Some do. I have a few with breakers. But I don’t have confidence that they will necessarily trip at the rated amperage.
I’d like ones with replaceable fuses so I can set the rating to under the max rating for the strip, because the strip may have a higher rating than the extension cord (though my longest stingers are all 12/3, I do have some shorter cords that are lower rated. I do sometimes use power strips with extension cords, and it is possible to do safely if you calculate your loads, but correct fusing would make it safer.)
I lack sufficiently flexible theory of mind to fully put myself into the depraved mindset of an advertiser, even for hypothetical purposes; but my working hypothesis is that deliberately using old-looking pictures both elicits a warm feeling of fauxthenticity that attracts members of certain age brackets; and may also be less vulnerable to the increasingly wide gaps in pixel density between various devices; since starting out kind of soft makes scaling algorithms less visibly offensive.
Not even then. While the decorations I have are all two prong affairs, the backbone that runs power out to it is all three conductor, 12 gauge, and it’s all homed off a GFCI outlet.
One of the things I’m looking at is running multiple meters (as in 25+!) of the WS8212 “neopixel” style LED strips along the eves on a more permanent basis, and just changing colors as the holidays go by, and lighting the place up for special occasions as needed. I do know that it’s not gonna be cheap.
That would add too much to the price, and (in the US at least) you then have a race of which breaker trips first. There ARE extension cords with a built-in GFCI breaker, but this add a bit to the cost, and if it’s plugged into another GFCI outlet, you have the same race condition, and TBH, no one wins from that.
What you are probably thinking of is a construction power box, which takes a couple high amperage feeds from either a temporary meter on a pole or a trailer’ed generator, and acts as a temporary electrical system during construction until the permanent stuff is inspected and turned up.
I can’t think that there is any safety advantage, though, of running an insulated ground wire out to ungrounded appliance. GFI doesn’t use ground as a reference at all. It strictly checks that the current flow of the hot and neutral wires are equal. If there is a short to ground through your body, the current will be unequal and the GFI will trip. The ground wire never comes into play, not even in the GFI outlet. But, if you do have a mix of grounded and ungrounded appliances, then, yeah, you’d totally need a grounded AC extension cord.
Oh, I know, but this way I only have to keep one type of extension cord around instead of going “ok, was this one for the lights and THAT one for the mulch-O-matic?” and reduces the chances of someone else grabbing the wrong one for the task.
Plus, the taps I put out with the decorations are also three-prongers, so it just makes sense to provide an earth ground as far as I can.
15 amp plug on a wire that can safely carry 10 amps? Don’t use this for a circular saw or a corded electric lawnmower! You’ll burn out the motor even if the wire doesn’t catch on fire.
Personally I use 10-gauge SOOJW for serious extension cords. Not even kidding
I used to, years ago, but it’s so damn stiff and it’s so much overkill… I just do 12 gauge these days.
I use the serious heavy stuff for e-cords mostly for the way it stands up to damage. I have run over SOOJW with studded tractor tires, no damage.
Actually this computer I’m using right now is on a 10g SOOJW switched extension! The wire is a half inch in diameter, so roombas, cats and teething children can’t touch it.
