How many things can I plug into one socket at a party?

Count watts, not plugs. One UK socket supplies about 3,000 watts, so a four-way lead is fine while its total stays under that. Lights, a PA and a photo booth together barely reach 1kW, but a kettle alone is 3kW. Add up the wattage labels, keep each socket under a kettle's worth, and give any heating appliance a socket to itself.

Do I need a generator for a bouncy castle in a field?

Only if there is no mains socket within about 30 metres. Blowers run happily off a standard socket through a suitable outdoor extension lead, which suppliers usually include. Beyond that distance, or with no building nearby, hire a small 2 to 3kW petrol generator. The blower draws about 1kW running, but allow headroom for its startup surge.

What size generator do I need for an outdoor party?

Add the wattage of everything running at the same time, then add at least 25 per cent headroom for startup surges. A typical mix of blower, PA and lights fits comfortably in a 2 to 3kW inverter generator, around £40 to £80 a day to hire. Add catering, urns, fryers or hot cupboards, and you need a larger set the hire firm should size for you.

Can I use a normal indoor extension lead outside?

Best not. Use an outdoor-rated lead with sealed connections, run it through an RCD, and keep any joins off the grass where dew and spilled drinks gather. Fully unwind any cable reel before loading it, because a wound reel overheats at a fraction of its rated load. Indoor leads are for indoors; the outdoor version costs little more and removes the risk.

Party Power: Sockets, Extension Leads and Generators Explained

Nearly all party hire kit runs off ordinary 13-amp sockets, and a standard UK socket delivers about 3kW. The method is simple: add up the wattage of everything on one socket and stay under that. Catering kit (kettles, urns, fryers) is the usual culprit when a fuse trips, not the disco. No mains at all? A small hired generator solves it. Here is the working-out, without the physics degree.

Watts, amps and the 3kW socket: the only maths you need

One equation covers everything: watts equal amps times volts. UK mains is 230 volts and a socket is fused at 13 amps, so one socket can supply about 3,000 watts, which is 3kW, which is one kettle. That is your unit of measurement: the kettle. Everything you plug in is some fraction of a kettle, and one socket carries one kettle's worth. Behind the sockets, a typical domestic ring circuit is protected at 32 amps, roughly 7kW, shared across every socket on that ring. This is why the classic party failure is not the disco, it is someone boiling the kettle while the urn heats and the fryer runs, all on the kitchen ring at once. Every appliance has its wattage printed on a label or moulded near the plug. Two minutes with those labels and a phone calculator replaces every anxious guess about what will trip.

What party kit actually draws

Party kit is lighter on power than people fear. A bouncy castle blower draws around 1kW, a third of a kettle, and runs continuously. A candy floss machine is about 1kW, a popcorn machine around 1.5kW, and both cycle rather than draw constantly. A PA system or mobile disco setup typically pulls 200 to 500 watts despite looking dramatic, an LED dance floor well under a kettle, and light-up letters, photo booths and silent disco transmitters barely register, tens of watts each. The heavy hitters are all catering: a kettle at 3kW, a tea urn at 2 to 3kW, a deep fat fryer around 3kW, a hot cupboard 1 to 2kW. The practical rule that falls out of these numbers: fun kit can share sockets fairly freely, catering kit gets one socket each, ideally on its own circuit. Good suppliers state requirements plainly, every item in FunFast's catalogue lists exactly which socket it needs.

Extension leads: the rules that stop fires and face-plants

Extension leads cause more party drama than any other kit, and four rules prevent nearly all of it. One: fully unwind cable reels. A coiled reel carrying load is a heater wrapped around itself, which is why reels carry two ratings, often 13 amps unwound but only around 5 wound. Two: never daisy-chain extensions into extensions; use one lead of the right length. Three: outdoors means outdoor-rated. Use a lead designed for outside and plug it in through an RCD, the fast trip switch that cuts power in a fault, either built into modern fuse boards or available as a cheap plug-in adaptor. Four: manage the trip hazard. Tape cables down across doorways and walkways, or route them around the edge of the room. On long runs, 30 metres or more out to a bouncy castle blower, use a heavier-duty lead, because thin cables lose voltage over distance and blowers run weaker at the far end.

Village hall power: what to check before the day

Village halls vary from freshly rewired to charmingly Edwardian, so check three things when you view. Where are the sockets? Halls often have plenty in the kitchen and almost none at the stage end where the disco wants to be, which tells you how many extension leads to bring. How are the circuits split? Ask the booking secretary whether the kitchen is on its own circuit; if it is, catering and entertainment can both run flat out without ever meeting. And where is the consumer unit, the fuse box? Find it, photograph it, and learn which switch is which before the hall fills with people, because a trip at 9pm in a dark corridor is a very different problem from one you rehearsed. While you are there, ask about the heating. Some halls run electric heaters that gulp several kilowatts, worth knowing before you plan a winter event's power budget around them.

Generators: when you need one and what to hire

A field with no mains needs a generator, and for most private events a small petrol inverter generator of 2 to 3kW is the right tool: enough for a bouncy castle blower, a PA and a candy floss machine taking turns, quiet enough to talk near, and typically £40 to £80 a day to hire. Size it by adding the wattage of everything that runs at once, then add at least 25 per cent headroom, because motors like blower fans draw a surge on startup well above their running figure. Choose an inverter model if anything sensitive plugs in, they produce clean power that PA systems and booth electronics prefer. Site it downwind and a good few metres from guests for fumes and noise, never inside a marquee or hall, and refuel only when it is off and cool. For bigger events with catering, step up to a towable diesel set and let the hire firm size it, tell them your kit list and they do the maths.

A worked example: powering a fete corner

Put it together with a real scenario: a fete corner running a bouncy castle, candy floss and popcorn machines, and a small PA, using the village hall's sockets. Add it up: blower 1kW, floss 1kW, popcorn 1.5kW, PA 0.5kW, totalling 4kW, more than one 3kW socket can carry. So split it. The blower and PA share one socket through an outdoor lead and RCD, 1.5kW and comfortable, while the two food machines take a second socket on a different part of the hall, 2.5kW and fine. Leads fully unwound, taped where the public walk, and the fuse box location known before the gate opens. That is the whole discipline: count, split, secure. It is also why hire firms ask about your power when you book, FunFast confirms socket details for every hire so the kit arrives with the right leads already in the van. Ten minutes of adding up beats an afternoon of resetting trip switches.