Construction: How many 100' extension cords can be daisy chained together legaly?

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EDawes

Member
A 46,000 sq foot building site has the steel skeleton up with the 2nd floor deck serving as a porous roof. They are using corded drills to screw pre formed panels for the walls. 6 to 8 drills are plugged in at one time. 4 duplex (GFCI) outlets are wired in a wall by the entrance. A 20 amp breaker is on the outlets. They are running a 50 ft cord with a spider box. They are running 5 100 ft cord in series to reach men on the far wall. The spider is also GFCIed. A proven gfci tester will not pop either GFCI in the cuircuit. All cords are 12 hard service. Aside from wiring the building is there a good solution to this long run? The GFCI TESTER still works on regular GFCI outlets but will not pop this one with 2 GFCIs in series?
 

tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
Osha requires then to use a GFI cord adapter between the last outlet and their tool.
Their tool has to plug directly into a GFI.
 

jimbo123

Senior Member
I believe you can only use 1 cord and can not daisy chain any. Only going by what an electrical inspector once said about daisy chaining.
 

tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
Where is that stated in the Osha standards?

You can ask the OSHA inspector when he is writing up the fine.
I don't have the OSHA standards and won't waste my time looking it up.

I know what I have seen fined by OSHA though.
 

stevenje

Senior Member
Location
Yachats Oregon
I believe you can only use 1 cord and can not daisy chain any. Only going by what an electrical inspector once said about daisy chaining.

100' won't get you to far on most of the job sites I've been on. A few years back I worked on a huge 7 story parking structure. Our 4 man crew routinely rolled out 1500' of cord every morning and then rolled it back up at the end of the day. After a few months of that you have forearms like popeye!
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
Osha requires then to use a GFI cord adapter between the last outlet and their tool.
Their tool has to plug directly into a GFI.
Actually OSHA requires the extension cord as well as the tool to be GFCI protected, so the GFCI device is required to be a the supply end of the cord.
 

Electric-Light

Senior Member
Connect a 60W light bulb between hot and ground.

If the light bulb comes on, the GFCI is not working.
If the light bulb won't and GFCI won't trip, I bet there's a cord in the chain with ground prong removed.
 

jimbo123

Senior Member
I would think 1 gfci and it should be at male end of the cord to protect everyone from the start of the line since some might use more then 1 extenion cord.
 

roger3829

Senior Member
Location
Torrington, CT
I believe you can only use 1 cord and can not daisy chain any. Only going by what an electrical inspector once said about daisy chaining.

Wow. That's funny! Did he have any code section at all to back this up? I don't think so.

The only limit to the number of cords that could be plugged in together would depend on the load and acceptable voltage drop at the end of the cord. As long as the cord was plugged into a GFCI protected receptacle, no other additional GFCI devices would be required.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
Yes, along with the one at the end of the cord to protect at the tool.
Everything on the load side of the first GFCI is protected, there in nothing in the OSHA rules that would require you to have one at the tool itself if the cord is protected at its source.
 

wtucker

Senior Member
Location
Connecticut
That makes no sense. What is the standard? If you are going to spew at opinions as facts then back it up.

OSHA Construction Industry Standard, as requested:

1926.404(b)(1)(ii) ?All 120-volt, single-phase 15- and 20-ampere receptacle outlets on construction sites, which are not a part of the permanent wiring of the building or structure and which are in use by employees, shall have approved ground-fault circuit interrupters for personnel protection. Receptacles on a two-wire, single-phase portable or vehicle-mounted generator rated not more than 5kW, where the circuit conductors of the generator are insulated from the generator frame and all other grounded surfaces, need not be protected with ground-fault circuit interrupters.?

All receptacles need GFCI's, from the one the extension cord's plugged into on downstream. If that one doesn't have a GFCI, it's acceptable to put a portable one there--on the supply side of the cord. Best choice is a GFCI breaker on each branch circuit (the title of .404(b) is "branch circuits").

OSHA doesn't care how long the extension cord is, unless the cord's being used contrary to its UL listing. The problem's the gauge of the conductor. Overheating and voltage drop...
 
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