Electrical – draw 20 amps from the home power outlet is there any way to do that safely

amperageamplifierpower electronicsvoltage

I'm wanting connect up a bunch of Raspberry Pis (micro computers) to one power outlet in my home. At about .5 amps per computer * 40 computer means I will need to draw 20 amps.

Now, I know that I'm only supposed to draw a max of 12-15amps from my standard 120volt North American outlet, but I'm wondering if there is any way to amplify the amperage and then use it to power all the computers, or alternatively, whether there is another way to somehow achieve this that I'm unaware of.

If there is no possible way to do this, what other method for drawing 20amps of power would you suggest?

EDIT: Computers run at 5V DC, I'm using a 5V, 20amp power adapter which I plug into the wall to get that but I don't want to draw the full 20amps because the wall socket can't handle it.

Best Answer

Not a problem. You have 40 devices drawing 0.5 A each at 5 V.

40 x 0.5 A x 5 V = 100 W

So if your AC to DC converter is 100% efficient then you need to draw 100 W from the mains and in the US that is I= 100/120V = 840 mA which is well within the limits.

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