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TIL the hard way that voltage drop on a 200 foot run is no joke
I ran a 12/2 UF cable about 200 feet out to a shed for lights and a single outlet. On paper everything looked fine, but after I hooked up a 15 amp circuit tester the voltage was reading 112 volts instead of 120. I had to go back and swap the wire out for 10/2 which cost me an extra $80 and a full afternoon. So do you usually oversize your long runs from the start or do you check voltage drop on paper first and roll the dice?
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brookep273d ago
On paper everything looked fine" is exactly where I would have been too lol. I don't think people talk enough about how voltage drop sneaks up on you with lighting though - that 112v will make LEDs flicker or run dim without you even noticing until it drives you crazy. These days I just bump up a wire size on anything over 150 feet and call it cheap insurance.
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leobrown3d ago
Do you think it matters what kind of load you're running? Like if it's just lights vs. a power tool that pulls a lot of amps, does the voltage drop hit different? I've heard people say that for lights a little drop is no big deal, but 112v sounds like it'd mess with anything that needs steady power. Curious if anyone's tested this with a heater or a saw and saw it just quit halfway through a cut.
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