Vacuum cleaner cord has it's own listing category (type SVxx) and the
motor/cord assembly is an engineered system. The voltage drop is taken into
account when they design a vacuum. In fact you would violate the listing if you
did put a 14 ga cord on one.
It really has nothing to do with what we are talking about here

Hmmm... 17GA wire has a resistance of about 5ohms/1000ft(*). Assuming a
10ft vaccum cord, you have have about 0.1ohm of total resistance.

Thus, you would dissipate about 12A*12A*0.1ohm = 14.4Watts of heat during
operation (over the length of the cord) and have a voltage drop at the
motor of 12A*0.1ohm = 1.2V. 14GA wire has about 1/2 the resistance and
thus would dissipate 1/2 the amount of heat and 1/2 the voltage drop.

Would a 0.6V change in voltage at the motor really violate the listing?


(*) I'm assuming that the rating of 5ohm/1000ft is for single conductor
and not the "round trip" (i.e. double) distance. If I'm wrong, cut
the calculated numbers in half.

Brian
( )

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