New online service: Voltage Drop Calculator

10/31/2024

Voltage drop calculator is an easy-to-use online engineering tool to help you determine what voltage is lost when the electric current moves through a wire. This calculator allows to specify the following factors, which influence the voltage drop: wire material, wire size, wire length, load current.

The formula for voltage drop depends on the type of electric current. For DC or 1-phase AC the following equation is used:

Vdr = 2 × Iload × (ρ × L / A)

where:

Vdr – Voltage drop;
ρ – Resistivity of material in Ω·m;
L – Length of the wire;
A – Cross-sectional area of the wire;
Iload – load current.

For 3-phase AC the following equation is used:

Vdr = √3 × Iload × (ρ × L / A).

If you know the diameter (D) of the wire its cross-sectional area (A) will be calculated as:

A = π / 4 × D²

This calculator allows to use American Wire Gauge to determine cross-sectional area of the wire.