The main issue with your #s is that u ASSuMEd the generator is 120v.
(Still arguing with posts you vowed not to read, are we?)
Since the voltage was not (initially) specified, that was the only prudent thing to do. I did, of course, qualify my remarks to denote that assumption, and thereby establish their context. And as such, those remarks were both perfectly appropriate and 100% accurate. Yet, you saw fit to take issue with them anyway. Had I assumed 240V, and based on that assumption made a "Wylie Special Shoot-From-The-Hip One-Size Fits-All" pronouncement that AWG 10 was just fine and dandy regardless of any other considerations or possible complications, he could very easily have wound up with a real problem on his hands had it turned out that it
was 120V.
So which would be the more responsible and potentially helpful (in the sense of avoiding potential problems) approach?
Even IF the generator was 120v, the voltage drop would be about 9v AT FULL LOAD 30a.
Which would be nearly three times the preferred limit. Yet you are apparently OK with that, as a design criterium?
If the generator held the voltage at 120v that would mean devices would be seeing about 110v which us acceptable for most devices.
"If", "acceptable", and "most".
Do you REALLY think that installations should be designed to be dependent upon the vagarities of "if", (barely) "acceptable", and "most"?!? At least at the design stage, the criteria should be "even if not", "ideal" (or as close to it as feasible), and "all foreseeable".
You also seem to think that if XYZ meets code, even if just barely, that's the end of the discussion; and that anything beyond that is by definition a total waste. What you apparently fail to understand is that code is ONLY the bare minimum spec needed to stay legal. It does NOT represent even a "medium quality" approach, let alone "best practice" or "ideal".
Also, the reason I brought up wether the geny is 30a continous is because many generators HAVE a 30a recepticle because their capacity is just over 20a so a 20a outlet is too small! If this is indeed the case, then using 30a for amperage in our VD math is also overkill!
Red Herring.
As pointed out previously, the generator itself was never mentioned by the OP, and is not the issue. Beyond that, any attempts to rationalize a potentially sub-par installation based on a guess that the generator MIGHT not fully tax the circuit are just silly.
#10 is fine...end of story!
Still wielding that overly wide brush, I see.
Exactly! VD calcs are for FIXED wiring! So u dont include the length of a flexable cord
You do when it is explicitly specified as part of the given problem.
...because the cord length can change and an electrician's job is to compensate only for whats fixed inside the wall and cant be changed. The OP can add an even longer cord and mess up the VD calcs...its not our job to calculate what length cord might be plugged into an outlet, only the wire FEEDING that outlet!
Your tunnel-vision is showing.
Who said anything about "your job"? The OP asked if, given that long cord, AWG 10 would be adequate for the interior wiring. As as pointed out numerous times by now, it very well might not have been, given the (most likely) scenario of it being a 120V circuit. So how exactly was it wrong to point that out?
May be just the reason why I smell an engineer....
Thank Ghod you aren't one!
