![]() Properly size the wire gauge to the length and current draw required.Understand how much current you need to draw for your tool or appliance.This particularly holds true if you keep the wire in a coil, which creates resistance and a magnetic field that heats up. Use it in that state for too long, and the wire insulation could melt. An undersized extension cable will heat up over time. Secondly, you potentially create a dangerous situation. That’s your tool on an improperly-sized extension cord. If that straw isn’t large enough to deliver air, you struggle to breathe. Think of this like trying to breathe through a straw. First, you can tax the tool motor-causing it to work harder to draw the energy it needs to run. Use an extension cord that doesn’t carry the correct thickness (gauge) wire and you “starve” your tool.īut, you also do something worse. You have to ensure that if your tool requires 15 amps, it gets 15 amps. For larger tools that require them, it’s not enough to simply tap into the temp power pole or a nearby outlet. Why Understanding Wire Gauge and Amps MattersĮveryone on a job site or remodel has some experience with running extension cords. It helps you understand what happens when using a 100-foot extension cord on a tool with a high current draw. This might be an unusual application for some, but we felt it represented a great scenario. ![]() ![]() With that being the case, only one of our recommendations hit that level, the 100-foot 12-gauge extension cord with a full 15A draw. We also allowed for up to a 5% voltage drop-which some people might consider too high. We also utilized the 2014 NEC Chapter 9, Table 9 numbers for impedance and voltage drop calculations. Assumptions for Sizing Extension Cord Lengthįor our extension cord size chart calculations, we assumed 120V single phase with a power factor of 1. See below for some recommendations on extension cords which should match the above requirements. Consider using the next size up for anything that is at or near 5% or-even better-opting for a shorter cord whenever possible. *Yields a 5% voltage drop-the maximum allowed in our calculations. ![]()
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