Should I increase wire size when extending a 75 foot circuit to reduce voltage drop?

Question

I have a 1200W smoker which I currently hook up to an outdoor outlet. The outlet runs on about 75' of 12 gauge wire from a 20A breaker. There is nothing else on that circuit. I am moving the outlet to a new permanent location and will be using solid copper wire for the extension.

I want to add my smoker in a permanent spot about 45' away from the outlet. So basically I am moving the outlet, so that will be a total of 120' wire length.

Will voltage drop be an issue for me if I extend with 12 gauge? If yes, will it be ok to make the 45' extension with 10 gauge to keep the voltage drop down?

Answer 1

You could use #12 wire. Your voltage drop will be slightly above 3%, but at the end of a 170' run with 1200w load the voltage drop would be 5%. Code recommends 3% for the feeder and 5% max at the end of the line, but both are recommendations and not hard rules, so 12 will be fine. Since you are only going 120' the actual voltage drop will be 3.5%