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Reply to "Theoretical Electrical Questions: Do more feed wires means less heat?"

There is a difference between the run of a gauge of wire for house voltage of 120 vac and the 18 vac we use with trains. The wire tables are calculated for a percentage drop for a certain distance…like 100 feet. That’s for an acceptable voltage drop of something like 3% of  120 vac. That would be about 4 vac. A 4 volt drop with an 18 vac system would be way too much. So consider that. The best way to size the wire is to know the resistance of the run and calculate the drop for the current you are expecting. OR, take the advice of well run layouts here on the forum and the wire gauge successfully used on those layouts. You should be ok.

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