Electrical Cord questions

[crappieperchhunter]

Need to get a 50ft electrical cord to plug in my 30ft string of christmas lights I hang on the front of the house. This is the only purpose for this cord. I have heavy duty 12 gauge ones for other purposes.

 

My question is.... will a 16 gauge cord be good enough for this purpose? Checked them out today and the 16 gauge ones are on sale at Crappy Tire for 1/4 the price of 12 gauge. Just trying to save a few bucks....but I don't wanna be cheap if it is going to be any kind of a problem.

 

Thank you to anyone who can help me with this.

 

 

Thx Burtess just edited my post. I had my numbers mixed up. Basically I need to know if the light duty cords will handle the job of supplying power for my Christmas lights or should I go to a medium or heavy duty cord?

Edited April 19, 2015 by crappieperchhunter

[Burtess]

Wire gets thicker as the gauge goes down.... so 12 gauge is heavier than 16. If the 12 is cheaper than the 16 then get it!!

 

Burt

Edited April 19, 2015 by Burtess

[misfish]

Why not buy a bulk of cabtire and add your own sealed male/female connectors Steve?

[crappieperchhunter]

Why not buy a bulk of cabtire and add your own sealed male/female connectors Steve?

Strictly cost Brian. 50ft light duty extension cord $14.99. I'll save a few bucks if I can but not at the risk of doing something foolish.

[misfish]

Strictly cost Brian. 50ft light duty extension cord $14.99. I'll save a few bucks if I can but not at the risk of doing something foolish.

 

 

You got my interest here? What foolish? The cost or the making your own sealed extension?

[Whopper]

To answer your question, the 16 gauge cord will push 30ft string of lights

[ketchenany]

B, he'll buy enough wire to make a electric smitty.

[misfish]

My thinking was, he can make his own and have a quality cord. Thats all I was thinking here. These pre made things. just tick me thats all,

[misfish]

B, he'll buy enough wire to make a electric smitty.

 

Now thats just silly talk.LOL

[sofabed]

For the amount of current draw from the xmas lights you will have no issues with the 16 awg cord.

Edited April 19, 2015 by sofabed

[crappieperchhunter]

To answer your question, the 16 gauge cord will push 30ft string of lights

That's all I wanted to know. Called light duty and it said 50ft could handle 10 AMPS. Not being an electrician don't have a clue what that means.

[davey buoy]

Cabtire is nice,but after sitting outside a couple seasons cracks like heck.I just use the outside cords, outside.Have a couple hundred feet of cabtire cords I use inside on certain jobs.

[crappieperchhunter]

My thinking was, he can make his own and have a quality cord. Thats all I was thinking here. These pre made things. just tick me thats all,

I priced a male and female end first Brian. 11.99 and 4.99 ...and then I have to buy the cord. $14.99 for 50 ft NOMA cord just seemed like a better deal.

[misfish]

I hear ya Steve.

[crappieperchhunter]

 

 

You got my interest here? What foolish? The cost or the making your own sealed extension?

All I meant by foolish Brian is I didn't want to buy the light duty if it wasn't up to the job. I'll do what I can to save a buck....but not if it's gonna burn my house down

[Fisherman]

That's all I wanted to know. Called light duty and it said 50ft could handle 10 AMPS. Not being an electrician don't have a clue what that means.

10 Amps is roughly 1000 watt, that 16 awg can handle that no problem at all even at 50' long.

[Big Cliff]

LED or regular lights Steve?

[crappieperchhunter]

LED or regular lights Steve?

 

LOL. The strings of lights I have Cliff where given to us by my Great Aunt when we bought our first house. They are older then me....hell they might be older then you I have a big shopping bag of old bulbs and I usually have to replace 3 or 4 every year when I hang them up.

 

Funny I really love a lot of the new LED light options now and every Christmas I think about getting something new and different but I just can't part with Aunt Tress's gift.

 

But to your question...is there a difference?

[John Bacon]

 

But to your question...is there a difference?

 

LEDs will draw less current and could in theory be safely run on a lighter or longer cord.

[Big Cliff]

 

LEDs will draw less current and could in theory be safely run on a lighter or longer cord.

Yup!

[Mister G]

Aunt Tress's gift is your biggest concern if you ask me. Those OLD lights could be your answer if your house burns down.

[Sinker]

Yes, id say the old lights should be the bigger concern over the extension cord.

 

S.

[aplumma]

Here is some help for you

 

amps X volts = watts

 

watts divided by volts = amps

 

 

start up load on a motor is usually 1.5 times the total amp reading. This is handy when figuring fuse size and generator load calculations.

 

 

Art

[gaspumper]

Another thing to look at is how much hydro do the old lights draw,the led would use very little.

[lazybum]

That's all I wanted to know. Called light duty and it said 50ft could handle 10 AMPS. Not being an electrician don't have a clue what that means.

After figuring out that the 16awg cord can handle up to 1,200 watts (120v x 10 amps) your next step is to figure out how many watts the old string of lights will use. For example, assuming each bulb uses 5 watts then you should be able to power up 240 bulbs (1200 watts divided by 5 watts each).