Definition
The NEMA 5-15 is the ordinary grounded wall outlet found throughout North American homes and offices: 125 volts, 15 amps, three contacts (line, neutral, ground). Its plug is the familiar two flat blades plus a round grounding pin. The matching 5-15R receptacle is what the vast majority of plug-in devices expect, and it is the default starting point for anyone experimenting with mining at home.
Real-world capacity
A 15A circuit at 120V is nominally 1,800W, but continuous loads are limited by code to 80% of the breaker rating, giving roughly 1,440W of safe sustained draw. That comfortably powers a small open-source device like a Bitaxe or a handful of USB hashers, but it is well short of a full-size ASIC, which can demand 3,000W or more and would instantly overload the circuit.
When the 5-15 runs out
Home miners quickly hit two walls: the per-circuit wattage ceiling and the heat a single room can shed. The usual next step is a dedicated 240V circuit on a higher-current NEMA configuration, which both raises the available power and lets an ASIC's wide-input PSU run more efficiently. Plugging a space-heater-class miner into a shared 5-15 alongside other loads is the most common cause of tripped breakers in a home setup.
For the higher-capacity 240V options that mining hardware prefers, see the NEMA L6-30 receptacle and the NEMA 14-50 receptacle.
In Simple Terms
The NEMA 5-15 is the ordinary grounded wall outlet found throughout North American homes and offices: 125 volts, 15 amps, three contacts (line, neutral, ground).…