Upsize Wires Based upon Voltage Drop
Automatically upsize branch circuit wires when necessary because of voltage drop.
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Anonymous commented
It has been 11 years
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Bryant commented
If you are going to do this, make sure you fix how the voltage drop is performed as some situations you will want it based on load calcs and other times at actual load. If automatic was used and it was based on demand many times that might oversize the wire as you would add 25% to a 5HP motor wired 150ft would give a way oversized wired.
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chris partrich commented
Voltage drop upsizing is preferred, but If for some reason you are unable to upsize based on voltage drop, at a minimum you could add some flexibility to wire size options to allow lengths for upsizing from #12 to #10 to be voltage-specific. Right now if I enter 100' DM does not differentiate between 120V and 277V circuits and lightly loaded 277V circuits end up being unnecessarily upsized.
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Andrew Beck commented
I know "branch wires" are mentioned in the wish description, but it would also be nice if feeder wires were upsized based on voltage drop.
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Bryant commented
Per NEC 250.122(B) When ungrounded circuit conductors are increased in size for voltage drop, the EGC must be proportionately increased in size. Maybe at a minimum we could get a check mark next to the ground conductor that says "Upsized". You would then compare the automatic sized conductors versus selected and upsize the ground accordingly. Right now, I have to manually do this with a spreadsheet. Sometimes I just guess the upsize for time sakes :-(