voltage drop - again

[chris kennedy]

Essentially, what's needed is a definition of "design load" for general purpose receptacles, something that inherently has no design load.

As I had pointed out above, the worst case assumption for general receptacles is rather impractical in the real world and some sort of a compromise is needed that embodies the spirit of the requirement, say a maximum VD of 3% at 150 ft, which could easily be tested for during site inspections. This requirement makes the reasonable (IMHO) assumption that although some circuits would exceed 3% VD at the farthest receptacle, many other general purpose receptacle circuits would be loaded quite lightly, well below the 3% VD level, so that on average, considering many such circuits, the 3% requirement would be met.
This would certainly serve the Energy Efficiency intent of the Code.

Heinz R.

Agreed, well said.

 

[muhandas]

Just to keep you folks informed on where this going. I'm in the process of Petitioning the Florida Building Commission for a "Declaratory Statement," essentially a formal interpretation of the meaning of "design load" for general purpose receptacles in the context of Chapter 13, Energy efficiency, in the Florida building code. This will take at least a couple of months and probably more.
I'll get back here when I have the Dec. Statement in hand.
In the meantime, thanks for everybody's thoughtful response.
Heinz R.