If I buy a 15A heavy duty electrical lead but connect a powerboard to it that only supports up to 10A will that negate the benefits of the 15A lead?
Need to run up to two car polishers, LED work lights and don't want to short anything.
Thanks.
Amperage Question about Electrical Leads
idonteven on 05/08/2016 - 10:40
Comments
If you use 15A leads and connect it to a 10A powerboard, it will work fine, just that if your power consumption goes over 10A, the powerboard will trip. I don't think the loads you connected to it will short or anything. It should just be like you turned the power off when it trips.
Edit: assuming there is a safety switch or fuse on your powerboard of course.
Note that you can't plug a 15A lead into a normal 10A socket.
How many amps (or watts) do your polishers use?
You can only draw a combined 10A through a 10A power board. But it can still worth using a 15A lead - it won't get as warm as a 10A lead would (and you'll get a touch more power delivered to your tools, rather than lost in the lead).How long do you need the lead to be?
Didn't even know that it won't fit. Thanks.
I haven't checked how many amps my equipment uses, the most I've ever used was 2 polishers or a polisher and two 10W LED worklights. It worked fine but I'd rather be safe and get something more heavy duty to take the load.
I'm ideally going for something at least 20m so I can have as much room to move around the car as I want.
Look for a "heavy duty" 10A lead. If you can find specs on wire size (cross-sectional area, measured in mm squared i.e. mm with a superscript 2), a bigger number is better.
the real question you should be asking is what rating is the breaker connected to the outlet and how many other wall outlets/devices are connected to it?
a 15A lead won't plug in to a 10A power board or socket - the 15A earth pin is longer than a 10A earth pin
was about to say exactly the same thing
Oh right didn't even know that. Thank you. Guess I'll be sticking to 10A.
Read the combined wattage of the tools and led. 10A at 240v is 2400watts. If ur under that u should be fine with 10a cord.
Thanks mate.
Powerboard is designed to handle 10a. If you put over that through it, could damage it, orit will cut out with fuse or safety switch on the powerboard.