I just counted how many things I have plugged in on "my side of the bed" (I'm single at the moment, so there's nothing on "her side of the bed"), and discovered that I have eight things plugged into extension cords there.

Common safety wisdom would have that there should be wall receptacles for all of these, so I'm not using extension cords. That would make four duplex receptacles that I should have there.

I suspect that a "her", with cell phone charger, Blackberry charger, lamp, clock radio, and whatnot, would also need quite a few receptacles there.

So, my questions are:

1) How much stuff do you guys have plugged in by your beds?

2) How many receptacles do you normally install at the bedside in a master bedroom?

Right now I have 4 things, though it often swells to 6+ with chargers:
1. Clock radio
2: Lamp
3: Scanner Charger
4:Streamlight Stinger (Flashlight) Charger/cradle

If I'm dealing with a custom house, I'll at least put a 4-plex on each side of the bed, though I have, at the owner's request, put a 4 gang in on each side. If I was building my house, I'd do at least that, or maybe a quad and two single gangs to handle all the adapters things have these days.

Wiremold add on boxes can turn a duplex into a quad (or more)

-Mike

I remember seeing a quad the would fit into a single gang box, I believe. The slots were all turned at angles. Has anyone seen one or know where to get them?

At my house I went with 3 quads to cover the 2 likely bed locations and 2 4 way loops at about 36" nat each bed location and by the door. One controls the overhead light and one controls one of the receptacles for lamps. I have a wall mounted desk just outside the bedroom for all those blackberry's, palms and phones. That has a duplex and a strip for the wallwarts.

At my bed side Receptacle I have the Following plugged in
1. A clock
2. lamp (Fitted with a CFL bulb)
3 Cordless Phone ac adapter
4. a small fan

on the other side of my bed I have another power strip thats plugged into a nearby receptacle via extension cord that has a
1. a lamp (3-Way Bulb 50-100-150)
2.CPAP Machine (A Medical machine to help me breath at night)
3. A Laptop computer
4. Power Failure Flashlight

Leviton Makes the quad that fits into a single gang box the leviton part number is 1254-XX 15 AMP (XX = the color you want)21254
= 20 AMP

You still need:
5. Aussie Heated Hose.

For me it depends how many chargers I have plugged in. There's a recept. one foot from the end of my bed (which sits against the wall/radiator.) I (violated the UL listing) and mounted a power strip to the bed post, with an old plastic shelf for all my chargers.

Let's count shall we?


1. iBook Charger
2. Father's Comcast laptop charger
3. Drill battery charger
4. Video camera charger
5. Cell phone charger
6. iPod charger.

Six items exactly, from one power strip. Of course not all are used at one given time, and they're unplugged when not used.

Ian A.

My bedside has 4 things, alarm clock, portble phone, ipod charger and one of those white noise generator [for wife]

If an owner request a quad, I suggest 2 duplex on either side of the same stud, that way you can plug in a wall wart and not lose a plug in point. I have not done 2 gang quads for years now.

A Gem (6 way) tap.
Plugged into it:

Desk power system, which amounts to a power strip, half switched. I have a computer (monitor, CPU) on that.
Clock Radio. Typical LED electronic/Transistor Radio from the 1980s.
Bedside Lamp. 60W incandescent wallish lamp on a rotary in-line dimmer.

In the summer I have a fan which I run through an old furnace control relay, which I have connected to a set-back thermostat in cooling mode. It plugs into the Gem tap also.

I have an 3 outlet extension cord (it's an old house, with no power on that wall),feeding 3 power strips (2x 3 outlet, 1x 6 outlet) which are mounted to the end of the custom (1x12 pine) sideboard which holds all the bedside stuff.
TV, 2 DVD players, VCR, RF modulator to feed TV, 2 lights, cell charger, laptop, cordless phone charger.

What's wrong with using a power strip?

Edit: oh, sorry, forgot where I was for a second- I meant a surge supressor To protect all that stuff, of course, not for the extra outlets...

From Alan Belson:

With only one clock radio, I guess i am at the top of the list with the number of things plugged in at my bedside.

I always ask the customer where the bed goes, then install one double duplex on each side with a phone jack.

My side:

Lamp
Clock Radio
Waterbed Heater

Wife's side:

Lamp
Clock Radio
Window A/C (on dedicated circuit).

We don't take anything into the bedroom that doesn't involve "bed activities" (sleeping and that other thing).
We found both are better without distractions.
That is why I put that desk on the wall outside the door for the chargers. Work stops HERE.

At the moment I have a reading lamp plugged in beside my bed that is if it is even plugged in! ( No clock as I am never here I stay at the G/F's place all the time) The lights in the wall unit I have are plugged into the existing circuit but the stereo and T.V plug into an isolated ground circuit I ran up there years ago to pick up the electronics in my room and my brothers room. Iso ground is not needed for my stuff but my bro has all sorts of fancy guitar amps and things so I figured why not and ran all of it on one iso ground circuit.

One clock, two lamps (one each side)....

Have you guys thought of plugging in chargers elsewhere? Desk, kit countertop?

OH Yeah, how can I forget the noisy old window fan for those 60-70 degree nights. It doesn't get the power-strip treatment though.

Ian A.

Wow. As basic as this question is, it's actually a pretty good topic for thought with all of this arc fault discussion relating to receptacles in bedrooms.

Anyway, when we first moved into my brand-new house, my first order of business was to install plenty of floodlights on the back and sides of the house with plenty of four-ways.

My side of the bed has one of these at 36" plus a 4-way for the switched half receptacle. There's another one on my wife's side of the bed plus the one by the door.

I have a single duplex on my side. On her side, the top half is switched and we have lamps on both night stands connected using a basic two-wire extension cord.

We both have alarm clocks and I have a cell phone charger, so oddly, my applications are almost proper.

The painter's house always needs painting;
The mechanic's car always needs repair;
The plumber always has leaks;
The electrician is using extension cords.

My vote is two double-duplex on each side of the bed with one half switched by 4-ways at the locations I mentioned. I did this in my previous house as well, so I have enjoyed this convenience since 1987. It's really nice.

I have been shamed by this post and I plan to do something to eliminate the permanent extension cord that I am using for the bedside lamps next weekend.

Anyone want to talk about whats under thier desk right now in terms of cords???? Not me....

Today I closed some wall plates in my living room that have been open for almost two years. Just never got around to putting the cover plates on... But wouldn't leave someone elses house over-nite without them.

I also worked on my BBQ, and replaced the kitchen faucet....

We had a thread a while ago about our computer desk. This one has 3 power strips and one has a couple cube taps in it, just for all the wall warts and other stuff to support 3 PCs (routers, switches etc). It all runs on a 400 watt UPS so I am not overloading the circuit but it ain't pretty.

Queen bed, my side:
Bedside lamp
Phone charger
Baby monitor
Electric blanket
Laptop power supply

The other (his) side:
Clock radio
Bedside lamp
PDA charger
Indoor / outdoor weather station thingy
Phone charger
Some other charger (who knows what it does)

We each have a 6 gang outlet that plugs into a outlet on either side of the bed

My bedroom is more of a home theater, so it got completely rewired about a year ago. I have a fan, a lamp, a clock radio, and a phone charger on my nightstand. They are all plugged into one of those Tripp-lite Isobar units.

When I rewired the room, I put "quads" everywhere. I used different colored outlets. The ivory ones are always on, and, the brown ones are all controlled by a lightswitch on the wall. I also have a 30amp 240volt twist lock for my sound system.

Why 240 Volt? most Home theater gear is 120 volt

There was a time here when a "minimum build" house got one single receptacle per bedroom.

Paul, as far as I can recall, our bedrooms required that no space along the wall be more than six feet from a receptacle.

Since most bedrooms are fairly close to 12' x 12' (give or take a few feet), this often resulted in a 'minimal' bedroom having the receptacles placed near the middle of the walls ... where furniture would likely block them

So, when I do a bedroom, I start by planning a receptacle on either side of the bed ... which means that these two receptacles are a lot closer than the maximum spacing allowed by our code ... and take the spacing from there.

I should post some pictures of my desk, especially the underside/backside.

It currently has 2 10 outlet power strips mounted to the back of the cross brace, one each for UPS and non-UPS power. I'm about to add another power strip.
These are all the metal type made by Belkin or Waber, using real duplex outlets. The 10 outlet models look like a 5 gang outlet box, and will handle at least 6 wall warts without blocking adjacent outlets. With small wall warts, I have been able to comfortably fit 10 on the strip. I normally place wall warts in the odd slots, and cords in the even slots. No cube taps, or wall warts on silly 8" cords allowed here.

The main workstation is a triple-headed unix box. with two (soon to be three) KVM switches (one per monitor). The desk supports 3-6 PC's, depending on what I am working on at the moment.

The UPS (1.4 KVA) is located in the server rack in the closet across the room. The cable from the UPS to the desk is just under 20', with half of that being the 10' cable on the power strip. It is routed, along with other cables, along the baseboard behind the workbench, and under the wire shelving.

The UPS powers the following:
In the server rack:
ER1. NFS server (p3/800 freebsd)
ER2. voip server (k6/350 centos/asterisk)
ER3. spare server (cel/500 freebsd)
ER4.
ER5. feed to desk
ER6. power strip for DSL/switch/AP

ER6.1. DSL bridge (wall wart)
ER6.2. ethernet switch (10/100/1000) (wall wart)
ER6.3. Wireless access point (via POE) (wall wart)
ER6.4. firewall/router (p/133 freebsd)

at desk:
ED1. KVM #1 (wall wart)
ED2. KVM #2 (wall wart)
ED3. workstation #1 (p4/1700 freebsd)
ED4. workstation #2 (p3/866 freebsd/netbsd/XP)
ED5. Ethernet switch (10/100) (wall wart)
ED6. 17" monitor #1
ED7. workstation #3 (p4/2000 freebsd)
ED8. DVR (cel/1000 knoppix/mythtv)
ED9. 17" monitor #2
ED10. 17" monitor #3

ED11. KVM #3 (future) (wall wart)

Non-UPS power at the desk:
D1. radio charger #1 (wall wart)
D2. radio charger #2 (wall wart)
D3. stereo (small Teac, built-in CD player/tuner, aux/tape/md in/out for Dish/PC/DVR)
D4. radio charger #3
D5. Palm charger (wall wart)
D6. radio scanner power supply (wall wart)
D7. radio power supply
D8. feed to tv/vcr/Dish/printer
D9.
D10.

D8.1. Dish receiver
D8.2. VCR
D8.3. TV (13")
D8.4. printer/scanner/copier

#'s D8.1-D8.4 are on a 6 outlet strip mounted to the shelf which they sit on, which straddles the windowsills in the corner.

I will also need another strip for UPS power pretty soon..

Also on/at desk, but plugged directly to wall.
radio charger #4
hanging desk light (inline switch cord run to front edge of desk)

These have been interesting replies so far! I suspected that most folks have considerably more than two things plugged in at the bedside, or even two things on each side. I'm seeing that, indeed, most people have far more than that.

Just eyeballing the answers so far, I'd say that around six items on each side of the bed is pretty typical. So even a two-gang isn't really sufficient. It sounds like a three- or four-gang, or equivalent, on each side of the bed is really about what is needed to take care of the typical couple.

Hahah thats the thing with well any trade.. We KNOW what can slide and what cannot.. Hey, back in the days when this house had fuses, I will admit I have plunked a larger fuse in just to get the circuit livened up again, knowing it would be only for a short time ( until I found spares), and also knowing that whoever wiped out the fuse would NOT do whatever they did to overload the circuit again.. Would I do that in someone elses house? NEVER because you know as soon as you leave to get them spares if you did not have any on the truck or whatever, they would overload the circuit again regardless of what you tell them NOT to do.

A.D

I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't get out of bed if I didn't put the alarm clock across the room, away from the headboard.

And with the way my wife rearranges furniture, there's no way I'm installing more than a single-gang box for receptacles in any house I own, unless there's a fixed purpose for my toys.

A four way power outlet by the bed feeds:
-two electric blankets (in winter)
-two bedside lamps
-mobile phone charger

The Clipsal C2015D4 outlets are the best thing for beside the bed with the four outlets to replace double outlets:
http://updates.clipsal.com/ClipsalOnline/ProductInformation.aspx?CatNo=C2015D4&ref=

Interesting topic.
In our bedroom we have the following items plugged in.
A 230 Volts 15 Amp supply feeding to single ppt's at either side of the bed.
One is Feeding a board with kWh meter and time switches which control a multi ppt strip:
Bedlamp
Amplifier,
CD / DVD player,
Reel to reel tapedeck
Cassette deck
Tuner
Scanner
Phone charger
An extension lead to the
TV
Fan
VCR
Large digital LED clock
One or two leads i don't even know what is at the end, covered with magazines (lazy me)

Other side (misses)
Bedlamp
Phone charger
Hairdryer, ( i tell her to unplug it )

A third separate powerpoint 230 Volts 20 Amps is for an electric lpug in heater.

I just looked, I have 2 lamps, 2 clocks and a wall wart that I am not even sure what it does.
You folks should kick the rest of that stuff out of your bedroom. You will be happier.
Leave the palm pilot and blackberry with the keys to your truck.

Note to self: install outlet in top-of-stairs-hallway.

Ian A.

Kid that isn't a bad idea. I am old, trust me. Leave your job in the hall.

Our room also has the TV & AUSTAR satellite decoder. This room is the only one that has the reverse cycle aircon so we like to "hide" in the on the humid days when the evaporative aircon just doesn't do the job.

I'm in agreance about "leaving work outside" as me & my missus have days where the home phone, both mobiles & the computer are left off or unplugged to give us a day together with no distractions.

I agree totally. I leave my cell phone to charge in my office. (Second bedroom)

I do have a 90-degree plug cord and a surge protector coming out from the recept. (Behind the bed) to my nightstand. Just a radio and lamp plugged in there. Across the room I have my LCD TV and tuner. During the summer a small window A/C (6.5 amps running draw) shares the recept.

In the other bedroom (office) it's the computer (on 500va UPS),with laser printer, fax machine and cell phone charger.

This apartment I'm in was wired in the mid 40's. All cloth romex, no grounds anywhere (except in the new circuits I added and the homerun to the old general receptacle circuit.) Both bedrooms only have two recepts, centered on opposing walls. The homerun landed in the wall common to both bedrooms (north wall master, south wall office) so I was able to readily add grounds to those two recept. The boxes are back-to back. (4 squares with single gang mudrings.)

The living room had only two recepts originally, one on the east and north walls, plus a (formerly) switched recept on the south wall. The landlord had added one more to the north wall at one time.

When I moved in ALL the recepts, including kitchen and bath, and bedrooms and living room, all on ONE 20a circuit!! The original H/R was...get this, a three wire Romex with one #12 black, 1 # 12 white neutral and a #14! red hot leg !!! (That was for the lights.) Very strange stuff. If I can ever get into the wall where it is abandoned, I'll cut a piece and post pics.

It was a bad splice in the bedroom j-box (guess which wire) that prompted me to do all the upgrades below. And not a shared branch circuit neutral in the house!

I now have two new circuits to the kitchen, one for the microwave and one with a two-gang Gfi'd for appliances (The garbage disposal and one recept in the dining area are still on the original run.)

The bath is next to be broken off (I have the H/R to the attic, just haven't tied it in yet).

And I have a dedicated circuit to my cinema sound rack in the living room.

The landlord is a good friend of many years and split the cost of the upgrades with me.