Common sense says that 120VAC power not wise to mix with water, rain, a bathtub full of water, a pool, or other sources of ion containing conductive fluids, since that can short out the circuit, causing the circuit breaker to disengage or blow out a fuse, but can also shock a person, or harm or hurt a person or even kill a person by electrocution. 1875 watts of outlet energy on a 15amp circuit a lot of power and enough to stop someone heart even though the AC only at 60 Hz or cycles per second.
Our power system would be radically more energy efficient if it was 3 phase at 400 Hz, like they do on typical passenger aircraft. Commercial and Industrial power 270 or 480 3phase also much more powerful, as common commercial and industrial electrical tools or appliances like a 5 axis mill or E-Beam titanium powered 3D printer or rolling mill forge or similar, use a lot of energy.
The boilers at oil refineries are electrical, as are the pumps and fans, such that oil refiners are second only to aluminum manufacturing from bauxite, as the largest consumers of electricity worldwide. Making carbon fiber in precise electric ovens uses a lot of electricity and gives rise to the higher cost of PAN fiber processing to make carbon fibers.
BMW makes carbon fiber in Eastern Washington State in Grant Country with the cheapest electricity in the world at only 2 cents per kilowatt hour, radically cheaper than anywhere else. That is how BMW was able to make tens of thousands of i3 electric carbon fiber vehicles out of a mix of aluminum, carbon fiber and steel, such that each i3 has about 200kg of carbon fiber making up the passenger cell, glued together in a jig with hot BASF fast set epoxy heated by tungsten filament lamps of 1500w each like those fire prone ceiling torch lights that so many homeowners burned their house down with by allowing window drapery too close to the high heat 1500 watt quartz torch lamps facing up, such that the high heat from such lamps reached the autoignition temperature of the materials which the drapery was made of, causing the drapes to catch fire if they came into contact with the searing hot quartz 1500w bulb.
Not everyone has common sense about electrical cables. I was familiar with and fascinated by power outlets, vacuum cleaners that plug into power outlets, electricity, energy, and similar topics as preverbal 2 year old toddler, and this became a passion or obsession that deepened with time up until now. I think AC very interesting since there is only 1 hot black wire as the white neutral bonded to the ground back at the utility panel connection.
The home or building has a ground rod usually made of aluminum or copper that bonds the green or bare wire & neutral to the Earth ground or ground potential. These Earth currents actually return to the power generating plant far away eventually returning the energy. In AC the sinusoidal signal pushes and pulls the wave of electrons on conductive wires made of metals with free electrons that can be pushed and polled in the valence shell of the atoms of the metals that make up the conductor.
Thus gold, silver, copper, aluminum and many other metals are conductors, while wood, leather, polymers, plastics, paper and non conductive materials have tightly bonded electrons in their atomic valence electron shells such that they are very poor conductors of electricity. Thus the yellow polymer insulating jacket of this Yellow Jacket extension cable is made of a high strength outdoor rated UV stabilized thermal plastic heat extrusion bonded to the wires inside.
Each wire also insulated with a jacket. The female end connector contains a 145v AC neon bulb that glows orange red color using 5 ma of current available when the extension cord is energized from being plugged into a NEMA15 North America typical L1 power outlet. Take a look at this extension cord guide to determine what gauge of cord you need for the wattage of the load of the thing you are plugging into the grid with this extension cord or similar. 10-3 the best one with the highest current carrying capacity, for an electric pressure washer or other high wattage tool, but 10-3 cables are typically very expensive, so 12-3 a much more value oriented balance load to cost cable that works for more electrical things a home owner or renter will plug into an extension cord to operate on grid power.
I preferred cored electrical tools to battery operated ones for use in the yard for example or shop, because Li-Ion tools battery are not only expensive, they also fade from just sitting around, fading faster if they are stored fully charged, damaged if they are fully discharged, harmed by high heat, and can catch fire if you try to charge one while the battery is frozen or deeply frozen cold from sitting outside in sub-freezing weather for many hours.
10-3 cables are thicker, heavier & more expensive but can serve up 20 amps on a 20 amp circuit
12-3 cables are thick & heavier than 14-3 the next best or 16-3 the cheap light duty versions, which vary proportionately in power amperage or wattage, wire thickness, cable mass or weight, and cost respectively.
Meg & I had a small lawn at our old house and we got a mostly plastic small low wattage 250w corded electric lawn mower for $100 back in 2015 that we used a 100-ft 14-3 cable (bright green for easy visibility) and we watched our 3D printer extrude hot PLA & PETG in an organized back and forth way for rectilinear fill, and operated our cable electric lawn mower in a back and forth way so the cable was always behind us and the mower to avoid a cable cut by electrical mower accident. Mowing in an organized way also the way robotic lawn mowers mow, so back and forth protect you, your extension cable, and saves time & money, and uses less electricity also lowering your utility bill a little bit.
Electric plug-in corded lawn mowers also avoid fussing with heavy expensive failure prone lithium ion mower batteries charging and running out of charge, while avoiding oil changes, and playing with gasoline & fuel stabilizer in small plastic gasoline cans that have to have the fuel changed with fresh fuel regularly to avoid white filaments from oxidized gasoline alkane waxes that precipitate in fouled gasoline or old gasoline or bad gas or bad gasoline, which could be carefully filtered out with coffee filters in a funnel made of gasoline resistant materials like metal or certain plastics like PP or PET.
In emergencies where gasoline pumps are not working, any gas can of gasoline very valuable. Gasoline lawn mowers and other power tools used for landscaping like blowers, weed whackers, either 2 stoke mixed with oil 20:1 or 40:1 or 50:l with two-stroke oil, or with regular or premium gasoline with fuel stabilizer added; these carburetor small engine are damaged by ethanol in common E10 gasoline widely sold.
If you operate small engines, consider finding Ethanol Free or No Ethanol Gasoline or Pure Gasoline or EO Ethanol Free Gasoline. I get my ethanol free pure gasoline at The Grange in Issaquah Washington in a 10 liter or 2.5 gallon safety button dispenser can or a 5 gallon 20 liter metal safety can. I pour the gasoline from these cans into our automobiles if its more than 2 months old, even with stabilizer, since gasoline can dry out inside the carburetor of small engines, having fresh gasoline with no ethanol very importantly for small engine operation. Fuel injected automobiles have sealed fueling systems that minimize gasoline fouling by keeping air away from the gas in the sealed fuel tank fuel pump system that pressurized fuel through the fuel filter and fuel lines to the engines fuel injectors that direct fuel mist into the engines intake manifold or more recently in GDI engines at much higher injection pressure gasoline is directly injected near the spark plug, but these engines are prone to carbon coking or soot depositing on that valve seats. If the automaker paying attention they put a port fuel injector in the intake of GDI engines to wash the valve seats to miming valve seat coking issues.
I removed stickers and other flare attached to the cable when I unboxed it for testing and use, using a box knife carefully to remove the white nylon zip tie attaching an idiot declaration that says the following common sense items, not in any particular order.
DANGER: ELECTRICAL CORDS CAN BE HAZARDOUS
Misuse Can Result in FIRE or DEATH by ELECTRICAL SHOCK
Please Read BOTH SIDES Carefully and Follow ALL Directions
BEFOR USE
~ A Cord Set Not Market For Outdoor Use is To Be Used Indoors Only.
~ See Label on Cable for Outdoor Marking
~ DO NOT USE IF DAMAGED
~ Look For The NUMBER OF WATTS on Appliances to be Plugged Into Cord
~ DO Not Run Through Doorways, Holes In Ceilings, Walls or Floors
~ Make Sure Appliance is OFF Before Connecting to Outlet
~ FULLY INSERT Plug into Outlet
~ Do Not Remove, Bend, or Modify Any Metal Prongs or Pins of Cord
~ Do Not Use Excessive Force to Make Connections
~ Do Not Connect a Three-Prong Plug to a Two-Hole-Outlet
~ DURING USE keep away from water
~ DO NOT USE WHEN WET
~ Keep Children and Pets Away from Cord
~ Do Not Plug One Extension Cord into Another
~ AVOID OVERHEATING. Uncoil Cord and Do Not Cover it with Any Material
~ Do Not Drive, Drag or Place Objects Over Cord
~ Do Not Walk on Cord
~ AFTER USE GRASP PLUG to Remove From Outlet
~ Always Store Cords INDOORS
~ Always Unplug When Not In USE
~ Do Not Unplug Cord By Pulling on Cord
If someone is killed by running a gasoline generator indoors when it has multiple stickers that clearly describe NEVER RUN INDOORS OR IN INCLOSED SPACES, then the resulting fatal CO poisoning a selective pressure to knock out stupid or ignorant genes.
If someone dies from electrocution from operating a hair drying in the bathtub, then thats a selective pressure to weed out bad human DNA with stupidity or ignorance genes that obviously cause the person to be oblivious too these hazards of electricity that been around for more than 100 years or several generations.
It only takes 20 years for information to diffuse about a common topic like household electrical safety, so it's the persons fault if they didn't get the messages. There are PSAs galore, easily intelligible warning labels, user manuals and many other forms of informational materials available at Hardware Stores, Online, from talking to an electrician or other competent person, etc.
My late father told me when I was a boy "Aaron, you cannot fix stupid, so be patient and polite to other people who were not as fortunate as you to have a superior understanding of so many topics."
Well guess what, while other children were outside playing with imaginary friends, I was inside reading a printed volume copy of the encyclopedia, and it took it me 4 years to read all the books. I also played tennis, soccer, basketball, baseball, hiking, snowboarding, walking, jogging, running, bicycle riding, band, marching band, orchestra ensemble, and had a "Can DO Attitude" with a belief that I was able and am able to do anything I set my mind on. Thus my blog has thousands of posts that I hand type on a physical keyboard with my own words. Copy-write That!
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