daisy chain extension cords

[Theodore]

Still without power in my neighborhood after storm, but my generator is running. My neighbor lives 225ft away from my generator and is completely without power.

I have:

1. one 12gage-100ft long extension cord
2. one 16gage-100ft long extension cord
3. one 16 gage-50ft long extension cord.

Is there anything I can offer that would be SAFE to do so? The voltage drop would be considerable for such a length, and I'm sure would kill any appliance like her refrigerator. But is it possible to say "hey, you can plug in ...your phone charger and a lamp and maybe a fan" ? (until I shut down at 11:30PM). Just trying to be helpful/neighborly. Theodore

[Fred McKenzie]

Theodore-

Try it and see. Do you have a voltmeter? I would hope for at least 108 VAC, which is 120 V minus ten percent. It would help if you could crank the generator to ten percent high.

A small microwave may work if they temporarily unplug the refrigerator.

You might also try parking the generator 100 feet away and using the 12 gage cord to your house.

Fred

[danny burstein]

[snip]

One very important appliance which is often forgotten is... the sump pump.

If you and your neighbor have basements with sump pumps, it's a good idea to make sure they've got power...

[Dean Hoffman]

Is it fair to guess that the gas/fuel stations are shut down also? Would an inverter in her vehicle be a practical solution? We had them at work in company pickups to run light loads. I'm thinking of drills and 1/2" impact wrenches.

[Theodore]

Understood. The last suggestion is not an option for me. My generator is connected via a 10ft long 240V 3-wire to a transfer switch and powers my house (water pump, fridge, etc). I want to be helpful, but cannot be to my family's detriment.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Put the 12 ga first of course. You may be able to even do the refrigerator since most new ones take little power. Worth a try to save food..

[gfretwell]

Have him buy a 250' roll of 10ga Romex. It is legal for "temporary" wiring (a concession to the building industry) If you are interested I could run a voltage drop calc but there are calculators all over the internet. Do it in 2 steps, 100" of #12 and

150 of #16 and add the drop together. For some small loads it will work tho. I ran 2 condos on an extension cord, Fridge, TV and a light or two. They were #12 tho. I had a cube tap at the 1st 100' for one condo and the other end went into mine. He had a 25' 16ga orange cord to the fridge and a 16ga zip cord for the TV and light at the 1st condo.

[gfretwell]

Why? Resistors in series add, no matter what order they are in.

[Ralph Mowery]

Buy enough 12 gauge cord to reach. Say another 100 and 50 foot one. You may want to see if there is a 10 gauge 100 foot cord, but I doubt you would find one already made.

Then you could use a lot more power. If you have a voltmeter, if not buy one of the $ 10 ones and check the voltage at the user end of the cords. Stay above 110 volts and you would be ok.

[Clare Snyder]

remember that is the voltage AT the load, when the load is connected. With no load there will be no voltage drop

[micky]

Detriment comes in all degrees, so don't put it that way to your neighbor. Say that you'd have to disconnnect eveything to move the generator and could only reconnect a little bit to your own house.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I have found one at Lowes.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Will #10 solid wire fit normal ends?

[AK]

So, how do you check the voltage when something is connected?

Andy

[Dean Hoffman]

Fretwell mentioned a way to do it. See his post on 8/6/20 at

10:25.

[hubops]

Hmmm .. which "code" would need to be met ? .. for emergency temporary 110 volt extension cords .. .. supplied from backup generator - Good luck with that one ! John T.

[gfretwell]

It will fit in a commercial grade plug and you can use the handy box method on the other end. Again this is only OK for a temporary deal and OSHA doesn't even like that. It is just a loophole in the NEC.

[Snag]

I applaud your generosity ! That said , overcome your altruistic tendencies and DON'T DO IT ! I say this because just as sure as the sun is going to come up tomorrow your neighbor is going to plug in much more than that cord set can handle . A couple of lights and maybe a fan , but any more than that is going to overload that long run of small cord and probably burn up the cords . Not to mention drawing the voltage down to a level that may damage your stuff .

[Ralph Mowery]

It all depends on how the far end is connected. You could use one of the 3 way splitters and put the voltmeter on one of the 3 taps.

There is a thing called a Kilo-watt meter that reads out the voltage and current. Sells for around $ 20 . It is a special meter that plugs in line with whatever you have and the receptical.

[Ed Pawlowski]

You pull out the plug a tiny bit to fit the probe in the opening. There are other ways too, plugging in a device between that you can check with..