vd

[enireh]

I came across a 200 amp service in the country today and it's over 200' from the meter at the pole with the transformer. Also it is under sized wire (1/0 copper) feeding it and my meter says 123 volts on each leg. Does their need to be a load on the service in order to check voltage drop?

 

[masterinbama]

I came across a 200 amp service in the country today and it's over 200' from the meter at the pole with the transformer. Also it is under sized wire (1/0 copper) feeding it and my meter says 123 volts on each leg. Does their need to be a load on the service in order to check voltage drop?

Yes, the higher the load the more voltage drop you will have.

 

[enireh]

vd

I came across a 200 amp service in the country today and it's over 200' from the meter at the pole with the transformer. Also it is under sized wire (1/0 copper) feeding it and my meter says 123 volts on each leg. Does their need to be a load on the service in order to check voltage drop?

so if there is no load, then the reading may show adequate voltage? Like 123 volts on each leg and 240 between the two phases?

 

[ActionDave]

Correct. It's like having a half inch water line run 200' out to the watering trough, the pressure guage is going to read sixty psi out there with the valve closed, but once you turn the water on the pressure will drop.

You may only have 70A of load for the whole house so the wire may not be terribly undersized. Is the house fed underground? What size breaker is on the house? Here all poco meter pedestals have a 200A breaker in them no matter what size service is on the house.

 

[enireh]

vd

I came across a 200 amp service in the country today and it's over 200' from the meter at the pole with the transformer. Also it is under sized wire (1/0 copper) feeding it and my meter says 123 volts on each leg. Does their need to be a load on the service in order to check voltage drop?

yes its fed underground and the house panel has a 200 amp main breaker, the source is over 200' away

 

[Ingenieur]

That will carry 150 A with <8 vac drop on 240
a bit over 3%
the 123 would drop to ~119

 

[Fulthrotl]

I came across a 200 amp service in the country today and it's over 200' from the meter at the pole with the transformer. Also it is under sized wire (1/0 copper) feeding it and my meter says 123 volts on each leg. Does their need to be a load on the service in order to check voltage drop?

as mentioned by others, yup, the load determines everything.

what's killing you on this is the 120 volts. if you have a 240 volt
feed to a transfomer at the load, and pulled the neutral there,
you'd be in a whole lot better shape.

100 amps on the circuit you mention will give you 4% voltage drop.
with a transformer, it would be half that.

 

[GoldDigger]

as mentioned by others, yup, the load determines everything.

what's killing you on this is the 120 volts. if you have a 240 volt
feed to a transfomer at the load, and pulled the neutral there,
you'd be in a whole lot better shape.

100 amps on the circuit you mention will give you 4% voltage drop.
with a transformer, it would be half that.

If you use a transformer to send the power at 240V instead of 120V you have half the current, therefore half the voltage drop in absolute terms.
Since you have doubled the circuit voltage and cut the VD in half, you have cut the percent voltage drop by a factor of 4, not just 2.