Wire Capacity Numbers.

[Perdonic 10+ year member]

Don't know if it has been posted but here are some numbers that I found and thought it might be useful to someone. Enjoy.

0 awg 334 amps 2763 watts

1 awg 265 amps 2193 watts

2 awg 210 amps 1740 watts

3 awg 167 amps 1381 watts

4 awg 132 amps 1096 watts

5 awg 105 amps 870 watts

6 awg 83.4 amps 690 watts

7 awg 66.2 amps 548 watts

8 awg 52.5 amps 435 watts

9 awg 41.7 amps 375 watts

10 awg 33.1 amps 273 watts

11 awg 26.3 amps 217 watts

12 awg 20.84 amps 172 watts

13 awg 16.54 amps 137 watts

14 awg 13.13 amps 109 watts

15 awg 10.42 amps 86 watts

16 awg 8.27 amps 69 watts

17 awg 6.56 amps 54 watts

18 awg 5.21 amps 43 watts

19 awg 4.13 amps 34 watts

20 awg 3.28 amps 27 watts

21 awg 2.60 amps 21 watts

Click to read more...

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Thats not the whole story, LENGTH is a HUGE factor. Also at % voltage loss are we allowing in these numbers? Where are these watt ratings coming from too?

V x A = W so 14.4V x 334A = 4809.6W This is if your amp is 100% Efficient (they arent) Most are in the 70% range. Need more info in that table to make it correct.

 

[Perdonic 10+ year member]

yes but over a 15 foot piece of wire most voltage drop would not be more the .5

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

You'll have a larger drop then that...

The load you put on a gauge of wire at X voltage determines its loss at said length. Based on your chart, you are providing 10% loss, which is correct actually, and yields a 1.2V loss.

Now if you say above those rating are at 15ft Ok thats fine, but at 3ft 8 gauge can handle 80A. My point was just that a lot of people here see something like that and would think, the max at any time 8 gauge can handle is 50A (and thats not correct since at 3ft it can handle 130A). Put @15ft with your list and ok, its correct.

Here is a good calc for yousee bottom of link)

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

After comparing your chart add @ 15ft with 10% loss and you'll be listing the proper info.

 

[Perdonic 10+ year member]

I ment as most power cables are around 15 feet given it is from the front to the rear.

 

[OldOneEye 10+ year member]

Here is another turd in the pool. Some guys say their wire is 4 or 1/0 guage and it isn't. So you assume you are getting what you pay for but you don't. CEA is working on that one, but if you are on the border you might be in for a surprise if you go with an off brand wiring kit that has 5 guage wire instead of 4 guage.

Juan

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Yep, have to be sure you are getting American Wire Gauge Standards. A lot of the cheapo kits are like that. Ask about strand count and gauge of the strand to find out true area of the cable.

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

Yep, have to be sure you are getting American Wire Gauge Standards. A lot of the cheapo kits are like that. Ask about strand count and gauge of the strand to find out true area of the cable.

good point, for those that don't know that is the AWG stamped on the wire jacket. You'll see some wire that has a huge jacket around some rinky-dink wire being passed off as a larger gauge.

 

[OldOneEye 10+ year member]

Lots of the stuff I see doesn't seem to say that. They say its a 4 guage kit and it ain't. Almost like head unit power handling.

Either way, I would look at wire (or look online and ask questions) to make sure you are getting what is advertised.

Juan

Yep, have to be sure you are getting American Wire Gauge Standards. A lot of the cheapo kits are like that. Ask about strand count and gauge of the strand to find out true area of the cable.

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

If they provide a you list like the one below you should be ok:

http://www.knukonceptz.com/assets/Tech/powerwirespec.pdf

We are compiling a list of major manufactures and their specs. Too many odd balls out there to get them all though. Some wont list or say and buying one of their products is pointless since the $9 kits are $24 in shipping, why that trend continues amazes me....

 

[JoseMCeee 10+ year member]

good point, for those that don't know that is the AWG stamped on the wire jacket. You'll see some wire that has a huge jacket around some rinky-dink wire being passed off as a larger gauge.

yea thats why if you compare some mainstream 4 gauge wire with 4 gauge welding cable you will see that the mainstream looks way bigger. But if you open it up, it will just be several sets of wires twisted up so it will only look bulkier. The smaller welding cable is the one that has way more strands than it. This is also why 1/0 mainstream cable is about the same size of 3/0 welding cable.

 

[OldOneEye 10+ year member]

Seems like that chart only adds to the confusion. Some people are underrating it and others are over rating it.

If I buy 4 guage, I think I would want 4 guage. Not 5 guage or 3 guage. Makes it hard to compete when you sell something labeled as 4 guage when in fact its better than 4 guage and other guys are selling 5 or 6 guage as 4 guage.

Juan

If they provide a you list like the one below you should be ok:
http://www.knukonceptz.com/assets/Tech/powerwirespec.pdf

We are compiling a list of major manufactures and their specs. Too many odd balls out there to get them all though. Some wont list or say and buying one of their products is pointless since the $9 kits are $24 in shipping, why that trend continues amazes me....

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

No confusion, that is our product spec sheet which states exactly what each cable is made from and what the AWG stadard equivilant is. We offer two series of cables at two different price points, one is oversized ( Hence the name - Kolossus Kable) The other is near AWG standards for that proper gauge. Do you think every cable is 100% exact (ie no decimal place?) to AWG

Also Welding cable is normally made up of larger strands and less of them, resulting in similar area to finer/higher strand cable. It also has a neoprene jacket and the copper is most often not OFC

 

[OldOneEye 10+ year member]

My point is that when some guys are under (which I think is the issue) and some guys are over (which I don't think is as common) everyone gets confused. I'm not talking round errors.

If it isn't cable, its amps, if it isn't amps, its head units, if it isn't head units its subs.

At this point I can put together an entire system with specs that are pretty worthless because everyone is playing loose with the rules (or there aren't any rules at all).

I'm didn't really mention welding cable either.

Just pointing out that confusing customers (even if they get more) takes us back to the days of "rockford watts" where a punch 45 put out 150 watts.

Juan

No confusion, that is our product spec sheet which states exactly what each cable is made from and what the AWG stadard equivilant is. We offer two series of cables at two different price points, one is oversized ( Hence the name - Kolossus Kable) The other is near AWG standards for that proper gauge. Do you think every cable is 100% exact (ie no decimal place?) to AWG
Also Welding cable is normally made up of larger strands and less of them, resulting in similar area to finer/higher strand cable. It also has a neoprene jacket and the copper is most often not OFC

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Seems like that chart only adds to the confusion. Some people are underrating it and others are over rating it.

My point is that when some guys are under (which I think is the issue) and some guys are over (which I don't think is as common) everyone gets confused. I'm not talking round errors.

You mentioned the chart I posted added confusion, our cable is the gauge it states it is - thus my point about the rounding. I agree there are some serious problems way under rating, One person posted 0 Gauge cable with 1/4" diameter copper area!! It was like 5 gauge...

The point of our over sized cable is have you looked for 3 gauge cable? When you search for wire, 4 gauge is the most common. Well if we marketed our cable at face value, no one would every find it...and when they did, they would ask if it will fit their blocks they already own since they own 4 gauge blocks. This eliminates both problems and since we sell our over sized 4 gauge less then most name brands it works well

The welding cable comment was posted for Jose