Extension leads or a new socket: when a power strip stops being enough
The Abimeister team · Updated · 4 min read
Most flats built before the 2000s were wired for far fewer devices than a household now owns, so extension leads multiply near televisions, desks and kitchen counters. One power strip is rarely a problem. Several plugged into each other, running a kettle, a heater and a laptop charger off a single wall socket, is a different situation. This guide compares the two approaches honestly: what an extension lead is actually for, when it becomes a fire risk rather than a convenience, and what it costs to solve the problem properly instead of managing around it.
Why daisy-chaining power strips is riskier than it looks
A single wall socket and the cable feeding it are rated for a certain load. Plug one extension lead into another and you have not created more capacity, only more sockets drawing from the same original circuit. Each joint between plug and strip adds a connection that can loosen, warm up and, over months, degrade the contact inside.
The real danger is heat building up somewhere you cannot see: behind a sofa, under a desk, coiled up so the cable itself cannot lose heat. A kettle or space heater on the end of a long chain of strips is the classic case, because both draw a lot of current for a short but repeated burst.
This matters more in older Tallinn buildings, panel flats from the Soviet era especially, where the original wiring and consumer unit were sized for a handful of lamps and a radio, not a kitchen full of appliances and a home office.
What an extension lead or power strip is genuinely good for
Used properly, an extension lead is a perfectly reasonable tool. A single strip plugged directly into a wall socket, feeding a group of low-draw devices such as a router, a lamp, a phone charger and a laptop, is well within what a normal circuit handles without strain.
It is also the right choice for anything temporary: a Christmas tree, a fan brought out for a hot week, a tool used for one weekend of DIY. The point of an extension lead is flexibility for things that will not sit in that spot for years.
The line to watch is whether the lead has become a permanent fixture doing the job a wall socket should be doing, or whether it is genuinely covering something short-lived. One strip, one wall socket, moderate load: fine. Anything beyond that deserves a second look.
When it is time to have a proper socket fitted
If a lead has been in the same spot for more than a season, if it is chained to a second strip to reach far enough, or if the plug or socket feels warm to the touch after use, that is the point to stop treating it as temporary.
Kitchens are the most common case: a spot behind the counter for a kettle, toaster and microwave that has always relied on one strip stretched from the nearest socket. A desk set up for working from home is the second most common, once a monitor, dock, lamp and heater all end up on the same lead.
A qualified electrician can usually fit a new socket in the same visit, running a short spur from the nearest suitable point or, where the wall allows it, tapping into an existing circuit safely. It is a modest job in most flats and removes the daisy-chain entirely rather than managing around it.
How many devices is reasonable on one circuit
There is no single number that applies everywhere, because it depends on the circuit's rating and what else shares it, but a few rules of thumb hold up well in ordinary Estonian housing.
Low-draw electronics can share a strip comfortably. Anything that heats or motors hard should have a socket to itself, or at least not be sharing a lead with another high-draw appliance running at the same time.
- Kettles, toasters, heaters, irons and hairdryers: one per socket, never on a shared strip
- Chargers, routers, lamps and laptops: fine grouped on a single strip plugged directly into the wall
- Two high-draw appliances running together on one circuit is the point to worry, even from separate sockets
- A strip feeding another strip is a sign the room needs an extra socket, not an extra lead
- Warm plugs, a strip that trips, or a burning smell mean stop using it and get it checked
What it costs to sort out properly
Fitting a new socket where the wiring already reaches close by is a small job, and we price it from 35 €, done by a qualified electrician so the connection is made safely and to the standard the rest of your wiring should meet.
Where the run is longer, the wall needs chasing, or the existing circuit needs checking before adding a load to it, we work by the hour from 49 €, with a fixed quote given in advance once we know what the job involves. A call-out within Tallinn is 25 €, deducted from the final bill if the work goes ahead.
Weighed against a stack of power strips bought over the years, plus the ongoing risk of an overloaded lead behind a sofa or under a desk, a properly placed socket is usually the cheaper answer once it is measured over more than a single month.
One strip plugged straight into the wall is fine; a chain of them feeding kettles or heaters is not, and that is the point to book a proper socket instead.