DIY Home Improvement Forum banner

Wire Guage Sizes

2K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  frenchelectrican 
#1 ·
One mistake i see alot of DIY's making is say:

#10 feeding to runs of #12

a simple run for you all:

"WHAT IS FED... IS WHAT CONTINUES / NO CHANGING OF THE WIRE GUAGE"

so if you feed a #10 for 2 seperate 15Amp circuits.... NO WAY, you need 2 DEDICATED #14 circuits.

If you have any questions just ask
 
#2 ·
There's nothing in any code I've ever seen that says you can't downsize your conductors. It DOES, however, say you have to size you OPD to the smallest conductor you have in the circuit.

It's not a bad idea to follow suit all the way through, but it's not code required.
 
#5 ·
I think Swifty has a point. (nothing to do with the code, but a point nonetheless)

Oftentimes in commercial and Industrial circuits are spec'd to be as large as #4 CU for a 20A branch circuit. This is for Voltage Drop. Except for RARE instances VD is not an issue for homeowners. I've never felt the need to switch conductor sizes in a house.
 
#7 ·
Majorty of the Resdentail area i useally not really worry about the VD because majorty of the runs are about 100 feet or less [ 30 metres or less ]

but other hand in commercal/ industrial location it will be diffrent ballpark of game you have to deal with this. this will get pretty common that why i useally automatically expect the wire size useally bump up a size or two. due very long run esepcally this is true with luminaire circuits. [ parking lot is worst ]

that why i useally dont advise not too much in resdentail area but there are few spots have to watch out is spa circuit's and few other but each case are diffrent.

Merci, Marc
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top