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Had a talk with an old electrician yesterday who made me rethink my whole approach to wiring motion sensors.
He said he's been running all his sensors on 18-gauge wire instead of 22 for 30 years and never had a voltage drop issue, which has me wondering if I've been overthinking the spec sheets this whole time - anyone else ever get a tip from a veteran that made you question everything?
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james6721mo ago
Heard my buddy swap to 14 gauge once and it made his whole setup worse.
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johns181mo ago
@james672 your buddy probably screwed something else up, not just the gauge swap. 14 gauge wire is fine for most builds unless you're pushing crazy wattage. People love to blame one tiny change when their whole system goes to crap, but it's rarely the wire's fault. Maybe he pinched a wire or used cheap connectors, that'll kill performance way faster than wire size. I've swapped gauges a few times and never noticed a night-and-day difference unless I was changing huge jumps like 16 to 10. Honestly, half the time folks just want a scapegoat for their own bad wiring job.
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