How To Choose the Right Gauge Wire Size for Light?

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What is the AWG standard?


AWG (American Wire Gauge) is a standard for distinguishing wire diameter, also known as Brown & Sharpe gauge.

 

This system of standardized wire gauges began to be used in the United States in 1857.In addition, AWG is also the abbreviation of Arrayed Waveguide Grating.

 

American standard for wire diameter, also known as B&S threads (Brown & Sharps threads) Copper wire diameter is usually measured in AWG (US wire specification).

 

The value in front of AWG (such as 24AWG and 26AWG) indicates the number of holes the wire must pass through before forming the final diameter. The larger the value is, the more holes the wire will pass through and the smaller the diameter of the wire will be.

 

Coarse wire has better physical strength and lower resistance, but the conductor is coarse, making the more copper cable need, which leads to cable heavier, more difficult to install, the price is more expensive, cable design challenge is to use as little as possible of the diameter of the wire (reduce the cost and installation complexity), while at the same time guarantee the necessary to achieve the maximum capacity of the wire under voltage and frequency.

 

In the cable industry, the specification of UL758 is dedicated to the specification standard of the conductor. Its standard is AWG(American Wire Guage), which is the standard referred to by the cable enterprises.

 

This is the standard system that helps people choose the thickness of the wire and is an important parameter in choosing the wire.

How to select wire according to AWG standard?

 

When choosing a wire, you'll need to look for AWG labels.

AWG, short for American Wire Gauge, is the main wire width standard used in America.

The numbers indicate the size of the wire - the smaller the number, the larger the wire, and line 40 is smaller than line 18.

You need to know and choose the right wire width for your wiring system - the bigger the better. The problem with big wires, though, is that they can be more expensive, and they don't work as flexibly as thinner wires. Fortunately, LED lights don't generate much current, so you don't need to use large wires.

How do you calculate the ideal wire size?

Hyperlite 150 watt high bay light is used at 110V voltage and the current of a single lamp is 150W/110V=1.36A.

 

The capacity of the 18awg cable is 10amp, so you can use up to 8 lights on this wire.

 

So according to the above example we can know how to calculate the size of the wire we need:

 

1. Calculate The Rated Ampacity you need for your wires

2. (A)=(W)/(V). You can do the calculations on this website: https://convert-formula.com/a-v-w

3. for example, if you have a power of 150W running at 110V, the current is 150W / 110V = 1.36A.

4. Select wire size according to The Rated Ampacity Table (In the attachment):

Thank you, I learned a lot of new information from your informative article.