On Tue, 13 Aug 2013 19:02:53 -0700, Erik wrote:

Hi all,

A couple of neighbors were bickering about this.

Lets say there is a 100' extension cord (with metal copper conductors)
energized by a live household 120V 60Hz outlet. Nothing is plugged into
the cord, and it's one without any indicator lights or ground fault
gimmicks. Said cord is dry, other than the typical indoor humidity of a
normal household garage.

How would one calculate the minuscule energy loss from such a static
conductor just sitting and radiating (and/or whatever).

I tend to agree with the one neighbor that there's bound 'some' loss...
but probably on the order of, oh maybe a penny's worth every few
centuries; but haven't a clue as how one would calculate something like
this, or even what loses would be involved.

The main loss will be through the AC current driving the cable
capacitance. There's also radiation losses but at 60Hz they are
negligible. A typical capacitance might be, oh, 100 pF/m, so the total
under 5nF, or about half a megaohm at 60Hz. The current in the cable
itself is of course non-dissipative, but the 0.2 mA will flow through the
house wiring and cause some power loss. You are right that it will be
minuscule: 1 Watt of electrical energy costs on average around 1$/year,
and this is far less than a Watt.