ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Voltage drop??

I have a 50 amp 120/240 camper power cord going 250 ft. I've been trying to find what the voltage drop is. Can anyone help me with the formula? Thanks Steve
I will have to assume the amperage at 50 amps max.

You can use the calculator at http://nooutage.com/vdrop.htm, but you will need to know your wire gauge.
or http://www.elec-toolbox.com/calculators/voltdrop.htm will tell you your minimum wire size is going to be #3.

A customer is wanting me to get this cord for him. He has a customer who is going to park a "medical RV" on his property. The RV will be approx. 250 ft. away. I'm thinking I need to discourage him from doing this at that distance. Sounds like he's going to burn something up in his RV with low voltage, as well as overheating the cable.
I don't know what the total amperage used will be, but his a/c unit, refrigeration equipment, etc. may take a toll from the lower voltage, especially if he need's #3 instead of #6. Plus the price of the cable is going to be around
$ 860.00 for that type of cable. I'm still looking for a second opinion here. I couldn't get the nooutage.com calculators, it wouldn't come up. Could be a mighty costly mistake if I get the wrong wire for him:( Thanks

I have an old BASIC program voltage drop calculator if anyone wants it. I can put it on my web site. It still runs with W/98, I suppose XP and Vista can do it

Greg, I could probably use your voltage drop program if you could make it available. I have windows XP. Thanks , Steve

Greg, what is your website? Thanks

This is in the ftp area

http://esteroriverheights.com/electrical/info.zip

This is a lot more than just voltage drop but the voltage drop is in "electrical". I suppose you could pare down the rest of the stuff if you are a BASIC guy but this thing is not really that big. I did not write this. It was an IBM guy I knew. Set your shortcut to run "info.bat"

If you want help with the formula, here it is in depth.

http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/homewiringusa/2002/definitions/voltagedrop/voltagedropshowallp.htm

Try the calculators listed above. I use them all the time, to save time.

"Try the calculators listed above. I use them all the time, to save time."
You seem to be skipping over the thread to save time, too.

Read the thread carefully. According to the Original Poster:

"Can anyone help me with the formula?"
and
"I couldn't get the nooutage.com calculators, it wouldn't come up."


Try Googling "Voltage Drop Calculator" if that's what you want. Any one of a number of calculators should pop up.