"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:4c7e47e1$0$5074
:


Requirements change.

In the '60s, 15A circuits being supplied from 125A panels were state
of the art.

Today, 200A panels with 20A circuits are the norm along along with the
fact the bedroom has a good chance of being converted to a home office
with it added power needs sometime during it's life cycle..

Today, a 15A circuit ranks right up there with the buggy whip as
meeting current needs.

For a typical 2,000 sq ft house, the cost differential between 12AWG
and 14AWG wire is less than $700 at retail, IOW, well under 1% of the
building cost.

If you want to seriously reduce building cost, you need to look else
where.

Lew


The added cost of the heavier wire and better outlets is tiny compared to
the price of having an electrician come back in and upgrade the wiring
later. There's no good reason not to have them put in 20A outlets,
especially in this day and age where nothing (NOTHING!) seems to stop
using power any more.

If we were talking about lighting circuits, things would be different.
There's no reason to use heavier than 15A wiring, because we're actually
using less power to get the same amount (or more) of light.

Puckdropper
--
Never teach your apprentice everything you know.