I added a doorway in a wall that had wiring for my baseboard heaters. There are three heaters on the circuit. I used 12/2 wire to splice. Now the heater next to the splice works fine but the heater in the next room on the same circuit barely warms up and only when the heater next to the splice is not on. The original wire looks larger than the 12/2 I used to splice. It is the same romex shape but stiffer. Could this be 10/2 wire? The breaker is 20 amp. Could this be why the heater at the end of the circuit barely warms and only when the other heater is not on? Solution??
most likely its voltage drop caused by using wire that is too small. it is likely that due to the load on the circuit, there is a significant amount of voltage drop due to the resistance of the #12 wire. use #10 and you'll see the voltage increase of course, this is assuming that the voltage is too low. if they worked fine before the splice, thats all that I can imagine has gone wrong, unless it is just coincidence
The answer to your question is no. Not if you use the correct diameter wire. What ever wire is there is the size i would use. Using a smaller diameter will cause more resistance which is what you don't want. Go to any hardware store and get a wire gage and measure the pre-exhisting wire . Get her done right.
First check to see if all 3 heaters are the same wattage. Check to see if the voltage is the same at all 3 heaters. 1 solution is to split the heaters up and give them each their own 20 amp breakers. 12/2 is good enough for wire size. You could also go to a 12/3 wire and hook them up for 240 volt if the heaters are capable of handling it
If the opening you desire to plug into does not have the rest engaged on that circuit; you are able to likely try this. you should verify that the full amps of the warm water heater is under 12 Amps for a 15 Amp circuit and sixteen Amps for a 20 Amp circuit. in case you're able to try this for specific than take a 12 gauge extension twine shrink off the receptacle end and take the black and white wires in the twine hook it as much as the two wires from the warm water heater by using twisting the wires mutually and putting on a yellow or orange cord nut (one cord nut consistent with connection.) Do a similar for the two floor or green wires if there's a floor cord coming from the water heater. Plug it in it is going to artwork.
