How much power can an extension cords handle?

By HeadsUp
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Sammyinnit

Posted
Posted

I'm not an electrician but I first thought you were joking when you said 15 1000w lights off one extension lead.

  • exotoxic, +Random Stranger, 123456789A and 2 others
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Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

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15 x 1000W lights?  in a warehouse?    am i the only one thinking it is a grow-op?  possible reason not to call electrician then.   though none of easily available extention cords will be able to handle to load... as far as i know.

 

springlakegrow.jpg

Mentor

Sammyinnit

Posted
Posted

15 x 1000W lights? in a warehouse? am i the only one thinking it is a grow-op? possible reason not to call electrician then. though none of easily available extention cords will be able to handle to load... as far as i know.

springlakegrow.jpg

I thought this also.

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Sammyinnit

Posted
Posted

That's right... run the line from the house could catch on fire in no time since the cord will run very hot if you run too many lights and stuff from the cord.

I doubt any 16amp breaker would even stay open.

Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

Posted
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electricalexplosion.jpg

 

yeah, pretty much.     the breaker will not just trip and cut of power..  it will most likely melt down with sparks and smoke.     i have seen it happen. 

 

 

 

 

electricity is one of the things that is very hard to predict and understand.   even an extension cord rolled up in a circle creates a coil and can cause all kinds of problems.

 

running at 10-20 times the capacity is unpredictable.

Grand Master

TAZMINATOR

Posted
Posted

15,000 watts with an extension cord, oh my god. Are you sure you didn't mean 15 100 watt lights? because that's doable.

 

No, we have 1,000 watt bulbs like this:

 

BT37ClearMH.jpg

 

 

Which can be used in the warehouse or company depends on what they are using them for.

Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
Posted

Use the cheapest one you can find, pull the fuse out from the plug and wrap some wire around the fuse points, to stop it from blowing out

then tape the circuit breaker to make sure it never trips out

 

Nothing can go wrong (up until about 5 minutes in, when everything goes up in flames at least)

 

Darwin will take care of the rest

Grand Master

Buttus

Posted
Posted

you'd be better off having your electric company run a new service off of the transformer and put a meter in...  unless this is just going to be a temporary month long thing...

 

if it's temp, then get an electrician to run some good wire and put another breaker in your panel to run it off of

  • The Evil Overlord
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Grand Master

D. S. Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
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Haha wow, all these posts are hilarious! 

 

You started it!

 

Hi all, I'm trying to run an extension cord to a warehouse on my property that has no power, if I wanted to power it from the house, what gauge cord would I need to run 15 1000 watt lights plus a few other things?

 

You definitely need a separate power source. Get an electrician or an electrical engineer to do the necessary work with appropriate gauge wiring. What do you need 15000W(+other stuff) in lighting for? Are you running a concert hall?

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Grand Master

Tha Bloo Monkee

Posted
Posted

Use the cheapest one you can find, pull the fuse out from the plug and wrap some wire around the fuse points, to stop it from blowing out

then tape the circuit breaker to make sure it never trips out

 

Nothing can go wrong (up until about 5 minutes in, when everything goes up in flames at least)

 

Darwin will take care of the rest

:laugh:

I feel I need to point out - don't do this!

It really depends on the extension cord, but I believe that the average decent extension cord is rated for roughly 1500W (in North America, at least, because voltages are different elsewhere).  Could be a bit more but 1500W is the safe side.  Plug in heaters for example, will run around +1200W.

 

As others have stated, when you're dealing with 15,000W, just call a pro and don't deal with it yourself.

Contributor

HeadsUp

Posted
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I'm gonna call an electrician.

 

I'm surprised I haven't heard a suggestion to run 10 extension cords all from different sockets haha...  


15 x 1000W lights?  in a warehouse?    am i the only one thinking it is a grow-op?  possible reason not to call electrician then.   though none of easily available extention cords will be able to handle to load... as far as i know.

 

springlakegrow.jpg

Is this your grow op?

Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

Posted
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Is this your grow op?

of course,  every picture i post here on the forums to make a point is taken with personal camera.

(i would never ever just google the term and pick the result i like the most)

  • The Evil Overlord and Praetor
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snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member

Posted
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I don't think the OPs house itself would be wired to handle that load even if everything was organized onto separate breakers to minimize load across the circuits.

 

Most homes probably have a main circuit that can handle something like ~100Amps @ 120V. Multiply that out and it is 12,000Watts. Of course, you could have something more than that, but I'd think it rather unlikely. Then, on top of that, the box is going to fan out into probably ~4-5 breakers only which probably rated for ~20 amps. No way, the OP could do this without an electrician accessing these details and more.

 

 

I'm gonna call an electrician.

 

I'm surprised I haven't heard a suggestion to run 10 extension cords all from different sockets haha...  

Because it would blow the breakers most likely. They can probably handle about 2 lights each.

  • The Evil Overlord, Praetor and +Random Stranger
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