Q: We recently had a fire in our living room because we had too many plugs on one receptacle. Is there a way to know how much is too much?

A: Generally speaking it should be fine to plug one thing into each available receptacle. The problem is that too many people run extension cords and add receptacle adaptors that allow up to six devices to be plugged in at once. The receptacle is designed for only two devices so more than that is too many. There are a lot of things to consider of course such as the load but I always say if there is no place to plug something in you should move to another receptacle. From experience I would say most fires get started when extension cords are used and the homeowner tucks the cord under a carpet to hide it. The braided extension cord wire is not rated for much of a load so it gets warm when overloaded. If it is under a carpet it could burn the house down. The breaker doesn’t trip in this situation because the load is ok on house wire but the extension cord