1995 house electrical panel wired all with 12 ga. and 20 amp breakers, no 15 amp breakers for lighting, etc. Are lighting circuits supposed to be 15 amp?
No, there is no requirement to use any 15 amp branch circuits. In some jurisdictions #14 AWG branch circuits are prohibited with #12 AWG conductors being the minimum size.
It would be nice if they did this more often, less voltage drop issues to deal with.
The Sparkys here don’t like this . It would mean work would be harder making their connections . I asked for that in my shop for all my plugs . But man there was a lot of gripping about it . 
Dave is right, run #14AWG over 50’ and you start to have problems with voltage drop. With all the sensitive consumer electronics about it is starting to become a problem.
A man would be hard pressed to make an argument that voltage drop causes any problems in a residential setting. The tool that home inspectors use to measure this has a HUGE flaw.
Carry on…
Hello again, Mark…welcome back…maybe only for a while though!~!~! LOL!!
When I wired under a licensed gent in the 1970’s, it was required that feeds over 50 feet in houses be #12…somewhere along the line this requirement was dropped…the V drops were insignificant
I understand, but I think you are parroting old wive’s tales. That requirement does not appear in NEC that has ever existed.
I think when we find 93 VAC at a wall outlet without a significant load, there may be an issue involved.
When you don’t have the supplied voltage required by the equipment Mfg, this is not an issue?
Also, when I find a voltage drop with one of thoes nifty testers and then find overheated wiring inside the finished wall with Thermal Imaging is of no concern?
Yes, there is a lot of wive’s tales around here Mark. However disclaiming the issue with a blanket statement may not be best.
I think that Marc was saying that the NEC has never required voltage drop compensation. He just has a special way of saying it. 
I’m in Canada!!
So VD compensation is required in Canada?
Does this require a shot? :mrgreen:. Who pays, the giver, the receiver?
How much would that be??? LOL
It was but not now in residences…I never worked commercial, etc.
Hello David A. Andersen, I am not picking on you just asking if you have any IR pictures depicting the elevated IR signature of the wiring concealed with in the wall. I understand if there is a load applied to the circuit you may see a elevated temp due to the equipment drawing additional current because of the reduced voltage. The comments you posted just may not have given all of the info I needed to understand it. Thanks I am just trying to learn.
Be careful when you say that a reduced voltage will increase current. That is not true when dealing with resistive loads. If you reduce the voltage to a heater by half you will reduce the current by half as well.
I am many years out of school but I think if you half the voltage you quarter the load … Roy
That depends on how you define your use of the word load. It terms of current, the voltage and current are directly proportional so they would increase or decrease at the same proportion, decrease the voltage by half and the current decreases by half too. But it terms of output in watts you are correct, decrease the voltage by half and the wattage drops to 1/4. 
I think you need to talk to your apprentice and get him to explain it to you .
Are you saying that my post was incorrect? Then maybe it’s true that you’ve been out of school for too long. For the record I said:
-Resistive load
-Reduce voltage by 1/2
-Current is reduced by 1/2
-Wattage (output) is reduced to 1/4