LED light gauge wire??

[starcraft69]

I just added a new LED light in Kitchen. I ran 18g speaker wire through ceiling and jumped into 12v wires behind Microwave for stove hood light. My question is 18g speaker wire ok for 4.75 watt led 12v light?

[dons2346]

Ivylog wrote:
Each Halogen bulb draws 1amp..13 watts. Not that you would burn all 32 at once, I did as a test. The down side of LEDs over Halogen is I could use the Halogens to heat my rig if my AquaHot stops working:W

Never thought of it that way

[Ivylog]

Each Halogen bulb draws 1amp..13 watts. Not that you would burn all 32 at once, I did as a test. The down side of LEDs over Halogen is I could use the Halogens to heat my rig if my AquaHot stops working:W

[MrWizard]

Ivylog wrote:
Before I replaced my ceiling halogen puck lights with LEDs I check the amount of amps. ..32 amps. The 32 replacement LED's draw 4 amps...almost 1/10th.

ivy
do you mean Watts ? not amps

32 amps would be 344w

[wa8yxm]

Very short answer: YES!!!!!!!!!!

Much longer answer: IN fact 18Ga for a 4 watt (1/3 amp) device is actually over kill.. Serious overkill.. It could easily run 10 or 20 of them.

That said: The above is looking at it from the LOAD side.

Now looking at it from the SUPPLY side.. 18 ga is a small wire, and if you try to push too much current it can quickly overheat..

Thought I had a chart handy (it's burried in a book that is in a different room) showing how much current 18ga can safely carry.. But I'd not go much over 10 amps on that wire.

A "rule" in electrical work is NEVER connect a smaller wire to a larger wire less you insert a fuse to protect it.. For this circuit I'd go with 5 amps on an inline fuse.. This is for fire protection.

That said. 18 ga will last much longer than the fuse in the event of a dead short even if the fuse is 20 amps or more.

[RoyB]

I use two conductor wiring for all of my low wattage 12VDC items... It is called BOAT CABLE

Sort of following this pictorial I made up for my 120V AC and 12VDC Power distribution items...


Roy's image

I replaced all of rats nest wiring when I changed out my original ELIXIR 30A Converter/charger unit for a more modern WFCO Power Distribution panel with circuit breakers and ATC Fuses slots...

I have the WFCO WF8900 series Power Distribution setup but using a PD9260C Converter/Charger smart mode stand alone unit mounted closer to the Battery bank... The WF8900 panel came with a WF8945 converter/charger unit but i could never get it to go into any of the listed smart mode voltages so left it in place and got the PD9260C unit and mounted it in a stand alone location. I just power up the converter/charger i want to use. this makes my WF8945 unit a back up unit... Being brand new I didn't have the heart to throw it away haha... Hasn't been used yet but is there to use if I need it for a short time...

The MARINE BOAT CABLE is really nice routing around to the 12VDC items... Comes in all standard gauges and with its jacket is protected rather nice from the elements in the Marine and RV world... ALso comes in different color wires - I picked the RV standard WHITE and BLACK


Roy Ken

[Ivylog]

Before I replaced my ceiling halogen puck lights with LEDs I check the amount of amps. ..32 amps. The 32 replacement LED's draw 4 amps...almost 1/10th.

[MrWizard]

18ga is plenty big enough
i recently bought (arrived past monday) a set of (4) LED under cabinet strip lights, each light 11.8" 4w each, runs on 12v, came with 12v wall wort, and wireless remote, for off/on dimming etc.. even 'strobing'

yesterday i mounted (2) of them above the dining table and tapped into the power for little halogen spot/puck light, pulled the light and tapped into the wiring, and use the on/off rocker switch that used to control the puck light

i bought the white light aka daylight version, really nice

i have (2) strips left, they will eventuality be over the sofa, under the cabinet, again replacing the the 30w puck/reading spots

the wire that came with mine must be 22ga,

i had to cut down and strip the end of one of the coupling wires (that goes between strips)

of course each light is only around 350 mill-amps, maybe less
all four together is rated at 16w aka 1.25 amps at 12v

[ScottG]

Your good to go!

[starcraft69]

I thought i was ok but wanted to check. Next time maybe i will be smart enough to ask before I am done with the modification. This light sure dose make a difference. Happy wife happy life.

[time2roll]

I would put the fuse at 10 amps and not worry.

[mike-s]

In short: 5 W @12 V < 0.5A. 18 ga. is good for over 2 A.

You're good, no worries.