cord size

[cody]

I attempted to ask this question in the past but the post got derailed by leaping electrons and dead lineman, I'm trying again, before I ask I'll say loudly THE HOUSE IS NOT CONNECTED TO THE GRID.  The question is simple how heavy a guage of wire will give me the maximum use of a 3000 watt honda at 27.3 amps, the wire will be 23 ft long and plugged into a 100 amp breakerbox thru the mains, I'm not interested in code, I won't be killing any neighbor 3 miles down the road, I only want to know what guage will give me the most of what amperage is available. 

[JackConrad]

Cody,
 For a 23' run, I am pretty sure 10 gauge is adequate. I know any run inside a house that will use a 30 amp circuit breaker requires a minimum of 10 gauge wire.  If you wanted to be safe you could use 8 gauge wire.  Jack

[DaveG]

I second that. What about the lineman? Who died?

[cody]

Thanks Jack, I have a spool of 10 guage that I can use.

[cody]

Dave no lineman died, what happened is I tryed to ask the question before and got a long warning about what could happen to backfeeding power thu the powerlines, even after I said clearly that the house is not connected to the grid I heard about transfer switches and all the legalities of backfeeding, and how I could kill lineman or neighbors even tho I was in no way connected to any grid system.

[Jerry32]

do gooders?

[bevans6]

Do-gooders = people who answered a question that wasn't asked, and perhaps didn't actually read the thread before contributing...

10 gauge will carry that load, although 8 gauge would be useful not for ampacity but more to minimize voltage drop.  The 100 amp breaker box won't really come into play except as a cut-off switch, but the breakers on the generator will protect the circuit and the line breakers in the distribution panel will protect the individual circuits.  The 3000 watt Honda is probably 120 volt only, you could power up both sides of the distribution panel as long as you know you won't get 240 volts anywhere.  Your distribution panel will bond ground to neutral, and provide a true ground to earth, which may or may not be a violation, but I think the gennie does not bond neutral to ground if it is like my similar Yamaha, so you maintain a single bond point, just not at the true source.

Brian

[DaveG]

Thanks Cody, I remember the thread!!!

Do-gooders = people who answered a question that wasn't asked, and perhaps didn't actually read the thread before contributing...I like this!

[cody]

My goal is to simply power the lights while I'm doing other things and the fridge, the lights are CFlights and the fridge is just so I can keep the mountain dew cold.  Nothing else runs off the panel at this time.  I already know the power requirements I need but was tossing around the idea of the 10 guage or the 8 guage cord.

[PCC]

An easy rule for electricity/wire goes this way; for every 10 AMPS more, up the wire size by 2.

Start with 20 amps = 12 gauge - 30 amps = 10 - 40 amps = 8 - 50 amps = 6 - 60 amps = 4 (Stop there !)

Personal electrocution can be done with any size high voltage live wire you can hang on to for more than a minute without blowing the breaker.

[cody]

I appreciate the extra info but my question was only about cord size, I have both but was undecided on which to use cause my spool of 8 guage is getting thin and really didn't want to run it for this.

[Chopper Scott]

I got lucky in a way and had some concrete replaced in my shop that had to be removed first. Some of the electrical lines ran close to it and they located it before it was removed. The guy doing the concrete got in a hurry and hit the lines while removing it thus they had to pull new wires curtious of his insurance company. I ended up with all the old lines and now I have all this 6 gauge wiring that has since found it's way into my bus!!! I wouldn't have needed that big of line but it is nice to be overboard.

[James77MCI8]

10 gauge will be plenty. I basically back feed my generator to the main panel through a double pole/double throw disconnect. I use a 5500 watt 30 amp genset. We run the lights, hot water heater, well pump and fridge off this set up. Heat is provided by gas logs. This is done through 10 guage wire. Haven't had any problems in the last 6 years.