gunrunnerjohn posted:Yes, no offense to the previous post, but I think for our usage he's making this way too complicated! The one key point that I certainly agree with is the quality of the connections is usually more important than the size of the wire. Obviously, you need sufficient wire size for the current draw and the maximum voltage drop you can tolerate.
If you run a #14 wire pair 20 feet with a 10 amp load, you'll drop about 1 volt. Using #12, you'll have a .65 volt voltage drop. In either case, the heating of the wire, and thus any temperature specification, is insignificant. In that #14 example, you are dissipating 10 watts over a 20 foot span of wire pairs, you won't be able to detect the temperature rise without a temperature measurement instrument.
We're not trying to launch the space shuttle here.
Got curious once and measured the drop from the transformer to the furthest point about 25 feet out and it was just that, John .. a one volt drop at 22 volts.
