Minimum allowed drop on ac voltage
I am trying to run a elect heater off my 120 20 amp circuit plugged in at home. It drops to around 104 volts when using. Will this cause any problems?
Forum Discussion
Assuming a 1500 watt heater running at 104 volts, it would be drawing about 10 amps. Further assuming an end-to-end drop of 16 volts (120 down to 104), there would be 160 watts of loss in the form of heat. If that's distributed over a long wimpy extension cord that isn't coiled up, there might not be a problem. If much of that heat is being generated in a high resistance connection or coiled-up cord, it could be enough to start a fire. Personally, I'd want to replace the assumptions with real numbers, and I wouldn't tolerate the risk of an interconnection that generates that much heat.
