GaugeWire.Com
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GaugeWire.Com |
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We make choosing the right gauge of wire easy!!This site is purely informational. We aim to create a place where people can find out what wire they need and how to use it. Please consult a qualified electrician before installing wire. Please email comments or suggestions to admin@gaugewire.com
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How to Choose the Right Gauge of WireWe are here to help you find the right gauge of wire!The BasicsThe larger the wire the lower the gauge number. The range is from 0000 (the largest) to 40 (the smallest). It seems counterintuitive; at first. Usually the largest number of something is the biggest. With wire, the gauge refers to how many times the wire is pulled through a die. The more times it is pulled, the wire will get smaller and the number of times being pulled through is larger. For every six gauge increases, you can roughly expect the wire diameter to double.These rules primarily relate to electrically conductive wire. Steel wire used in cabling and jewelry is rated differently. Most wire is made of copper. When you look at electrical data, most of the time the assumption is that you will be using copper wire. Aluminum wire is mostly out of date and used on older homes. It is a good conductor, but has a lower ampacity (melting point), expands and contracts more, and also corrodes creating further voltage resistance. The main idea is that aluminum wiring isn’t considered as safe as copper wiring. If possible, choose copper. AWGThe organization that came up with the wire gauge system is known as American Wire Gauge (AWG), also known as the “Brown and Sharpe” wire gauge system. It’s a standard used in the United States and other countries to denote the diameter of nonferrous electrically conducting wire. Here is a link to a sizing chart for AWG wire. http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htmAmpsThe #1 way to see what gauge of wire you need is to check the amount of amps being drawn on the wire. Most residential homes are on a circuit or loop. The power drawn from the breaker is usually 15 or 20 amps. That means that if you draw more power than the circuit was designed for, the breaker will blow to protect the wire from melting down. We call the wire melting point the ampacity of the wire.You should only use 80% of the wire capacity. This is because there are many uncontrollable variables like the length of the wire, solidness of connections, temperature, etc. In any case, for safety, the standard practice is to use 80% of the wire capacity. In this example, you would look need to look at the ampacity chart to see the volts that will be drawn, the amps, and the wire gauge. You can see from the chart that the amount of voltage greatly affects the amperage. A 220 volt circuit will run about half the amps of a 110 volt circuit.
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