Hello folks.
I work in IT, but working in IT frequently involves coming up with power solutions, so I have interest in electrical work as well.
There are a lot of situations where an installation of equipment will only be around for 6-12 months, and the equipment doesn't draw very much power. In these situations, it would be extremely wasteful to call an electrician out to install additional outlets which will be completely unused once the installation is gone.
We use power strips all the time where I work, but we try to use them as safely as possible. We use only high quality strips, and we never daisy-chain. When I do find daisy chained strips, I fix it and chew out whoever is responsible.
I never understood the "rule" about not being able to secure power strips to a surface. In a lot of cases, securing them to a surface makes for a much neater installation than having them loose on the floor to become hopelessly tangled up in a dangerous, potentially firey mess.
What's better: three power strips secured to a table leg, up off the floor, with the cables neatly secured, or a big spaghetti mess on the floor that frequently gets kicked and/or jostled by people working in the area?
This is definitely a case where the code can probably use some adjustment. Though I fully agree that the photo in this post is much too messy and the daisy-chaining needs to be fixed!
-Z
