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Just pickup some conduit, trench it to the shop, hook it up to your panel and setup a small sub panel with a circuit for your heater and one or two for lights/outlets depending on the count. I'm thinking you don't have anything hardwired in the shop at this point hence the extension cord.
Can i run an extension cord 100 ft to my air cond its a 110 unit for a couple of nights
I have done it with a 8 GA 100 foot cord I got from a theater group when they dismantled. I did not do the math, but it worked fine and did not get hot or blow the breaker.
A 100' 8 gauge cord is huge. It weighs a ton and I was told it cost them several hundred dollars. I think they made it. It has an outlet box on the end rather than a single plug. It is made to be connected directly into a breaker box on the other end.
100 ft #8 has very low voltage drop . at 15 amp 120v you are talking 1.88 volts.
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but 8/3 rubber cord ain't cheap and it is heavy . it is rated for almost 40 amp in shorter runs . it is about 36 lb's per hundred feet
Anyone here know an equation, or more importantly, where to buy heavy-duty long distance extension cords (300ft) to power a shop 300 ft from a plug? I know it needs to be low gauge but the cords seem to be sold by amps?
You can't. The drop is too much. Anything over 3% imo is pretty much a done deal. You will simply not have enough power to run the equipment you need to run. What exactly are you trying to run out 300 feet away? What's the amp draw? Start up and continuous?
You need to run two #4 and 6 neutral and a 8 ground to install a 90-100 amp sub panel. Then you install a 110 receptacle. This will run you about $500 in wire, 100-150 n conduit and 100-150 in readers, subpanel and install kit, glue etc.
But you can't run 300 foot of extension cord. Well you can but it wouldn't do you much good.
Last edited by Electrician4you; 08-18-2017 at 05:08 PM..
The first thing I look at is what is the measured voltage at the source... low and high over a week...
Depending on where you are it can vary a lot...
I have seen low voltage at backwoods cabins of 105 and high as much as 128 in the panel room at the Hospital...
The 105 was fine for the incandescent lights and on old electric wall heater... had to buy a buck boost transformer to get the TV to work back in the day...
Those #8 extension cords are pricey but I found a supplier near San Francisco Airport that was very reasonable... almost half the most expensive... seems they use a lot of #4, #6 and #8 rubber "Extension" cords around the airport setting...
Even the best exposed cord is subject to Degradation from exposure and animals...
It's good you are asking questions...
I've got a 300' run to a gate and all the outlet does is supply one light and a gate charger... voltage is low but so is draw...
Well, the original post is from 2014, so I suspect that problem has been resolved by now one way or another. The 4/0 cable running from the pig to my house is 300' to the meter, and another 100' to the outlets, so long runs with proper voltage can be done, it just means the correct lugs on the transformer have to be used to compensate.
My water pumps run almost another 300' I'm using 12/2 + ground currently, but used ganged 16 gauge extension cords before that for the two motors. I've been doing this setup for ten years, so I guess it must be magic or some of the posters here might be making armchair predictions. Yes, the voltage drops to around 105, but one pump sits in the water, so the excess heat is dissipated immediately, and the other has enough cold water going through the turbine that the shaft helps cool the motor. Obviously, the situation is not one I recommend for people, and my use is very intermittent (about 10 hrs/month) and closely monitored, but the point is that it can be done - depending on the load and tolerances of the equipment. I've used string trimmers with up to 300' of cord for years. I had a nice Ryobi electric trimmer that lasted about 12 years under those conditions.
there is always a difference between something working and doing something you shouldn't .
obviously your amperage draw is low enough so the wire is not sized to far off for that run . with the op not stating his amperage draw all bets are off .
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