Wire size and why not to cheap out.
How to tell if your extension cord is under sized for the task at hand.
But first s story to explain what I mean.
Some years ago we had two pipe threaders set up threading pipe.
When one of the guys flipped his on both threaders slowed way down.
One wasn't even going as fast as it should be.
Plus the cords were hot.
I was doing the electrical on the same job but working around these guys.
I looked and they had 200 feet of 16 gauge extension cord strung out to run these threaders.
Why our company even had these cheap cords I have no idea.
They were going to burn up the threaders and they cost about $6,000 each.
I stopped the job and went and made up some 12 maybe even 10 gauge gauge cords and brought them back to use.
Now the machines ran like they were supposed to.
What was wrong?
The cord was too small for its length.
With this happening several things can happen.
The motor burn up.
The cord burn up.
The wall outlet can get hot.
The breaker trip.
What you have done is over load the circuit.
Why?
All conductors has resistance.
The bigger the conductor the less resistance.
What happens.
The amps go up and the voltage drops.
The conductor itself is a load and has to be calculated in the circuit.
How do you do this.
By the size and the length.
The longer it is the more resistance it has.
This is measured in Ohms.
Ohm's law
The resistor's current
I in amps (
A) is equal to the resistor's voltage
V in volts (V)
divided by the resistance
R in ohms (
Ω):
The resistor's power consumption
P in watts (W) is equal to the resistor's current
I in amps (A)
times the resistor's voltage
V in volts (V):
P =
I ×
V
The resistor's power consumption
P in watts (W) is equal to the square value of the resistor's current
I in amps (A)
times the resistor's resistance
R in ohms (Ω):
P =
I 2 ×
R
The resistor's power consumption
P in watts (W) is equal to the square value of the resistor's voltage
V in volts (V)
divided by the resistor's resistance
R in ohms (Ω):
P =
V 2 /
R
There are calculators on line that will do the work for you.
For example my blender at 100 feet of wire would need a 14 gauge wire to run 5 amps at a 5% voltage drop which would be at 114 VAC but starting at 120 VAC.
Here is a helpful link for this.
It is correct.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=..._FQZ58vS0pfa3w
So far in my searches I have found on line calculators that were broke or way off.
Have no idea what the deal was.
Worth