Housing Inspection Notice From Landlord

Extension cord load limits are in a lot of new office regs we have.
(volts/watts/amp/load rating)

Maybe they watched the Christmas Story too much.

 

Fit a new mains cable of the correct rating and length to the lamp, no extension required.

 

Under Michigan fire code (not sure about NJ), extension cords are not to be used for permanent power solutions. The more connections you have, the more chances that something gets bumped or broken, and increases fire risk. @beagle 's advice is solid.

 

why not let the inspector inspect the place under actual living conditions? Isa your landlord worried that his property will not pass inspection because you are using an extension cord - because there are not enough outlets? Let the inspector tell you if this is unsafe. Otherwise you may be using an unsafe installation and you will be guilty of hiding that from the inspector.

 

I agree. Presuming that there is no mention of extension cords in the lease. Hypothetically, you remove the extension cords for the inspection and then replace them afterwards. Even if they are being used properly - if there is a fire in the building later and extension cords are found in your apartment, is it possible that you could be held to blame? Or is it possible that your renter's insurance may not cover your loss? (You DO have renter's insurance, right?)

If it's not mentioned in your lease, then I think the worst case scenario is that the inspector would tell you to remove them if they don't meet code.

 

Maybe he’s talking about hair extensions. They don’t always look all that great.

 

Unless the current wiring in the building is actually unsafe for some reason, the inspector most likely can't force the landlord to upgrade it to current code. If major renovations need to be done or are done to the building, that's possibly another story.

 

Answer the door buck naked and they probably wont even notice the extension cord.
Should make for a very speedy inspection too.

 

I work for a Federal agency, and our health and safety folks are very careful about extensions and such. A/c units should never be plugged into an extension. Don't ever leave anything plugged into an extension when it is not being used. At home, my wife unplugs the toaster and coffee pot (and everything) when not in use. Be safe!

 

There are a lot of ungrounded outlets in the united states. I doubt that it would be affordable for any of the older buildings to run a ground and tie it into the outlets across the board.

Just don't do something to make yourself the ground. My parents and I (first in their house, and now in mine) have been using ungrounded outlets for eons and the only time that i ever got the bad end of that was sticking a bobby pin in an outlet at age 4 - which wasn't a great idea. I'm not sure if that would throw any of the GFCI or AFCI breakers or outlets these days, but I got enough current to dim the lights and almost permanently switch myself off.

Since then, no problem.

If your outlet is a 15 amp outlet and you're using a suitable extension cord to an air conditioner (e.g., if the A/C is 8 amps and you're using a 12 or 14 gauge cord), there shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps more danger to shortening the life of objects on the ends of undersized cords than to the house (due to a voltage drop - if the current got high enough to cause a problem, it should blow a fuse or trip a breaker).

I am not an electrician and don't even play one, just things I've learned over the years. As a kid, I tied a box heater into a two prong outlet connected to one of those brown cords with only a couple of strands of copper (they're probably 16 or 18 gauge) and got away with it. Something I wouldn't advise now, but we did it all over the house.

Our house did almost burn down once...

..... due to a creosote fire in the chimney....

Lamps, etc, are never going to cause a problem. Running a large A/C connected across the room by those little dollar store extension cords, far different things. Or toaster and coffee pot at the same time on a cord rated for much less than they draw.

 

Unsafe for anything you have plugged into the surge protector, yes, because the surge protector requires a ground to route any surges away from equipment plugged into it. Right now it’s essentially a glorified extension cord, and you already know how your landlord feels about extension cords being out during the inspection. Lol.

As long as the landlord hasn’t replaced any two prong outlets with three pronged outlets to make them LOOK grounded without actually grounding them (e.g. kitchen and bathroom outlets are possible culprits), it’s probably not something the inspector would require to be upgraded. The inspector may strongly recommend that the landlord upgrade all of the two prong ungrounded outlets to properly grounded three prong outlets, but I don’t think it’s something they can force without a direct safety issue.

EDIT: One thing that the inspector may be able to require if you have ungrounded outlets in the bathroom or kitchen, is for the landlord to install GCFI outlets in those locations. They're still not grounded, but they're safer than having ungrounded 2 (or bogus 3) prong outlets in placed where small/large appliances are used that can draw a lot of current.