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Voltage Energy (physics) Electricity Electronics Electrical Engineering

What causes voltage drop? How can you mitigate

it?

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13 Answers

Loring Chien, electrical engineer for 40 years, Sr. Life Member IEEE
Updated Mar 28, 2015 ꞏ Author has 25.1k answers and 40.5m answer views

in electrical systems either AC or DC you have a simplified concept of a load

(measured in ohms) and you have a source (measured in volts).
There is also element of the circuit that is critical to assess for actual use that I will
call source resistance, also measured in ohms. (note that for AC systems the
resistance is actually impedance).

The source resistance consists of the sum of

Positive or Hot wire resistance

Negative or neutral wire resistance

damaged spot in wiring due to nick or fray or cutting through too many
strands when terminating

Source resistance internal to the power supply or battery or transformer

secondary

Connector resistance of the prongs pins or sockets of the connector

Contact resistance frictional resistance can be added to by corrosion, poor

crimps and undertorqued screw terminals.

For small source resistance, the current through the system can be considered to be
the normal operating current of the load. If the source resistance is a large fraction of
the load resistance, then you need to figure the current = source voltage/(load
resistance+source resistance)

Then in either case, the voltage drop or IR drop will be the current times the source
resistance.

This can be deleterious for a couple of reasons:

if the source resistance is mostly in a spot like a poorly tightened screw or a
wire nick then it can overheat and cause connector damage and possibly fire
at the site.

If the IR drop causes the voltage to the load to drop by more than about 5%

To reduce IR Drop when it is excessive,

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Eliminate triple taps and power strips (reduces connections)

Decrease the gauge (make the wire conductors thicker and heavier) of
extension cords or power supply wiring

Check the wire for damage, tighten and repair all loose connectors (with the
power off) and feel the bodies of the connectors when on for heat. Check
also the wiring and any conenectors and terminals within the load
appliance.

If possible rewire the motor for a higher voltage and supply it with a higher
voltage source (this applies to going from 120 to 240V) which will reduce
the current by 1/2 and the voltage drop not only by 1/2 but also as a
percentage of the load voltage.

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Debjyoti Ata, Twinkle Twinkle little guy, Why art thou so HIGH?
Answered Jun 23, 2014 ꞏ Author has 79 answers and 162.4k answer views

You actually cant get rid of the Voltage Drop. It's a part and Parcel of Electrical
circuits. Other than superconductors and Ferranti Effect there is no way you can get
a higher voltage than what you give. This is the Law of conservation of Energy, some
energy is always lost, depending on the resistance of the whole circuit.

Yes, using shorter wires of thick radius and material such as silver you can decrease it
greatly. Any material that has very high conductivity and very good heat dissipation
properties will do. This is because, according to Joule's law, any conductor carrying
current and having a resistivity will get heated up

arily

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you choose to take it into consideration or not is your problem.

So to answer your question, No you cannot PREVENT Voltage Drop!

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George Gonzalez, Know a little bit about the basic physical laws.
Answered Jun 20, 2014 ꞏ Author has 13.6k answers and 16.6m answer views

You have voltage drop anytime you have resistance and current. To get lower
voltage drop you can either lower the resistance or lower the current. You can lower
the resistance by going to lower resistance wire, either thicker, or lower resistance
per cube, or shorter wires. You can lower the current by drawing less power os by
using a higher voltage for the same amount of power.

There are practical limits-- aluminum and copper are almost as conductive as the
best metal, silver, so there's not much point in going to silver.

Also the amount of power lost is very small with normal wires, so it's hardly ever
worthwhile to go to thicker than normal wires. For instance if you double the size of
the wires, you double their cost, but you only save half of the very wall amount of
power you were losing. And any further increase can only half the half, so it's a case
of steeply diminishing returns.

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Mohamed Ahmed Abuelgasim, Electrical Engineer, Co-Founder YzOak

Answered Jun 21, 2014

The electric current (I) is a moving electrons and when electrons flow in a wire the
atoms of the wire ( which is usually copper) block some of the electrons, that
blocking action is what cause the resistivity in the specific material, and copper have
a very low resistivity that's why it is used widely to conduct electricity.

Voltage in the other hand is the force that drives electrons to move, when the current
flow through a resistor (R) it tries to block some of the electrons and thus reducing
some of the force that drives them, that cause the voltage drop which is
mathematically equal I*R

In certain materials the resistivity drops to zero when it's cooled to a very low
uire

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7.6k Views View 3 Upvoters

Dave Larsen, 17 years, industrial electrician

Answered Jun 20, 2014 ꞏ Author has 1.5k answers and 3.5m answer views

M.A.L.T.

Material,
Area (cross-sectional),
Length,
Temperature

MALT affects how conductive a material is. Conductors with lower conductivity have
losses. This can be a problem for lights which may be dimmer because losses in the
conductors limit the voltage available at the load. It's a problem for electric motors
because they can be damaged by under-voltage.

You're mostly likely to notice voltage drop on overly long conductors and on
overly thin conductors.

You can mitigate voltage drop by using conductors with larger cross sectional
area, and by keeping conductors as short as practically possible.

You can also reduce I squared R losses by stepping up the voltage, which reduces the
current in a conductor

24.3k Views ꞏ View 3 Upvoters

Steven Mulvenna
Answered Jul 10, 2014

Cause: current flowing through conductor

Solution: use bigger cables/conductors and/or reduce the current on each conductor
by splitting your load onto 2 circuits.

Example: tunnel lighting for tunnels with distribution points at 400m spacing. Each
light pulls 0.5a and is needed each 4m, giving 100 lights and 50a load. In reality, you
contractor will won't enjoy if you use anything bigger 6mm2 cable and the
environment calls for -55-0+55v. Wiring regs say that voltage drop on lighting
circuits must be less than 5% up to 100m then 0.05% per metre above is allowed, so
max 10% drop over 200m. Allow 2% for the upstream drop to the tx and you have 8%
or 8.8v at 110v. 6mm2 cable gives 7.9mV/A/m therefore a maximum of 5.56A per
circuit, so call it 10 lamps per circuit, so 10 circuits. You then interleaved the circuits
so if you lose one breaker, you only lose 1 light in 10 and you supply every 3rd light or
so with a secured supply and fire rated cables to act as the emergency lights.
Simples...

6.5k Views

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electric field will then accelerate the electrons again. We can calculate the average
kinetic energy statistically, and assume the electrons are moving at a single average
velocity.

Thus after each collision there is a loss of kinetic energy (it is converted to heat) but
which is recovered due to the work done by the electric field. And this work is equal
to the potential energy difference. You can see that the electrons have the same
kinetic energies both when they enter and when they leave the resistor, but different
potential energies. So we can say the voltage drop at the two ends of a
resistor is caused by the potential energy difference.

I forgot to answer the second question. So here is the answer to second

question,

From the above discussion it is clear that to mitigate voltage drop you can do two
things,

1. You can reduce the resistance of a conductor and we know that Resistance =
Resistivity * Length /Cross sectional Area . Therefore to reduce the
resistance you can lower the Resistivity (use such materials which has
inherently low resistance like copper or aluminium) or shorten the
Length of conductor or increase the Cross sectional area ( as Cross
sectional area is inversely proportional) of conductor.

2. You can compensate for voltage drop( in case you are dealing with
alternating current). For this purpose different devices are available like
Synchronous condensers, Series Capacitance, Tap changing
Transformer, Static VAR Compensator etc.

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Anonymous
Answered Jun 4, 2014

Zeus causes a voltage drop between himself and the ground when he is dissatisfied.

You prevent it by praying to Zeus and hopes he's in a better mood tomorrow.

521 Views ꞏ View 4 Upvoters

Joel Postma, I work for a gas and electric utility.

Answered Jul 9, 2014 ꞏ Author has 1.4k answers and 5.6m answer views

Resistance, as the others have stated, is the cause of voltage drop.

Now you just have to find the source of that resistance.

Are you drawing too much current for the size or length of you wires? Or are you
drawing so much current that you are overwhelming your source?

Do you have a bad ground? That can cause all kinds of strange things to happen.

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Duncan Gray, Went to college for EE in the '70's AND worked on neuro electrical
stimulation.
Answered Jun 22, 2014

Please let's not forget Maxwell's displacement current. There is lossyness in a

transmission line, also, because the dielectric material absorbs energy as the electric
field changes thereby creating this non-electron current flow.

3.7k Views ꞏ View 1 Upvoter

Fakhar Asif Bajwa, M.Sc. Electrical Engineering & Power, University of Engineering
and Technology, Lahore (2019)
Answered Jun 21, 2014 ꞏ Author has 132 answers and 176.4k answer views

It's the opposition to the flow of current (resistance, impedance), which causes
voltage drop. high resistance, high voltage drop. So, you can prevent it by making the
resistor as low as possible, but not as much low that the device burn out due to excess
of current.

4.1k Views ꞏ View 2 Upvoters

Muhammad Awais, works at Information Technology University

Answered Mar 27, 2015 ꞏ Author has 62 answers and 68k answer views

Resistance causes voltage to drop as resistance is something that slows down

electron...
You need to make small resistance but it is resistance that makes current useful...

2.2k Views ꞏ View 1 Upvoter

Craig Lawrence, Product Design, Marketing, Solar, Amateur Personal Finance

Answered Jun 20, 2014 ꞏ Author has 2.4k answers and 2.4m answer views

Resistance in whatever medium current is flowing. Reduce resistance, reduce voltage

drop.

5.4k Views ꞏ View 3 Upvoters

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