I learned this lesson last year. I bought a "heavy duty" extension cord from Dollar General hooked it into my instant pot which I powered with my power station. Well the instant pot's cord fused together with that cheesy heavy duty cord from the dollar general. I got lucky and so I went out and bought real heavy duty cords. Great video a must watch for the electrically stupid like myself!
@johnmal5975 Me too! I burned and melted a cheap cord a few weeks back, trying to save money... smelled terrible (horrible burnt plastic) so lesson learned, just buy a good cord :)
This is extremely important information that needs to be shared more. Another aspect to consider are the LC characteristics of long cables, especially those that aren't shielded and grounded appropriately. One potential future episode could be comparing and contrasting HVDC (100-200v) vs 24-56v for home use. I personally consider 12v to be obsolete.
@subhobroto I hope this content will help a few people out... You make some good points. Edison's original power grid system was ~100vdc if I remember correctly. Currently researching some different options in that direction, we'll see where it ends up. Another angle is appliance efficiency. If I only had ~48vdc to work with, can I make the appliance more efficient and use less power (super insulated HWH tank for example)
Good that you provide some real world tests. I've seen plenty of this 'quick I need an extension cord' potential hazards going on. Most people are not aware of the numbers, what they mean and what could potentionally go wrong. Especially those extension cords on a reel are handy but are a potential fire hazzard. Not sure if an AWG is a norm we can rely on. I've heard that some cables are made of Copper-clad aluminium wire so I wonder what the resistance of those things are and if they are consistant due to the percentage that may vary.
@Luke-san Right about the CCA wire, some budget cords do have it. Terrible stuff. The other day I was using a cheap cord and it started to melt and almost burned up due to the poorly made plug end. Could have started a fire... got to stay vigilant
Yes, the coiled up wire will be a source of inductive reactance and contribute some impedance. It would be interesting to run the tests again with the cords stretched out and see if the effect is significant at these power levels. I've experienced it twice. Once in a coiled up TV antenna wire where the signal was bad and once welding aluminum with about 170 amps AC with about 100 feet of + and - leads rolled up next to each other.
@@LPMutagen This isn't true and has been debunked on other channels. The way extension cords are made and currently flows through them, it forms a non-inductive winding. Coiled cords are bad because they insulate themselves and cause more heat to build up.
It really hurt performance with those long wires. Had to send some power from A to B last month and only had a short 5meter 12gauge 2mm(not mm²) wire but it ran steady at 22amp continuously for over 2h. It didn get a bit above handwarm, but not much. It was DC feeding a converter. Wonder how hot it would get if it was 200feet long 😊
Yeah I was a bit surprised how much that cheap cord dropped, or even the yellow one for that matter. That's a lot of power, curious what would happen if I ran 15 amps through the first cord. We'd have a real interesting heater!
Large loads would be better on 240volts. Copper is going to be a real problem with the energy transition so it isn't about the money as much as not wasting the metals.
@jocosson8892 Both cords will be used with a normal 110v inverter which does not output other voltages. Also the compressors I am powering are all 120v. I thought I could save a bit with the cheaper cord, but the test results gave a reality check
I learned this lesson last year. I bought a "heavy duty" extension cord from Dollar General hooked it into my instant pot which I powered with my power station. Well the instant pot's cord fused together with that cheesy heavy duty cord from the dollar general. I got lucky and so I went out and bought real heavy duty cords. Great video a must watch for the electrically stupid like myself!
@johnmal5975 Me too! I burned and melted a cheap cord a few weeks back, trying to save money... smelled terrible (horrible burnt plastic) so lesson learned, just buy a good cord :)
This is extremely important information that needs to be shared more. Another aspect to consider are the LC characteristics of long cables, especially those that aren't shielded and grounded appropriately.
One potential future episode could be comparing and contrasting HVDC (100-200v) vs 24-56v for home use. I personally consider 12v to be obsolete.
@subhobroto I hope this content will help a few people out...
You make some good points. Edison's original power grid system was ~100vdc if I remember correctly. Currently researching some different options in that direction, we'll see where it ends up. Another angle is appliance efficiency. If I only had ~48vdc to work with, can I make the appliance more efficient and use less power (super insulated HWH tank for example)
Good that you provide some real world tests. I've seen plenty of this 'quick I need an extension cord' potential hazards going on. Most people are not aware of the numbers, what they mean and what could potentionally go wrong. Especially those extension cords on a reel are handy but are a potential fire hazzard. Not sure if an AWG is a norm we can rely on. I've heard that some cables are made of Copper-clad aluminium wire so I wonder what the resistance of those things are and if they are consistant due to the percentage that may vary.
@Luke-san Right about the CCA wire, some budget cords do have it. Terrible stuff. The other day I was using a cheap cord and it started to melt and almost burned up due to the poorly made plug end. Could have started a fire... got to stay vigilant
Does the coiled up wire have a resistive effect. An old Navy welding instructor mentioned something about coiling the wire up while welding.
@markpennella It might and/or some inductive effects, although they'd be a lot less than resistance (ohms) itself
Not inductive, but they insulate themselves heating up more causing resistance to further increase.
coiled wire will have an effect as well.
And those cheap AC plugs.. burnt one up the other day... oops :D
Yes, the coiled up wire will be a source of inductive reactance and contribute some impedance. It would be interesting to run the tests again with the cords stretched out and see if the effect is significant at these power levels. I've experienced it twice. Once in a coiled up TV antenna wire where the signal was bad and once welding aluminum with about 170 amps AC with about 100 feet of + and - leads rolled up next to each other.
@@LPMutagen This isn't true and has been debunked on other channels. The way extension cords are made and currently flows through them, it forms a non-inductive winding. Coiled cords are bad because they insulate themselves and cause more heat to build up.
It really hurt performance with those long wires. Had to send some power from A to B last month and only had a short 5meter 12gauge 2mm(not mm²) wire but it ran steady at 22amp continuously for over 2h. It didn get a bit above handwarm, but not much. It was DC feeding a converter. Wonder how hot it would get if it was 200feet long 😊
Yeah I was a bit surprised how much that cheap cord dropped, or even the yellow one for that matter. That's a lot of power, curious what would happen if I ran 15 amps through the first cord. We'd have a real interesting heater!
Large loads would be better on 240volts. Copper is going to be a real problem with the energy transition so it isn't about the money as much as not wasting the metals.
@jocosson8892 Europe has it good with 230vac. With the cheaper cord, even 600w was a disaster... but with double the volts I would have saved 200$
@@solarpoweredge
I thought you wanted it for an inverter; most inverters do 110/220 or 220/240 at the flick of a switch.
@jocosson8892 Both cords will be used with a normal 110v inverter which does not output other voltages. Also the compressors I am powering are all 120v. I thought I could save a bit with the cheaper cord, but the test results gave a reality check
I'm glad we have 230v less loss
@adus123 Yes, with 230v I bet the cheaper cord would be just fine