Wire Gauge Capacities

 

The ability of a wire to carry current is directly proportional to it's diameter. Much like a water system, greater current flow requires bigger pipes. While increased distance is also a factor, we can use the following chart to determine the proper wire gauge size for the load we plan on carrying in our RV. Just find the amount of amps you will be using in the Cable Current, amps column and look over to the AWG column at the far left to find out what wire gauge you will need to use. Remember that the bigger the number, the smaller the wire. Also, it never hurts to run with a larger wire size. You can always run a small amount of current on a larger wire but if you try to run too much current through a smaller wire the wire will have too much resistance and will get hot, causing a fire hazard. That's why you should never replace fuses with a size that is larger than what the wire gauge can safely handle.

 

AWG Diameter,
in mils		 Area, in
circular mils		 Open air
current, amps		 Cable current,
amps		 Lb/1000'
bare		 Ohms/1000'
0000 460.0 211592 482.55 640.48 0.0490
000 409.6 167800 382.7 507.9 0.0618
00 460.0 133072 303 402.8 0.0779
0 324.9 105535 167.3-168 319.4 0.100
1 289.3 83693 141-168 253.3 0.126
2 257.6 66371 120-135 200 200.9 0.159
4 204.3 41741 86-108 125 126.4 .292
5 181.9 33102 73.3 100.2 0.3133
6 162.0 26251 62-82 65-80 79.46 .465
8 128.5 16510 44.6-61 40-50 49.97 .739
10 101.9 10380 44-55 30-33 31.4 0.0089-1.018
12 80.8 6530 34-41 20-23 19.76 1.588-1.619
14 64.1 4107 26-32 15-17 12.43 2.575
16 50.82 2583 11.9-18 7.5-10 7.818 4.06-4.73
18 40.30 1624 8.6-15 ~5 4.917 5.94-7.51
19 35.89 1288 7.25-12 3.900 7.92
20 32.0 1022 6.15 ~3.3 3.092 1030-11.9
22 25.35 642.4 4.42 ~2.1 1.945 17.7-19.0
24 20.10 404.0 3.18 ~1.3 1.223 24.4-30.2
26 15.94 199.6 2.28 ~0.8 .7692 45.1-48.0
28 12.64 159.8 1.64 ~0.5 .4837 76.4
30 10.0 100.5 1.18 .3042 103
40 3.14 9.89 0.0226 0.0299 1049

 

Submitted by Mark Quasius - 2/23/06
 

Click Your browser's "Back" button to return to the previous page
 or chose another category from the side menu.