Heated water bowls and extension cords

[19maycraft]

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You sure are flirting with disaster here! Your problems are:

1. Running an extension cord this distance and plugging in more than item into. The voltage drop caused by this distance is huge. How many do you have plugged together to run this far, at least 3?

2. Extension cords are not rated for direct burial in soil. This will cause the insulation to breakdown and it is going to short out at some point. Hopefully it will only trip the breaker or at the worst, shock someone. Chances are you may burn down your house or barn though.

3. What outlet do you have this plugged into at the house in order to supply power? Is it a dedicated 20 amp outlet, or is it an outlet inside the house that is only 15 amps and has several outlets and lights on the same circuit?

You really need to stop using this immediately! This is not safe, and you are going to possibly hurt someone! I am a licensed electrician and have seen the devastation from doing things like this and it is not pretty!

Folks, using cords in this manner is risking your life. There are good reasons why manufacturers put these warning labels on and also why we have the licensing process to work with something that can possibly kill you. There are more people that die each year from using extension cords in an unsafe manner than you realize or hear of on the news. Please do not be one of them!

Its only 1 cord, home-made, heavy duty "Heavy-duty cord is designed for contractor and industrial uses. Ultra-flexible for cold weather use. Water resistant, ozone resistant and flame retardant"....attached to the outside of the house dedicated GFCI outlet pulled straight from the fusebox for a outdoor hot tub.... Over the last year, since I had it installed its never given me a problem. Are you saying that this is a real fire hazzard, the cord comes out of the ground and goes to a ups powersupply, that has one heat light and 3 cameras plugged into it, the powerstrip is not accessable by the chickens and is high and dry in the chicken house...My neighbor had a well dug way out back behind their property, and the electrician just ran a wire out there from the house and just buried in the ground...sounds like this is not ok...what should I do, take it out and have an electrian run a wire out there?????

 

[ChickenTender63]

If this is in fact a home made extension cord, then yes, it is a fire hazzard if it is buried.

There is a type of cable that is meant to be buried and is normally a grey colored romex cable with a very durable plastic sheathing and will be imprinted with "direct buriel"

The other types of cords or romex will breakdown and allow moisture to get into the wires and cause a possible fire or electrocution.

The proper way to run this would be with a feed line rated for buriel, run directly from a breaker in the service panel to a sub-panel in the barn with additional outlets installed.

You may know what is there and how much power you are supplying to the barn, but what happens when you sell to someone else and they try and hook up several flood lights, a portable grinder, heater or such and cause a fire that injures someone because they didn't know what was there.

The best thing to do is to find out if the cable is rated for direct buriel, and if not, have it replaced as soon as possible.



"Heavy-duty cord is designed for contractor and industrial uses. Ultra-flexible for cold weather use. Water resistant, ozone resistant and flame retardant"

Heavy duty and designed for contractor and industrial use are not the same as approved for "direct buriel" Water resistant is a far cry from "water Proof" Resistant only means it will stand up to being wet or damp once in awhile. Water proof is what direct burial cable is. It is completely sealed and will not allow the conductors to get wet.

Most electrical cords are made up of copper conductor wires wrapped in a thin brown paper shield, then wrapped in a plastic insultaio sheath. Direct burial has the copper conductors individually dipped and in a uv protected, moisture proof rubber insulation that will protect it. Regular romex or extension cord will allow moisture to get into the wires, cause corrosion, and cause overheating. If you don't have the proper wire, and this has been buried for over a year, then yes, you are gambling big time.

Now, here's anotehr set of questions for you to consider. Since you are running out of the breaker box for a hot tub, which is great as long as the tub is not still operating on it as well. Are you running from the 220 side, or is it wired in to 110. Most hot tub boxes have a 50 amp gfci breaker that feeds the tub, and then they often have two spots for 110 to run outdoor lights or something close to the tub if needed. Depending which side you are running out of will dictate the size of teh wire you can safely use to run to the barn. For running a cable this far, 300', you will also need to look at maybe needing to go up one wire size because of voltage drop and current usage requirements in the barn.

The safest bet would be to tie into the current hot tub box on the 220 side, or take it directly to the service panel. Run a 50 amp feed line underground with service entrance cable rated for 50 amps, and install a sub-panel in the barn. Then you will be able to have additional plugs for cameras, a few lights, or whatever as long as you don't overload the 50 amps.

If you had that kind of set-up, you would be in great shape and I wouldn't worry. But, for now, I am still extremely concerned about the type of cable you have out there. It is probably not rated for burial and will at some point cause you problems. Take a look at it and see. If it is rated for burial, then it sounds as though you may be ok other than that is an aweful long way to run a 12-2 or 14-2 wire with the voltage drop you are going to incur.

If this is a heavy duty cord than it is possibly a 10-2, which can run off of the 20 amp breaker fine as long as it is not corroded which will cause a significant voltage drop and increase heat buil-up resulting in a short.

Hope I didn't lose you here. Does this make sense to ya?

 

[19maycraft]

thanks CT63, I will have my electrican swap it out for the romex wire

 

[KrisRose]

Annmarie- I actually did two stupid things

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1. Ran over it with the mower. I forgot it was there. Handy neighbor Dick fixed it

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2. Now heres the real stupid part. I placed a connection I had wrapped really well only about 6 inches above the ground with a plastic chair on top. What was I thinking??
Of course, had a nasty blizzard which left about 2 foot of drifted snow. The sun came out the next day and partly melted the snow. I then had about 6 to 8 inches of solid ice in the yard with the connection completely incased with ice. Ice works it way around like skinney little frozen fingers and shorted out my connection. Actually, did more than shorted it, fryed it up good in 10 degrees.
I was trying to figure out why I had no juice in the barn but did in the coop. So I then went right to the splitter and thought - get this- gee, what is that noise??? Major blond moment. I was reaching under the chair -which was burned black

and was surprised that my connection was no longer incased in ice

-gosh, that noise is coming from under the chair, what could be making that noise ????? Bet y'all thinking I got zapped. One of the few times in my life that I came to my senses in the nick of time. Then I started swearing. Had to buy a new splitter and extenstion cord to the barn. Installed it in the middle of another nasty blizzard. After I chiseled the other cords part way out of the ice. Bad day. When it melted in the spring I was able to pull up the original cord and splitter. Splitter was toast. The other cord was a 100 footer-now a 95 footer- which handy neighbor Dick fixed

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You can used extenstion cords. Follow the advice from other posters about safety. That short of a distance should not be a problem.
P.S. I am working on getting my barn wired for winter.

 

[WildfireJane]

Someone from another chicken group suggested using an old car tire. Getting fresh horse manure and packing it into the middle of the tire. Cover the manure with plastic and insert a galvanized feeder pan ontop, then put your chicken waterer inside the pan. The horse manure will start to decompose and turn warm, thus heat the water enough so it doesn't freeze. I might do this but I'm kind of concerned of the smell issue. Jane

 

[ChickenTender63]

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Thats really a pretty neat idea. No more manure than you would have though, I don't think you are talking about a huge odor problem here as long as you have some sort of ventilation.

 

[19maycraft]

saw your edit, makes sense.....I probably will just consult my neighbor the electrician...He recomended putting the cable in a buried PVC pipe, I was going to change this over the summer but just got to busy.....thanks for the info

 

[ChickenTender63]

If you use a conduit underground you could possibly be ok as well. There are some really wierd rules in the code book bout some of it. In some places, you can run romex in conduit, but you have to strip the insulation and paper of the conductors before you bury it.

Talk to your electrician, and he should be able to lead you in the right direction.

 

[WildfireJane]

I think I'm going to try the manure method. Now that I think about it...in the winter here in Michigan, it wouldn't smell much plus with it being contained in rubber and heavy plastic...that's got to keep down the smell. I just like the idea of free tires/free manure=free heat.

Jane

 

[redsmum]

I intend to use a heated dog bowl for my chickens this winter and I have some small silkie bantam chicks. I am worried that they will either not be big enough to reach into it to drink or be stupid and fall in and not get out! has anyone had a similar problem?