What’s the difference between a heavy duty (12 gauge) extension cord and the 12ga wiring inside the walls of a typical north American home? Why can’t you just chop the ends off and use it to wire up an outlet?

Question

What’s the difference between a heavy duty (12 gauge) extension cord and the 12ga wiring inside the walls of a typical north American home? Why can’t you just chop the ends off and use it to wire up an outlet?

In: 250

Answer 1

Code Violation; Even if the gauge, strand type and purity, and length is the same. The non-conductive material when building has to abide by codes, a very important one is Plenum Rating.

[https://sewelldirect.com/blogs/learning-center/understanding-plenum-and-other-nec-cable-ratings](https://sewelldirect.com/blogs/learning-center/understanding-plenum-and-other-nec-cable-ratings)

Forgot to ELI5: So have you ever thrown plastic in a fire? Sometimes they give off a large amount of smoke, sometimes a little. When you wire things in the wall of your house or business, you will want to make sure if it’s ever on fire, it doesn’t produce a ton of black smoke so the people inside can safely exit. When manufacture’s design products, they usually use the minimum cost solution for nonconductive material. Putting little thought into the safety of it.