Dropping Volts
Dear Swami, How do you find the cross sectional area of a cable? In the book, "Electricity for Entertainment Electricians & Technicians," there is a formula in Appendix 4 to calculate voltage drop. It says, V D = (2KIL)/(#A CM ), where K = the specific resistance of copper [12.9 at 75 degrees C (116 degrees F) or 11 at 32 degrees C (90 degrees F); I = current in amps; L = the length of the cable in feet; # = the number of conductors per phase; and A CM = the area of the cross section of the cable in circular mils. Where can I find the area of the cross section of the cable? Dropping Volts in Downtown Detroit Dear Dropping, Congratulations for having gotten that far in the book! If you are wondering about how to calculate voltage drop then you probably already know how important it is to keep your volts up and your amps down. As Bob Dylan once said, "The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind," if by "wind" he meant in the wire gauge charts...