Fun fact that you might not have known: an electrical fire smells an awful lot like fish. If you want to know how I know this, pull up a seat and get comfortable, because I learned about this the hard way. One day, after using my gaming PC with an RTX 4090 and Intel Core-i9 processor for a little while, I realized I could smell this aroma. After quickly checking, I discovered that the outlet my gaming PC was plugged into had melted along with the plug. That’s where the fishy smell had come from — the plastic and heat-resistant chemicals used in outlets had overheated.
If you’re unfortunate enough to ever smell this in your home or apartment, the first thing you should do is not panic. The second is to ensure that this is an electrical problem and when you’re certain, go and flip your breakers (if the outlet hasn’t caused them to trip already), and then call the fire department. Do not try and fix this yourself, as you’ll only put yourself in danger or, in the worst case scenario, make it worse. In my circumstances, the good news was that the damage was limited to the outlet, which was visibly scorched, but the uninterruptible power supply plug had melted completely.
My gaming PC cost a ton, so running into this problem was a real pain. But honestly, as gaming demands keep going up and home wiring and electrical panels stay outdated, this kind of issue? It may just become more and more common.
So. Here’s what happened.
Gaming PC power usage has only increased
The next step was figuring out what happened. At first, I assumed it was an issue with the power draw of my PC with my Gold-rated 1,300-watt power supply unit. Part of the problem seemed to be that my PC was drawing more power than my UPS or circuit could handle, so I took some time to speak with representatives from PC builders like Maingear, NZXT and Corsair to figure out just how much power my PC was sucking up.
“Today’s cutting-edge gaming PCs demand significantly more power than the top configurations of the past, often drawing between 700 and 1,000 watts under load,” said Wallace Santos, the CEO of Maingear. That means modern PC gamers may require a power supply unit rated Gold, Platinum or Titanium capable of at least 1,000 watts if you have an RTX 4090 and a high-end CPU at load.
“A Core i9 CPU can draw anywhere from 125 to 400-plus watts when given a workload that pushes the CPU to its max,” Kevin Shih, senior product manager at NZXT said. “An RTX 4090 generally operates at around 450 watts when running a 3D-intensive game. So doing the math would net you 575 to 850 watts if you are running a 3D-intensive game.”
Power usage also depends on what you’re doing with the PC. According to Craig Green, CTO at Carbice, a company that works on carbon nanotubes to build energy-efficient systems, browsing won’t take up much energy at all, while gaming and rendering suck up power. The biggest energy sink, though, is crypto mining, which can draw as much as 3,000 watts as a starting point. It also likely didn’t help matters that my gaming PC was overclocked, which meant that my CPU was drawing more power on longer sustained loads.
With all that said, every expert I spoke with concurred that the gaming PC likely wasn’t the problem. “Most US homes are wired with 15- or 20-amp outlets,” said Shih. “That means each of these outlets at 120 volts can supply, at a minimum, 1,800 watts of continuous power. Given the above wattage consumption estimation, gaming PCs are not bitcoin mining PCs where multiple GPUs are normally wired up.”
It’s very unlikely that the average gaming PC user is maxing out the full potential of a 20- or even 15-amp circuit, and it’s also unlikely that the PSU is the cause of the electrical fire. “Very unlikely if the PSU has proper safety certifications for multiple regions (like TÜV for EU and UL for North America),” said Corsair representative Justin Ocbina, conveying an answer from Corsair’s Taiwan-based PSU team. “You’ve seen 12VHPWR connectors and wires melt, correct? But they melt and don’t ignite. That’s by design as the wires used have multiple UL parameters to meet.”
So if it’s not the gaming PC’s fault, then what caused my electrical fire?
The problem with old apartments and houses? Harmonics
At this point, I figured it was time to call an electrician. I called Courtney Hymes, an electrician at Kemetic Energies, who replaced my burned-out outlet and provided some insight into what happened.
“With your particular issue in your condo, it was solely due to harmonics,” said Hymes. “It’s an electrical condition that occurs when there [are] nonlinear loads (computers, fluorescent lighting, electronic devices). These devices do not balance out in an electrical circuit, hence they have an irregular sine wave that adds up on the [neutral], causing heat to accumulate on the grounded conductor.”
Put simply, certain kinds of electrical devices have a nonlinear load, which means their waveform is not “sinusoidal.” You might be more familiar with this in the context of UPS, which comes in two forms: pure sine waves and simulated sine waves. Simplifying things even more, pure sine wave is better because it is a smoother, less interrupted power supply. Simulated sine wave has a more jagged power waveform, which can cause power fluctuations and potentially damage sensitive electronics.
In the latter case, you can get a situation called arcing, which happens when an electrical current is flowing and jumps a space. That’s the flash you sometimes see when you plug into a socket. This isn’t always a danger, and sometimes it’s even intentional; appliances like toasters even rely on arcing to function. The problem occurs with unintentional arcing when there are loose and exposed wires, a build-up of dust and pet hair, and overloaded circuits.
All of these factors can combine to spark an electrical fire, which is exactly what happened in my apartment. (It’s worth noting I own three cats who love to shed everywhere.) According to Hymes, it’s likely that my overloaded circuit, combined with damaged wiring and debris buildup caused arcing, which sparked my electrical fire. This would have been less likely to be an issue in a modern house or apartment since the breakers would have tripped (and it would likely have been less dusty too).
An overloaded circuit would normally trip the breakers, but this never happened to me. My vintage General Electric panel hadn’t been upgraded since the 1960s and the breakers didn’t trip at all, which is an extremely dangerous situation when a circuit is overloaded. All this stressed the circuit enough that it overheated and melted down without tripping the breakers. It wasn’t until I smelled the plastic burning that I realized something was amiss.
The fix here turned out to be straightforward but not easy or cheap. In addition to replacing the melted plug, I had Hymes add a new dedicated 20-amp circuit to the bedroom, specifically for the gaming PC. I also upgraded to a newer, more modern electrical panel with AFCI circuit breakers that were more sensitive to arcing electrical faults. Older breakers don’t detect low-level arcing, which can ignite electrical fires, as I learned the hard way.
Get a dedicated circuit if you can
“Most devices in homes that consume as much power as a high-end PC (refrigerator, washer dryer, etc.) are installed on dedicated 15-amp circuits,” Green said. “PCs on the other hand are typically in a home office or something similar and share their circuits with other devices in the room. This can stress those circuits. Sixty amps generally does not align with today’s needs.”
My old prewar building only supports 60 amps for the entire apartment, which needs to cover two people working from home on high power devices, along with multiple other appliances, lights and electronics. The bedroom was running on a single 20-amp circuit, which had to power my gaming rig, a 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9 monitor, a printer, UPS, laptop and dock, multiple lights, fans, the air conditioner, air purifier and other devices all running off the same circuit.
“I will say from a per-circuit perspective, it is a good idea to have a dedicated 20-amp circuit if you have a massive gaming rig with multiple monitors,” Ocbina said, quoting Corsair’s PSU team. According to Hymes, at load, my PC took up more than half of a standard 20-amp circuit, with the rest being eaten by other devices connected to the same circuit.
How to reduce gaming PC power usage and avoid electrical issues
If you’re a renter, your options are going to be more limited since you won’t be able to add circuits or upgrade the panel unless your landlord chooses to do so. That doesn’t mean you’re without options to limit power usage, though.
One good way is to reduce the number of devices running on a single circuit. If you have a gaming PC plugged into your bedroom or office, try to limit other devices you’re using. Surge protectors are good to have to keep your devices safe from power surges, but Hymes warns they can also be dangerous because it’s easy to overload them, so he recommends limiting it to just one per room or circuit and only if absolutely necessary.
Keep an eye on your surge protector’s age as well. Surge protectors lose effectiveness over time, though some of the better models will have a light to notify you when protection has gone away or even disable itself automatically.
An underrated feature is Energy Saver mode, which is available on many devices, including monitors and TVs. Enabling Energy Saver, together with turning on automatic sleep settings for PCs and laptops, can help save serious power. Also, avoid leaving “energy vampire” devices plugged in. Things like TVs, PCs, printers, coffee makers and other appliances all siphon power even when in standby mode. The same holds true for leaving battery-powered devices plugged in. While they likely won’t overload the circuit if they’re finished charging, they could suffer from collateral damage if you have a problem.
If you want to manage these types of devices without constantly having to manually unplug them, most smart plugs offer energy management features and can remotely turn off the power to devices. A similar feature is found in energy-efficient surge protectors.
Avoid overkill components
The next step is to look at the components in your PC for power efficiency gains. Hardcore PC gamers may not like this option, but Corsair advises against overkill PC hardware.
“While it’s cool to see your 4090 operate at 600 watts when unlocked, it’s even more satisfying to see that you reduced the power limit 80% and not see a performance hit!” said Ocbina, quoting the Corsair PSU team. “I’m also a strong believer in getting a proper CPU. Some people will just buy “the biggest” and really not net any gain depending on what they’re doing with it.”
That may very well mean getting an i7-14700F instead of an i9-14900F or going AMD and getting a Ryzen 9 7900, which is even more power efficient. Generally speaking, most intensive games are GPU-driven rather than CPU-driven, so it’s rare that your CPU actually bottlenecks your GPU unless it’s very outdated. The one notable caveat to this may be real-time strategy games and sims. Both lean more heavily on CPU processing, as I can attest to as someone with over 3,000 hours sunk into various Total War and Paradox games.
The jump between GPU generations can be pretty substantial, on the other hand. A 1080Ti, for instance, had a 250-watt power draw, while the RTX 4070 Super draws 220 watts and has 60-70% better performance in aggregated benchmark scores.
While GPUs are by far the biggest power sink in a gaming PC, with an RTX 4090 able to pull down 450 watts at load, the PSU shouldn’t be overlooked either. “Buying an efficient PSU is important,” said Green. “Match your components to your use case.”
PSUs that are rated Gold, Platinum and Titanium use less power while generating less heat, so while it might be tempting to go for a low-cost PSU capable of 1,500 watts, a Titanium at 800 watts may actually serve your needs better by being more efficient.
Keep it cool
Then there’s cooling, which includes not just your fans and liquid cooling options but also fan curves and thermal paste. “A more effective thermal solution can save on fan power during an initial build,” said Green. “Better thermal interface, liquid versus air cooling, heat pipes in the cooler/radiator, etc. all make a more efficient build.”
Santos also recommends following Maingear’s procedures. “This includes properly orienting case fans, optimizing fan curves, running a bloatware-free OS, uninstalling unnecessary programs and using power-saving settings to achieve low power states when the PC is idle,” Santos said. “Ensuring your PC is dust-free and located in a space with ample airflow is also critical in achieving these efficiencies.”
To reduce dust, keep your PC off the floor, especially if your floor is carpeted. If you don’t have space on your desk, elevating it with a stand or even mounting it can help. If you have pets, you’ll want to vacuum frequently or get a robovac to help keep your space clean because pet hair can get everywhere, and I mean everywhere.
On the software end, you can also enable a Power mode in Windows 11’s Power, sleep and battery settings. Switching from Best performance to Balanced or Best power efficiency can help save power during less intensive tasks and reduce heat.
Other options
Finally, on a broader level, there are several ways improve energy efficiency in a home or apartment, even if it’s older. Hymes advises people to “get an energy audit, unplug unused devices (phantom loads), seal and insulate the home for drafts, use energy efficient appliances, energy efficient windows and LED lighting fixtures, to name a few.”
While these methods won’t do much for your gaming PC, reducing power consumption in an older home or apartment with a 30- or 60-amp service can help keep other appliances and more demanding devices running with fewer hiccups.
Read the full article here
