Bob, Measure the voltage drop and you know its resistance - that will tell you the gauge. I bought 12 gauge cords after I experienced a 15V drop from a cheap extension cord that not only was running hotter than I felt comfortable with, but wasted power and the drop affected the power available, so I could not charge as fast. The 12 gauge cord hardly has voltage drop, I believe I measured it a around 4 Volts drop at full charging current, for a 100 ft run.
Cor van de Water Chief Scientist Proxim Wireless office +1 408 383 7626 Skype: cor_van_de_water XoIP +31 87 784 1130 private: cvandewater.info www.proxim.com This email message (including any attachments) contains confidential and proprietary information of Proxim Wireless Corporation. If you received this message in error, please delete it and notify the sender. Any unauthorized use, disclosure, distribution, or copying of any part of this message is prohibited. -----Original Message----- From: EV [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Robert Bruninga via EV Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 3:00 PM To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List Subject: [EVDL] Extension cords for charging L1 > Actually all L1 will limit charging power to about 1500W... > I always charge at work... and carry a 12 gauge extension cord... Last night for the first time due to a PILE of snow, I had to run a 100' cord to my car in the culdisac. It was not a cheap orange cord (16 gage), but I don't think it was 12 gage either. Probably 14 gage. I was aboslultely amazed that after hours of charging, I could not feel any sensible heat whatsoever at where it plugged into my outdoor outlet nor any sensible heat whatsoever where my EVSE plugged into the extension cord. Defied all expectations. Just shows that if you have good connectors on both ends, that even 14 gage works just fine. 100' no less! The cord didn't even melt into the frozen-topped snow. (whereas my cheap orange cord melts a path through the snow when doing my 400W engine block, 700W spaceheater and 50W butt warmer in my Prius.) It could be #12, but is not as thick as any of the commercial 12 gage cords I have. Though this wire was not made as an extension cord but uses high quality highly flexible 3 conductor wire and a thinner rubber jacket, so maybe 12 gage is inside it... Bob _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
