Wire Size

May 17, 2004
5,372
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
My very limited knowledge of DC circuits and playing around with this handy calculator I see very little difference between 10 and 14 awg. Where I see the biggest difference is when increasing the load on the wire. The higher the load the greater the loss in voltage. the difference between 10 and 15A is surprising, it's nearly 1V over a 20 foot run.
That’s correct. The table is based on the resistance of the wire, which increases as wire size decreases. For example, 10 AWG wire has about 1 ohm of resistance per 1000 feet. Ohms law dictates that the voltage drop across that wire is the amperage times the resistance. So as amperage increases so does the voltage drop. At low loads the voltage drop is minimal. If the only load is a small device like an LED light the size of the wire really makes very little difference electrically.

Even at low loads note that 16 AWG is generally as small as you can go, but that’s a mechanical limitation rather than an electrical one - a smaller wire can’t hold its own weight in a moving and vibrating environment and could fail from mechanical stress, even though it could carry the current.