wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello

I just finished wiring my basement with 12/3 wire. I was planning on
using a double pole breaker with two circuits and a shared neutral
(alternating circuits between outlets). My run is around the
perimeter of my basement inside wood framing studs. After all was said
and done with the requried routing, I've used about 250ft of wire.

I'm concerned that I may have too long of a run and that, instead of
creating one big 250ft run with alternating circuits on a double pole
20A breaker, I should just have two 125ft circuits on separate 20A
breakers. I guess now's the time to make my decision before I go into
my panel. I've already run the 12-3 wire but I don't mind using only
2 of the 3 wires if that will make these circuits better performing and
safer.

The reading I have done so far and the 13.6% voltage drop at 20A
calculated using this website:

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

has me leaning heavily toward two separate 125ft circuits.

Any feedback is apprecaited. Thanks!

A balanced multiwire circuit can be half the voltage drop because there is
no return path.
So, there are two things to consider... will you actually be using 20a on
each side, and can you get a balanced circuit.

Then you might want to rethink things; 20a is too much for a 125' run of
12/2.