I am looking at a 1650 watt water heater installed approximately 100 feet away from the breaker. In using some on-line voltage calculators available, it appears as though this branch circuit will require #10 AWG copper conductor.
Assuming these calculators are correct, the voltage drop is 4.4 % over #12 copper. I have some electricians advising that this is not correct, referring to some rather loose rules of thumb about up-sizing for runs in excess of 200 feet. "#12 AWG is fine"
I have also had it inferred that it makes a difference whether or not the load is resistive or inductive. I don't see anything about this in NEC 210-19 (using 1999). In fact FPN No. 4 explicitly includes heating loads.
Can anyone chime in here and authoratively settle the bet.
