Extension Cord

Yes. He inadvertently swapped numbers at that point.

 

Good catch. I reversed them in the summary.

 

A lot of the car/car information has obviously been redesigned to deal proactively with the aggressive/absurd American legal environment. The "No extension cords" bit appears to be part of their defensive strategy, not a technical issue.

A 12 gauge, 25 foot cord is more than enough for 15 Amps. The cord you cite sounds awesome.

 

House wiring is solid, extension cords stranded...
I cannot recall if I'm right or left handed.

(Sorry. It's a tic.)

 

Just a reminder to check your extension cord ends periodically, for heat and corrosion build up. Found the socket end heating up a bit while charging, they were the cheap OEM cord ends. Cut off both ends and replaced with hospital-grade plug and socket, no issues since.

Hope this helps someone...

 

It's a good practice to even check those once in a while. The screw terminals can loosen over time.

 

Where do you get these?

 

12ga for 20A unless over 50ft run, Then 12ga for 15A. Per code

 

Some house wiring is stranded particularly the higher power wiring like AC, electric ovens and main or sub panel wiring. Stranded carries more current for the same physical size.

The primary problem with extension cords are most are very light weight 16 or 18 gauge and their receptacles are plastics rather than nylon or ceramics.

Often an extension cord on a simple room heater drawing 12 amps will degrade at the receptacle end and sometimes melt.

Expecting the general public to know the difference is a stretch so Toyota and room heater manufacturers alike say no extension cords.

 

Home Depot and Lowes has them or you can order online. Just make sure they specifically state hospital grade and have the green dot on them. Hospital grade plugs and sockets must meet a min set standard; unlike those other cheap knock-offs.

Yes, this is on a fat yellow construction grade 12AWG extension cord 100% copper stands.

 

I don't know if that's right or wrong; the thing I've noticed is when comparing a solid and a stranded wire that are assigned the same American Wire Gauge, the solid core is skinnier than the stranded one.

In the big gauges, stranded is a lot easier to bend, though.

 

Current is concentrated on the surface of the wire. One solid core has less surface area that multiple strands.

 

At 60 Hz, copper skin depth is 8.5 mm, or 17mm diameter. That would correspond to what gauge -- about 7/0? The charts I'm seeing stop at 4/0.

For the wire gauges used for household extension cords, this "current is concentrated on the surface" effect is de minimus.

PS. Here is wikipedia's skin effect chart. The red dot is an approximate marker of where 12 gauge 6 gauge [edit: I initially confused radius vs diameter] copper wire lands for 60 Hz: