ok here is my question to the experts.
i wired a house which has long home runs about 130-150 foot. the master bed room feeds only the master bed room and the master bath, a home inspector(not electrical) has a tester which can apply 15 amps across circuit and gives a percentage of the volt drop. he says i have a 13% volt drop at that outlet. at that same plug i get 120 volts. when i turn every singe light and bath fan and plasma tv on i get a 112 volt reading on my tester.
i am aware of the 5% and reasonable operation, since entitre circuit would have to be on to achieve such volt drop.
i calculated th volt drop for the home run @
2kil/csa =
2*12.9*15*130/4110
50,310/4110
12.2 volt drop
following the FPN the max amount of #14 wire would be 50 foot
2*12.9*15*50/csa
19,350/4110
4.7 volt drop
i never calculated volt drops for a house before, have always tried to keep branch circuit to min opening count(12 on a fifteen amp circuit)am i missing something here?
are my calcs right and have i been trained and practicing excessive volt drops?
if 15 amp branch circuits are limited to such small footage you would need a sub panel every 50 foot. and as far as the load calcs and min circuits required go i have more than tripled them. bedroom draws 8 amps with that load i mentioned.
please help with comments and criticism.
thanks,
H20
