I just bought a killer electric chainsaw. Very powerful, fast and draws a FULL 15 amps. I keep tripping the 15 amp breaker at the box in the basement. It's a LONG run of extension cord (50' 10 guage) but its also some 80 feet to the panel so the wire is probably, what 14 gauge to the panel in my walls? Maybe that's whats tripping the breaker. I'm cutting BIG ROUNDS so the saw is working hard for like 2-3 full minutes and that's when the circuit breaker says, "too much". I have to take frequent breaks every 30 seconds to let the breaker cool before I can resume work.
The outlet at the side of the house has 2 15 amp circuits, one to each plug, like a kitchen in newer home construction. The outlet is GFI protected. Can I pigtail 2 male plugs and wire a single female to the males? That would give me 30 amps? I won't overload the extension cord. It's really heavy duty and I won't overload the wiring in the house, 2 15 amp circuits.
My home is finished and basement done, I can't run a new wire to the back yard. Please help.
Best Answer
No, you absolutely cannot do that.
For starters, they will be on different legs of your hydro connection. You will create a short circuit. There is 240v between the hot wires of those plugs. Even if they were on the same leg, it's still not allowed or advisable, because there is no way to make sure they share the load evenly. Either way, you'll end up damaging your circuit breakers by continually tripping them, or start a fire.
What you need is to run a new 15 or 20 amp circuit with appropriate gauge wire (which might be thicker depending on length of the run) outside. Since you know you'll be using long extension cords with it, I'd add the length of my longest extension cord when calculating the length of the run, and see if that makes you need to upsize the wire further.