Wire gauge for a 200 ft run on 30 amps or 50 amps?
Anybody has a good calculator for wire gauge? I need to do a wire run of 200ft buried wire. I can do 50amps or 30amps. Any advise will be greatly appreciated!
Forum Discussion
naturist wrote:
I'll second what @Old-Biscuit said. Don't scrimp on wire. As wire is expensive in those sizes, it is none the less the cheapest part of the whole deal, when you consider also the just the hassle of blown fuses/breakers, brown-out damaged gear, etc.
x2. the other consideration for going for a 3% drop is the implications of any inductive load such as an AC motor, like your air conditioner. starting current for that could be 50-70A or so momentarily. with to small a wire size, voltage drop can be large enough to turn that momentary draw into many seconds, or even having the motor stall and not start due to voltage drop and if your lucky only pop the breaker.
