It is very common for people who want to have electricity at a location, where there isn't any, to use an extension cord to get it there. We all have extension cords. Extension cords are very handy. We have them for the electric lawn mower, the Christmas lights, the weed whacker, and to run power tools in the kid's tree house (and to later provide permanent power to the tree-house television).
We run them to the block-heater on the old Mercedes Diesel----so the dang thing will start when it is 10 degrees outside.
They only become a problem when we decide to make them permanent----like under the asphalt driveway.
How about when we run the cord up the downspouts, around the house through the gutter, and down another downspout to the artificial frog spurting water into the pond? (In this case the pond was being fed by the downspout extension.) Another example is to permanently install the cord to supply power to the overhead garage door opener or around the inside of the garage to the refrigerator (duct-taped to the floor at the doorway of course).
Extension cords are designed to be in "free-air."
In other words, when we bury them in dirt, paint them to the baseboard, or run them under carpets, they can no longer cool themselves as they are designed to do. In effect they become "undersized for the circuit they are installed on. Did you ever notice that most of these cords are smaller gauge wire than the circuit they are installed on? The only reason you can get away with this is that they are in "free air," and are allowed to be a smaller gauge. When we restrict this air flow we get overheating. Overheating leads to melting. Melting leads to the neutral wires and hot wires coming in contact with each other----"bad electrical juju." Very unpleasant odors, and even flames are common when this happens.
Here is a recent picture of an improper use of an extension cord. I would like to think this would NOT look OK to anyone.
Charles Buell
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