Can I connect a #6AWG copper conductors to 20A1P breaker?

[bran82004]

Reducing wire size at OCPD. Correct me if im wrong....

Reducing wire size at OCPD. Correct me if im wrong....

I was always under the impression that if you increased your wire size to account for voltage drop, it has to be from ocpd to your load. Splicing a smaller conductor at the ocpd so it fits the lug properly to me seems like all your effort to increase the other 500' of conductor is totally defeted. What good does having a larger conductor do for you when you choke down the circuit at the start of it? Also you talk of a reducing lug of some kind but does Square D or any other manufactor approve this?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I was always under the impression that if you increased your wire size to account for voltage drop, it has to be from ocpd to your load. Splicing a smaller conductor at the ocpd so it fits the lug properly to me seems like all your effort to increase the other 500' of conductor is totally defeted. What good does having a larger conductor do for you when you choke down the circuit at the start of it? Also you talk of a reducing lug of some kind but does Square D or any other manufactor approve this?

That is not the case. The increase in size can be anywhere in the circuit. When you splice a short piece that does not change the VD much at all.

 

[roger]

I was always under the impression that if you increased your wire size to account for voltage drop, it has to be from ocpd to your load.

I think a lot of people have this misunderstanding but, as Dennis says, it is not the case.

Let's say for example you have two parking lot fixtures one 30' outside the building the other 150' away, there is nothing wrong with running a smaller conductor to the first fixture and increase the conductor size to accommodate the VD to the second.

Roger

 

[bran82004]

Ok thanks for clearing that up for me. I like learning new things daily.

 

[Smart $]

I was always under the impression that if you increased your wire size to account for voltage drop, it has to be from ocpd to your load. Splicing a smaller conductor at the ocpd so it fits the lug properly to me seems like all your effort to increase the other 500' of conductor is totally defeted. What good does having a larger conductor do for you when you choke down the circuit at the start of it?

The smaller wire has an impedance relative to its length, as does the larger wire, though not the same per unit length. However, voltage drop is a result of the total impedance between source and load.

Also you talk of a reducing lug of some kind but does Square D or any other manufactor approve this?

Some are ends are solid while some actually have a short section of stranded. But in either case, is not the end still a conductor?