Quote:
Originally Posted by yobeano
Another electrical point. You could still have an overload on an extension cord that is rated for 8 amps but is plugged into a 15 amp recepticle. Remember the circuit breaker trips at 15 amps but you could have an awful lot of heat develop on an under-rated extension cord before the 15 amps is reached. The circuit breaker cant tell the difference between a normal load of say 10 amps and and a bunch of Christmas lights all daisy chained into this extension cord of 10 amps also.
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Excellent point, yobeano. A lot of people seem to think the circuit breakers are a fool proof prevention of electrical overloads.
Consider a toaster. Plug it into a wall receptacle and turn it on. Those little wires inside get red hot, right? If you plug a string of Christmas tree lights into a receptacle then plug a toaster into the lights, turn on the toaster and guess what? The Christmas tree light cord turns red hot. That string of lights is not designed to carry the load imposed by a toaster.
The old adage "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" applies here.