Reading Brian Scaddens book: "PAT Portable Appliance Testing" and he states that "Multiway adaptors must not be excessively used".
Can anyone point me in the direction of the rules and regulations for using trailing sockets etc? Is it permissable (Although obviously not ideal) to connect more than one in series, so long as the overall current rating is not exceeded?
Shokk
The big (non obvious) danger of daisy chaining them is the earth fault loop impedance rises with each extra lead. Hence the time to clear a fault increases.
If you must use more than one, it is better to "fan out" rather than daisy chain. So plug four four way extension leads into one four way lead to get sixteen outlets, rather than adding each one on the end of the last.
It's not so much the current as the impedance of the earth - ie if it gets too high it won't disconnect the supply quickly enough in event of a fault.
IIRC, you'd probably get away with two 5 metre leads made from 1.5mm cable before this becomes excessive. If the plugs and sockets are of good quality.
Run it through an RCD. Any extension lead with a power tool on the end really ought to have an RCD on it anyway.
Even with an RCD the earth impedance is still important.
Why? Any fault to real earth or to the earthed chassis will cause the RCD to trip. I seriously doubt that the impedance of an extension lead long enough to still allow the equipment to work satisfactorily will be so high that less than 30mA will flow in a Live (or Neutral) short to chassis.
In some ways as the Live and Neutral wires will also have significant impedance the neutral at the far end could be float rather high and present a shock hazard that it normally wouldn't. An RCD will protect against that as well.
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