Newbie question about plugging in at the house

I can run everthing when plugged into the side of my house

If you are plugged into a 20 amp, 110v service. You can use everything but the a/c. You would also want to watch how much you had on at any given time, but it should run fine.

20a should run any single large item or all the small stuff.
Large is A/C, Micro, electric water heater, hair dryer, Keurig etc.

Worse case the breaker will trip and you reduce the load.

One heavy draw item at a time should be OK.

BUT Few homes actually have 20A plugs. Most likely they have a 20A circuit with multiple 15A plugs on that circuit. That means you have to share the power with whatever else is running in the house. That might be very little or it might be a significant draw.

So talk to the owner and see if you can identify a lightly loaded circuit to use and don't be surprised if you just get a blank stare.

Plus the length and size on your extension cord is a factor. The shorter and bigger the less voltage drop. Therefore buy a 10 ga 50' extension cord for under $100. Price is not a factor as you don't have CG fees.

We run everything when hooked up on 20 amp circuits, only one major item at a time.

CA Traveler wrote:
One heavy draw item at a time should be OK.

BUT Few homes actually have 20A plugs. Most likely they have a 20A circuit with multiple 15A plugs on that circuit. That means you have to share the power with whatever else is running in the house. That might be very little or it might be a significant draw.

So talk to the owner and see if you can identify a lightly loaded circuit to use and don't be surprised if you just get a blank stare.

Plus the length and size on your extension cord is a factor. The shorter and bigger the less voltage drop. Therefore buy a 10 ga 50' extension cord for under $100. Price is not a factor as you don't have CG fees.

x2 - we had a randomly occurring breaker flipping problem when plugged into a friend's garage outlet until we figured out that his freezer in the basement was on the same circuit.

It's better to add a 30 amp, but I ran everything before I put in the 30. There are some YouTube videos on how to. I paid an electrician because I was upgrading my service anyway.

Use everything BUT AC
-or-
Use only AC

If you use everything including the AC, you will spend a large amount of time resetting the breaker in the house.

Best bet is get a 30 amp outlet installed by an electrician.

We put in a 30 amp outlet, so no worries about what we can & can't run, we can run everything.

Big Rig (John)

Buzzcut1 wrote:
I can run everthing when plugged into the side of my house

As do I. I use a 12 ga extension cord, about 20 to 30 feet, with typical 15 amp male and female ends. It has been working for over 15 years, at home and when visiting relatives. Gotta confess, I do not recall if I have ever ran the microwave and A/C at the same time. My A/C is a 9200 btu Polar Cub, which only uses about 9 amps as I recall.