I was going to buy a Slant Fin 220V 2000W electric baseboard and was just wondering if I can hook up a heavy duty SJ cord with a 220 plug and plug it into my a/c outlet, rather than run a new circuit and hardwire into the baseboard. If I'm not mistaken this baseboard uses about 7 amps when used with
The answer is dependent upon what appliances are on that circuit already. In my opinion you can do it if no other major appliances are on that line. It will obviously look nicer the other way.
If my calculations are correct your heater will use about 8 plus amps on each leg.
And that's fine.
I would suggest using a good quality 12 gauge cord and all should be OK.
What's wrong with #14, or even #16?
It would work fine, not quite a proper installation though, unless it was intended to be portable. You could hard wire it to the outlet circuit, properly, if you installed a winter-summer switch on the circuit, in this case double pole double throw
Nothing.
But when it comes to heaters and the like I tend to be overly cautious.
I've noticed on some of the 110 space heaters I sometimes use that the cord that came with it gets warm and feels like chewing gun after a while.
I replaced these with 12 gauge cords and ended the problem.
Resistance heaters tend to pull a full load for a long time. It is just not worth the risk to save 50¢ and use smaller wire.
Fifty cents? I want to know where you're buying wire. Around here #12 wire is over a buck a foot unless you're getting it by the reel.
Chris
Where's around here? Here in KC the price has dropped to below 35 cents even in the small quantities. I just bought 2 - 250' rolls on ebay WITH shipping for 24 cents a foot.
And how much is #14 a foot? The point was the *difference* in price.
At the Lowe's here, they had a lot of #12 solid copper wire (with a choice of insulation colors: black, white, green, red, blue) in
500-foot reels for $50 (10 cents a foot). I think they said the price is 20 cents a foot if you buy just part of one.
The OP was talking about wiring with SJ, not romex.
At the local Borg (in SK, Canada), #12 SJOW is $1.13/ft, while #14 is $0.51/ft.
Prices converted to USD.
As for solid copper wire, the cheapest price around here is well over $100USD for 75metres (about 250ft) of #12 romex.
Chris
At the local Borg (in SK, Canada), #12 SJOW is $1.13/ft, while #14 is $0.51/ft.
Prices converted to USD.
Chris
As always, thanks for all you inputs. I got the baseboard hooked up just in time. It's frigid here in the Northeast.
You know, after all this talk on current rating on power cords, I took a look at a Delonghi 110V 1500W space heater that I have, and the cord on it is 16 guage. I thought 16 guage was only rated for like 13 amps. Doesn't a 1500W heater pull like about 15 amps?
The ampacity of any conductor depends on its insulation, as well as on the size and type of the conductor. With 90 deg C rated insulation, 16ga copper can safely carry up to 18A.
1500W / 120V = 12.5A12.5A, which is supposed to be within capability of regular extension codes (these say 13A). However, those cords overheat with that load.
My bad. Sometimes my head's not thinking straight.
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