Is it safe to plug a space heater into a surge protector?

The heat developed by the relatively high current of the heater going through the surge protector will probably shorten the life of the protector.

Two things need to be differentiated, voltage and current. Voltage is basically the speed the power is being forced through the wire, and current (or amps) is basically how fat the stream of electrons is. And watts is the product of speed times amps. (Kind of like speed of traffic, times how many lanes, equals how many cars are getting through. These definitions have some flaws to them, but not significant to a non-engineer)

A good suppressor will have two functions, usually a light will indicate that the suppressor circuit is working, that is the part that protects your equipment from voltage spikes. This light will go out if the surge suppressor is no longer working, and often this function is spent when used.

It will also have a overcurrent circuit breaker that will shut the surge suppressor off if too much current is present. This is to protect the suppressor circuitry from getting too hot, the heat will damage the surge suppressor. The overcurrent function is normally what is resettable.

It doesn't really benefit the heater to be plugged into a surge suppressor, and it has been reported that if the circuit breaker function fails it can cause the surge suppressor to burn up, this should be contained by the housing of the surge suppressor, but if the housing has been damaged...

Surge protectors are rated for a certain wattage. The cheap ones $10 might handle 500 watts, an expensive one for $75 might handle 3,000 watts. Each appliance has the wattage shown on a label. For those three appliances I'd get one of the expensive surge protectors that have a circuit breaker built in. I also would never run all three appliances at the same time. Shut off the heater when using the microwave. The fridge will turn on and off at random. Even though the surge protector can handle the wattage, it could still overload your apartment or house wiring.

Small Surge Protector

The surge protector has a circuit breaker that trips to turn off the power. Often these breakers get weak with time and trip prematurely. Space heaters usually have 6 to 7 foot cords in an attempt to discourage the use of extension cords. Make sure your surge protector is rated for 1500 watts.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/098.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Electric-Space-Heaters-P...

space heaters draw a considerable amount of amps. i have a small fan heater and if i put it on an extension cord, after a few minutes the cord starts getting hot. i've ran mine in my living room with my t.v., computer, and lights on and it tripped the breaker. there should be a sticker on your heater that shows the maximum amount of amps that it draws. also, if you're using an outlet on a 20 amp breaker, that doesn't mean that the surge protector goes as high as 20 amps.

No its never safe

Lastly, never plug your space heater into a light-duty extension cord or multi-outlet surge protector; both are too weak to handle a high-wattage appliance

If it continues to be a problem, I would reccomend using a surge protector with a bigger guage cord. Mayby a 12 ga. cord instead of a 14 ga. cord. The amsller the number, the larger the wire in the cord. Good Luck!

of course its safe,, a surge protector is like a small extension cord except it has electronic components to keep any electrical surges from getting into your equipment,, like a TV or computer and burning them up

Hi Yes , why not use a circuit breaker adaptor as well.?

cheers

Bob