Appreciation post: The day a 68-year-old electrician showed me how wrong I was about wire gauges

Honestly, I used to just grab whatever 22-gauge wire was cheapest for every job. Then last month on a big commercial install at the old Miller building downtown, this older electrician saw me wiring up a hardwired smoke detector and stopped me. He pointed out that 22-gauge is fine for short runs but anything over 50 feet and you get voltage drop. Ngl, I've been using 18-gauge for long runs ever since and it solved a ton of false alarm issues. Has anyone else had a veteran call them out on a basic install habit?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry_martinez1mo agoMost Upvoted

My buddy did the same thing on his house and it kept tripping the breaker till an old sparky fixed it.

carr.gavin1mo ago

Yeah that bit about "22-gauge is fine for short runs" really hit home with me. I used to think wire gauge was just about cost and not much else, but seeing the voltage drop in action changed my whole approach.