Question regarding Power supply

[Kerbouchard]

I think 12 is on the small end. At 100', if anything is pulling close to 20 amps, ideally, it needs to be 10 guage wire. I do agree that 12 AWG is the absolute bare minimum and is seriously pushing it for that length of cord.

I've run my portable electric air-compressor at the end of my 100' 12 AWG cord; 10 would be great (I'm too lazy to do the math to work out the load-loss), but finding a 100' 10 AWG cord might be a challenge, and if you did, it would probably cost as much as the generator.

Runs about $160. I normally use them to power some one ton portable A/C units at work. I had tons of problems running 12 over 50 ft and 14 was out of the question regardless of the distance. But then again, it has a running load of around 18 amps, so probably more than the OP will be have to worry about.

For his purposes, you are probably right that 12 would be adequate, especially if he splits his load between two cords.

 

[Patrice]

Go wander over to an astronomy forum and look in on how astrophotographers deal with their power requirements. Those guys are running laptops, computer operated telescope mounts, imaging sensors, guiding cameras, dew heaters on everything, heated clothing,.... not many make-up lights though.

Often their solution are deep cycle marine, or RV, batteries with inverters where needed. This gives them quiet, clean and portable power from dusk until dawn. Just a thought.

 

[480sparky]

Go wander over to an astronomy forum and look in on how astrophotographers deal with their power requirements. Those guys are running laptops, computer operated telescope mounts, imaging sensors, guiding cameras, dew heaters on everything, heated clothing,.... not many make-up lights though.

Often their solution are deep cycle marine, or RV, batteries with inverters where needed. This gives them quiet, clean and portable power from dusk until dawn. Just a thought.

Most of that stuff runs on 12v DC to begin with.

 

[table1349]

Go wander over to an astronomy forum and look in on how astrophotographers deal with their power requirements. Those guys are running laptops, computer operated telescope mounts, imaging sensors, guiding cameras, dew heaters on everything, heated clothing,.... not many make-up lights though.Often their solution are deep cycle marine, or RV, batteries with inverters where needed. This gives them quiet, clean and portable power from dusk until dawn. Just a thought.

Most of that stuff runs on 12v DC to begin with.

Actually Patrice is right. We have some specialized vehicles at work that have much higher power consumption and we can operate them for 12 to 14 hours on three deep cycle batteries.

 

[Garbz]

Most of that stuff runs on 12v DC to begin with.

Nope, ALL that equipment runs on 12V. Except for laptops, but we have 12V supplies for those too.

Often equipment doesn't even come with a powersupply. It's just not assumed you're going to be setting this stuff up anywhere near a 240V supply.