How to protect power strips from accidental shut-offs/"cleaning lady" attack?

Are there any power strips or products designed to defend against a "cleaning lady" attack (cleaning crew is vacuuming the floor and bumps the power strip switch, turning off all the connected equipment)?

I have some curious felines in my house that always seem to work their way behind my desk and accidentally step on the power strip switch.

Is there some sort of switch cover I can get, or a power strip that is less susceptible to this kind of problem?

Solution 1:

One cheap way is to get yourself a dozen or so 9-12" zip-ties.

• Use a staple-gun to place a 2-3 zip-ties on the underside/back of your desk. Place a couple staples spaced to the the width of your power strip.
• Look at your power strip to get the spacing right.
• Put the power-strip in place and then close the zip-tie.

A bit neater is to simply get a few cable mount rings. If get 5-6 and space these out about every 8-12" then you can collect a large number of cables to the under-side of your desk. This should make the cables/power strips immune from vacuums and so on.

Solution 2:

Aside from completely replacing your power strip (with one that has a key switch), try a switch cover.

That particular site is where we got AC panel covers at my last job, but there are other places that probably have small versions suitable for power strips.

Solution 3:

You could use a master/slave power distributor. Put your PC/whatever your main device is into the master-slot, all other (secondary) devices to the slave-slots. If you turn on the device on the master-slot all other slots get power, too (and vice versa).

This works without a manual switch and should solve your problem.

Solution 4:

I had thought of inventing some sort of cover but found it has already been done! Google "power strip power button cover". There are plenty of little covers that easily attach to the strip and protect the bower button from accidental shut offs.