Wire Gauge Required Question
For some reason I just can't understand the various wire gauge tables, and I have tried to, so I am hoping somebody will take pity and do all the work! :) One table that I can follow says that for...
Forum Discussion
BFL13 wrote:
"What wire gauge of stranded copper would you need for 16 amps with a 24v system 30ft away (60 ft round trip) with an MPPT controller?"
In round numbers, assuming 60 feet of wire at 24V and 16A;
4ga (42000 Circular Mills) wire will yield ~1% (0.24V) voltage drop,
6ga (26600 CM) wire will have a ~2% (0.48V) voltage drop
8ga (16800 CM) wire will have ~3% (0.72V) voltage drop.
All of these three wire gauges are more than enough in terms of ampacity, from here your budget, installation constraints, and personal preference are the real deciding factors. In terms of safety, you could go as small as 16ga , but personally I wouldn't choose to install a solar charging system (MPPT or PWM) with any more than 3% voltage drop.
Hope this helps
Cheers,
-Mark
