# Honda EU7000is - 120V & & Cable Length Question



## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

I think I know the answer but if someone can confirm. If my generator is running at 120V and I use receptacle No. 1 which is 3 prong, 30 amps, and plug into the power inlet box, wouldn't I just be providing power to one leg of breaker box? In other words, only half of my breakers would be working. Am I correct?

I purchased a Reliance Controls 1 foot cable that attaches to the same 3 prong generator receptacle but female end attaches to my 240V cord. The 1 ft. cable has 2 wires hot bridged so that when the cable is attached to my power inlet box, I assume I would be receiving power to both legs in breaker box - is this correct?

Last question is that I have a Reliance Controls 20' and 40' cable. Is running 60' of cable too long for using either the 120V or 240V receptacles?


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## Browse Deweb (Jan 16, 2021)

120V output from your generator will only power one leg. You certainly don't want to try to power both legs of a panel with in-phase 120V unless all of your 240V breakers remain off. Your proper and legal connection to a panel should be using the 240V outlet if you want both legs and 240V circuits working.

I have a 100 FT 10/4 240V cable I use with my Honda and have had no issues with this long of a connection:









Amazon.com : Iron Box NEMA L14-30 Generator Extension Cord - 30A, 125/250V, 10/4 SOOW - UL Listed IBX-5805-100-C : Generator Accessories : Tools & Home Improvement


Amazon.com : Iron Box NEMA L14-30 Generator Extension Cord - 30A, 125/250V, 10/4 SOOW - UL Listed IBX-5805-100-C : Generator Accessories : Tools & Home Improvement



www.amazon.com


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

at the length you are at 60 feet i would run 6/4 wire.


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

Browse Deweb said:


> 120V output from your generator will only power one leg. You certainly don't want to try to power both legs of a panel with in-phase 120V unless all of your 240V breakers remain off. Your proper and legal connection to a panel should be using the 240V outlet if you want both legs and 240V circuits working.
> 
> I have a 100 FT 10/4 240V cable I use with my Honda and have had no issues with this long of a connection:
> 
> ...


Yes, all 240V breakers would remain off when powering both legs.


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

iowagold said:


> at the length you are at 60 feet i would run 6/4 wire.


You brought up an excellent point I never considered. Looking online at wire calculators and something I never thought of, that is, voltage drop. How much voltage drop is acceptable? Maybe I should start a different discussion on this subject as it appears wire size, distance, volt & amps. all come into play. Thanks,


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## AndrewL (Jul 24, 2017)

5% max. Better to keep to 3%


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

Browse Deweb said:


> 120V output from your generator will only power one leg. You certainly don't want to try to power both legs of a panel with in-phase 120V unless all of your 240V breakers remain off. Your proper and legal connection to a panel should be using the 240V outlet if you want both legs and 240V circuits working.
> 
> I have a 100 FT 10/4 240V cable I use with my Honda and have had no issues with this long of a connection:
> 
> ...


Using the wire calculator for 100' 10/4 240V, you are getting approx. 3% voltage drop in the wire. That would not include voltage drops further down the circuit. I'm reviewing my wiring now and I'm wanting, if possible, to get to about 1.5% or less preferably in drop due to electronic gear.


iowagold said:


> at the length you are at 60 feet i would run 6/4 wire.


If I replace 10/4 wire and run 6/4 wire from power inlet box to main breaker, I assume my weak link is the 20' and 40' 10/4 generator wire. I guess I should replace that wire too?? Is 6/4 generator wire even made as I don't see it for 20'?


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

AndrewL said:


> 5% max. Better to keep to 3%


Yes, the less drop the better. Checking my voltage meter, my outlets are showing 119 volts with grid power, so I'm losing 1 volt from breaker box to outlets. Sensitive electronic gear like computer, I read keep at 1.5% drop or 1.8 volts drop 120V x .015) so that means I only have 0.8 volts to lose which seems ridiculous since I'm already losing 1 volt from breaker box to outlets while on grid. Am I making sense? Does that mean going to 4 ga. wire? Then my cable from generator to power inlet box should equal gauge of wire from inlet box to main breaker box. Do they even make such generator wire?


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

get as close to zero loss to heat and voltage drop at max surge current as you can.
that is my goal on all of the systems i setup.

same on in house house wiring...
120vac
12 gauge on all 15 amp wiring including lights med to short runs.
step up to 10 gauge if it is long runs.
then you never have to ask or question the wires...

i always run the next size up on the charts as a min.
depending on if in conduit and if it is plastic or metal...
metal on concrete will take a bit more heat..


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## drmerdp (Apr 10, 2018)

StormReady said:


> Yes, the less drop the better. Checking my voltage meter, my outlets are showing 119 volts with grid power, so I'm losing 1 volt from breaker box to outlets. Sensitive electronic gear like computer, I read keep at 1.5% drop or 1.8 volts drop 120V x .015) so that means I only have 0.8 volts to lose which seems ridiculous since I'm already losing 1 volt from breaker box to outlets while on grid. Am I making sense? Does that mean going to 4 ga. wire? Then my cable from generator to power inlet box should equal gauge of wire from inlet box to main breaker box. Do they even make such generator wire?


You have a few threads beating around a similar bush. You measure 119v at 1 outlet but how far is it from the main circuit panel? You might simply have 119 from the utility, not out of the question during hot weather with heavy AC usage. Did you get a reading at your main breaker in the panel To truely quantify voltage drop?

Im a bit confused as to what your actual cable and cord situation is. Can you clarify what exactly your setup consists of and what you are trying to resolve?


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

yea measure the grid voltage at the panel and measure the drop on the breakers as well....
i have seen bad breakers this year!
we replaced 2 of them on a project last week we looked at for another contractor.

flir camera showed that hot spot!
pretty cool if you are looking for trouble and overloads.
pm if you need links for those.


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## Rpgenct (Aug 5, 2021)

Question re below…. If he ran an L14-30 from gen to inlet box, wouldn’t he be fine running any 120 or 240 circuit (keeping within the 20 or 30amp threshold…?)




Browse Deweb said:


> 120V output from your generator will only power one leg. You certainly don't want to try to power both legs of a panel with in-phase 120V unless all of your 240V breakers remain off. Your proper and legal connection to a panel should be using the 240V outlet if you want both legs and 240V circuits working.
> 
> I have a 100 FT 10/4 240V cable I use with my Honda and have had no issues with this long of a connection:
> 
> ...


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

that is a LONG 100 foot run....
maybe 15-18 amps at 10/4....
depends on the load at the point of use...


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

drmerdp said:


> You have a few threads beating around a similar bush. You measure 119v at 1 outlet but how far is it from the main circuit panel? You might simply have 119 from the utility, not out of the question during hot weather with heavy AC usage. Did you get a reading at your main breaker in the panel To truely quantify voltage drop?
> 
> Im a bit confused as to what your actual cable and cord situation is. Can you clarify what exactly your setup consists of and what you are trying to resolve?


Yes, a few threads trying to make heads or tails from all of this. The reason is that I'm presently using 27' of 10/4 cable from breaker box to power inlet box, and another 20' extension cable of same gauge from generator to power inlet box for a total of 47' of 10/4 cable. I've read that voltage drop can damage sensitive electronic equipment, and further read somewhere that the voltage drop should not be more that 1 1/2% for sensitive equipment. I'm referring to computer and smart TV. This is the only reason I'm concerned about the size cable and voltage drop. So I was thinking of changing the 27' of 10/4 cable to 6/4 cable from breaker to power inlet box, if this makes sense. And I may be over thinking this entire process. BTW, I did a more thorough test of house circuits at outlets and found them at 120V connected to grid. Maybe before I change the cable to 6/4, I should connect generator and check voltage at outlet. But not sure how much voltage drop is safe to operate sensitive electronics. I had an additional 40' extension cable that I now returned because of these discussions as I was afraid that 60' of extension cable would be an excessive amount of voltage drop. The last thing I want is to damage equipment due to insufficient gauge wire. What do you think?


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## drmerdp (Apr 10, 2018)

“Sensitive electronics” are not subject to damage from minor voltage fluctuations. 99% of electronics considered sensitive use an ac to dc converter. The converter normally had a rather wide voltage window. High voltage is more damaging then low voltage. The low threshold is about 110v. The main concern would be a major drop of voltage due to a very large inductive load. Additionally, an inverter generator in eco mode would be more vulnerable to a voltage drop if a large load is introduced at once.

You are correct to be concerned with power quality but your 47’ of 10ga wire is not a major concern. There is no harm in upgrading to 6ga but it’s honestly not nessesary. The single best thing you’ve done to protect your electronics is an inverter generator that will always maintain 60hz and produce a pure sign wave with low total Harmonic distortion.


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

What you've described is definitely reassuring. You think I over reacted by returning the 40' extension cable? That would have provided a total of 87' or 67' from breaker if not using my 20' cable.


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## drmerdp (Apr 10, 2018)

If you require the added length, I would simply make a cord from 8/4 Soow.


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

drmerdp said:


> If you require the added length, I would simply make a cord from 8/4 Soow.


The 40' cable was bought to enable me to place generator under a roof where it wouldn't get rained upon during a storm. The 20' cable I now have would have the generator in an open area subject to rain. My brother said he leaves his outside in the rain but I didn't think that to be a good idea. Do you think it a problem to allow the generator to be outside in the rain while running?


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

get it under a shelter...
not a good plan to have them sitting in the wet!


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

iowagold said:


> get it under a shelter...
> not a good plan to have them sitting in the wet!


My feeling too. Was just looking at my tarps that have those holes to attach something. I'm thinking of placing the holes onto the hooks located on top of the chain link fence in a corner where the house is on one side and chain link fence is L shaped where there is a sidewalk - and slope tarp downwards but not enough to interfere with exhaust or intake. I'll try it when raining (w/o generator there) and see if the area is dry. BTW, I checked the voltage calculator and changing all 47' of 10 ga. cable to 8 increases voltage by 1.3 volts so I think I'll leave well enough alone for now. Changing the extension cord from 10 to 8 increases voltage by only 0.55 volts so I'll leave that alone too. Thank you and everyone else for the help, much appreciated.


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## drmerdp (Apr 10, 2018)

StormReady said:


> My feeling too. Was just looking at my tarps that have those holes to attach something. I'm thinking of placing the holes onto the hooks located on top of the chain link fence in a corner where the house is on one side and chain link fence is L shaped where there is a sidewalk - and slope tarp downwards but not enough to interfere with exhaust or intake. I'll try it when raining (w/o generator there) and see if the area is dry. BTW, I checked the voltage calculator and changing all 47' of 10 ga. cable to 8 increases voltage by 1.3 volts so I think I'll leave well enough alone for now. Changing the extension cord from 10 to 8 increases voltage by only 0.55 volts so I'll leave that alone too. Thank you and everyone else for the help, much appreciated.


Definitely have enough length to get it under a shelter.👍


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## Browse Deweb (Jan 16, 2021)

I made a clip on canopy for mine:





You can also guy a GenTent or similar product.


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

after watching the cat 4 videos yea a concrete block shed with a concrete slab roof tied in with rebar as bunker style would be the trick thing...
WOW!
a tarp would be a sail..
same on any temp shelter....
and same on a basic car port!
BIG sail...

for standard rain storms and no real wind yea a tarp shelter or gen tent..
or unattached car port / car shelter setup.


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## Browse Deweb (Jan 16, 2021)

I should get a Snoopy doll for the top of mine:


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## tabora (Sep 6, 2018)

iowagold said:


> car port setup


Depending on how the car port is sited relative to the house and how the wind blows, that might not be the best solution...

Even positioning a portable generator next to your home can put your household at risk. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, from 2004-2013, there were 526 deaths caused by a generator inside or next to a fixed structure home. Here is a breakdown of some of the deaths by portable generator location:

180 deaths occurred with the generator running in a non-basement living space.
136 deaths occurred with the generator running in the garage or car port.
127 deaths occurred with the generator running in the basement.
15 deaths occurred with the generator running *outside, near open windows, doors, or vents*.
11 deaths occurred with the generator running in the closet.
3 deaths occurred with the generator running *in the doorway to the home*.


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

un attached carport, away from the house


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## StormReady (Aug 21, 2021)

drmerdp said:


> Definitely have enough length to get it under a shelter.👍


Couldn't locate an already made 8/4 extension cord so took your advice and purchased exactly what I needed, 50' of 8/4 online and the two connectors at Lowes. Also found what you said, that connectors usually max out at 8 ga. When the 8/4 extension is not in use, I'll use the 10/4 20' cable but won't attach both. Was curious as both the L1430C and L1430R look the same and most for sale are the R but Reliance Controls said to use the C for connecting to power box and the R for connecting to another extension.


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