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Wire Gauge Capacities
The ability of a wire to carry current is directly proportional to it's diameter. Much like a water system, greater current flow requires bigger pipes. While increased distance is also a factor, we can use the following chart to determine the proper wire gauge size for the load we plan on carrying in our RV. Just find the amount of amps you will be using in the Cable Current, amps column and look over to the AWG column at the far left to find out what wire gauge you will need to use. Remember that the bigger the number, the smaller the wire. Also, it never hurts to run with a larger wire size. You can always run a small amount of current on a larger wire but if you try to run too much current through a smaller wire the wire will have too much resistance and will get hot, causing a fire hazard. That's why you should never replace fuses with a size that is larger than what the wire gauge can safely handle.
| AWG | Diameter, in mils |
Area, in circular mils |
Open air current, amps |
Cable current, amps |
Lb/1000' bare |
Ohms/1000' |
| 0000 | 460.0 | 211592 | 482.55 | 640.48 | 0.0490 | |
| 000 | 409.6 | 167800 | 382.7 | 507.9 | 0.0618 | |
| 00 | 460.0 | 133072 | 303 | 402.8 | 0.0779 | |
| 0 | 324.9 | 105535 | 167.3-168 | 319.4 | 0.100 | |
| 1 | 289.3 | 83693 | 141-168 | 253.3 | 0.126 | |
| 2 | 257.6 | 66371 | 120-135 | 200 | 200.9 | 0.159 |
| 4 | 204.3 | 41741 | 86-108 | 125 | 126.4 | .292 |
| 5 | 181.9 | 33102 | 73.3 | 100.2 | 0.3133 | |
| 6 | 162.0 | 26251 | 62-82 | 65-80 | 79.46 | .465 |
| 8 | 128.5 | 16510 | 44.6-61 | 40-50 | 49.97 | .739 |
| 10 | 101.9 | 10380 | 44-55 | 30-33 | 31.4 | 0.0089-1.018 |
| 12 | 80.8 | 6530 | 34-41 | 20-23 | 19.76 | 1.588-1.619 |
| 14 | 64.1 | 4107 | 26-32 | 15-17 | 12.43 | 2.575 |
| 16 | 50.82 | 2583 | 11.9-18 | 7.5-10 | 7.818 | 4.06-4.73 |
| 18 | 40.30 | 1624 | 8.6-15 | ~5 | 4.917 | 5.94-7.51 |
| 19 | 35.89 | 1288 | 7.25-12 | 3.900 | 7.92 | |
| 20 | 32.0 | 1022 | 6.15 | ~3.3 | 3.092 | 1030-11.9 |
| 22 | 25.35 | 642.4 | 4.42 | ~2.1 | 1.945 | 17.7-19.0 |
| 24 | 20.10 | 404.0 | 3.18 | ~1.3 | 1.223 | 24.4-30.2 |
| 26 | 15.94 | 199.6 | 2.28 | ~0.8 | .7692 | 45.1-48.0 |
| 28 | 12.64 | 159.8 | 1.64 | ~0.5 | .4837 | 76.4 |
| 30 | 10.0 | 100.5 | 1.18 | .3042 | 103 | |
| 40 | 3.14 | 9.89 | 0.0226 | 0.0299 | 1049 |
Submitted by Mark Quasius - 2/23/06
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