What size wire and how many amps are needed to run 300' of wire for a 120 volt circuit.?
Question:the circuits will have receptacles and lights
Answers:
need to know what the receptacles will be used for and what areas they are in,also you need to add up your total lighting load and total all amperage in order to compute a voltage drop calculation,some receptacles require a 20 amp circuit example kitchen and dining room receptacles.good luck!!
whats the max draw?
14 or 12awg nm cable
It depends on what the load requirements are. How many lights and where are the receptacles going to be?
For example the receptacles in a dining room must have a dedicated 20 amp circuit.
The size of the wire will depend on the amount of current you expect to draw.The ampacity can be determined from tables in the National Electrical Code.
Because of the length of the run, you may wish to kick the size up, to avoid excessive voltage drop.
That is kind of an incomplete question. There is a table called "ampacity" that you can find on the internet to see how much amperage a wire can carry...like copper 10 ga can carry 30 amps, while 12 ga can only carry 20 amps and 4 ga can carry 95 amps.
Your next problem will be voltage drop, as if you start with 120 volts and run anything 300 feet, you will have a voltage drop at the end. 10 ga wire can carry only 5 amps for 225 feet and will lose 2% of the voltage...so it will read 117.6 volts at the 225 ft mark. Contrast that with 4 ga wire, which can carry 15 amps for 300 feet with the same 2% drop. It is likely safe, if you aren't using fancy electronics and motors, to allow a much larger voltage drop...but that will impact your electric bill by getting lower voltage out to the 300 ft mark...you'll need more killowatt-hours than if you had larger wire.
So how much wattage will you be using? Add everything up...like 4- 60 watt bulbs = 240 watts, a 1200 watt electric heater, a 200 watt television, etc... My example is 240+1200+200 = 1640 watts. Divide that by the 120 volts and you see it is already 13.66 Amps for just that little!
For that distance, I'd put in a 60 amp sub panel and run #4 or even bigger wire from the main panel...with a 90 AMP breaker at the house. My answer assumes this is to an out-building. A house has specific requirements for rooms like kitchens, bedrooms, attached garages, etc.
i dunno
I would use at least a # 10 and depends on what kind of load you want to run.
A number 10 wire requires a 30 amp breaker
Not enough information to give an intelligent and correct answer.
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