many power cords and power cord sets. With so many electrical and electronic appliances and gadgets, there are just never enough receptacles to plug them all in. In some places, you need an electric cord with a lot of openings. In other places, you need a longer cord because the device to the power outlet. Sometimes you need quantity and distance. For example, the entertainment center in a corner of the family room probably has many devices that need to be plugged in. There’s the wide screen television, the game box, the cable box, the digital recorder, the I-Pod station, and maybe a cute, little lamp. At the computer desk, you have to plug in the computer, the monitor, the printer, the scanner, the lamp, the coffee pot, and the automatic pencil sharpener. In the kitchen, we have the toaster oven, the can opener, the blender, the food processor, the microwave, and the coffee pot. In the bedroom, there’s the clock radio, the phone, the lamp, the weather radio, and the I-Pod station. Whew! That’s four outlets and twenty-four things to plug in!
Then there’s the matter of safety. In years past, we plugged a little device with three openings into the outlet. Two of these would accommodate six appliances. But the fire department always warned against overloading the sockets. Modern power cords and power cord sets are more sturdy and forgiving than the old three-way sockets. Today, a good power cord also contains a surge protector plus an off/on switch. These devices make it less likely that an overloaded circuit can pose a danger.
Today’s power cords also allow you to be just a bit more environmentally friendly. Have you noticed that all these new appliances leak electricity? I don’t mean that you will be shocked if you touch them. It’s that they are always ON. Can you tell me what is the use of having a little red light on my DVD player when it’s off? It doesn’t have a clock. It doesn’t store channels. Why does it have to be on when I’m away? This is also true of the new television and the digital converter and many of the other electronics. Your house will be more environmentally friendly if you plug these devices into the type of power cord that has an on/off switch. Just flip the Off switch when you go to bed and don’t flip it on until it’s time to relax in the evening. Certainly, if you have the type of television that loses its channel settings when there’s no electricity, you need to plug it into a separate power cord that you leave on, letting that amount of electricity to be used constantly.
One of the new and useful power cords is the squid. Unlike the old surge protectors, each outlet has a small extension. This setup allows you to plug in numerous devices that have that annoying transformer at the end of the plug.