Wire Ampacity Charts | Wire Gauge Chart

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AWG, or American wire gauge, is a logarithmic stepped standard wire gauge that has been used since 1857 in the USA to define the dimensions of solid, nonferrous, and round electrically conducting wires. The cross-sectional area of every gauge is a parameter for finding the value of the current-carrying capacity of the wire. If the wire gauge number is increasing, it will reduce the diameter of the wire.

The AWG is obtained from drawing many operations to make the required gauge of wire. The accurate wire needed more passes through drawing dies than zero-gauge wire. Let’s get started with wire ampacity charts and wire gauge charts.

Why are wire gauge charts and tables important?

For electrical installation systems, whether home-based or industrial, the use of an accurate wire size and a circuit breaker are important. For example, if there is a need to connect the water heater to the circuit, if you do not know the wire size and other parameters needed, you will not be able to connect an accurate wire. So the use of any AWG tool and related charts is needed.

So if we follow the wire size chart, we will know that for the water heater, there is 9 AWG wire and a 50 A circuit breaker that can be used to connect the circuit.

AWG Wire Size Table

Here is the table that comes with different values, like the resistance of wire gauges and the current value for copper conductors with plastic insulation. The diameter details in the table are for solid wires. Standard wires are measured by measuring the equivalent cross-sectional copper area.

Wire Gauge Chart

AWG# Diameter Cross Section Area Resistance  Ω Current
millimeter inches mm2 Inch2 kcmil Ω / kft Ω / km Chassis Wiring Power Transfer
0000 (4/0) 11.6840 0.4600 107.2193 0.1662 211.6000 0.049 0.1608 380 302
000 (3/0) 10.4049 0.4096 85.0288 0.1318 167.8064 0.0618 0.2028 328 239
00 (2/0) 9.2658 0.3648 67.4309 0.1045 133.0765 0.0779 0.2557 283 190
0 (1/0) 8.2515 0.3249 53.4751 0.0829 105.5345 0.0983 0.3224 245 150
1 7.3481 0.2893 42.4077 0.0657 83.6927 0.1239 0.4066 211 119
2 6.5437 0.2576 33.6308 0.0521 66.3713 0.1563 0.5127 181 94
3 5.8273 0.2294 26.6705 0.0413 52.6348 0.197 0.6464 158 75
4 5.1894 0.2043 21.1506 0.0328 41.7413 0.2485 0.8152 135 60
5 4.6213 0.1819 16.7732 0.0260 33.1024 0.3133 1.028 118 47
6 4.1154 0.1620 13.3018 0.0206 26.2514 0.3951 1.296 101 37
7 3.6649 0.1443 10.5488 0.0164 20.8183 0.4982 1.634 89 30
8 3.2636 0.1285 8.3656 0.0130 16.5097 0.6282 2.061 73 24
9 2.9064 0.1144 6.6342 0.0103 13.0927 0.7921 2.599 64 19
10 2.5882 0.1019 5.2612 0.0082 10.3830 0.9988 3.277 55 15
11 2.3048 0.0907 4.1723 0.0065 8.2341 1.26 4.132 47 12
12 2.0525 0.0808 3.3088 0.0051 6.5299 1.588 5.211 41 9.3
13 1.8278 0.0720 2.6240 0.0041 5.1785 2.003 6.571 35 7.4
14 1.6277 0.0641 2.0809 0.0032 4.1067 2.525 8.285 32 5.9
15 1.4495 0.0571 1.6502 0.0026 3.2568 3.184 10.448 28 4.7
16 1.2908 0.0508 1.3087 0.0020 2.5827 4.015 13.174 22 3.7
17 1.1495 0.0453 1.0378 0.0016 2.0482 5.063 16.612 19 2.9
18 1.0237 0.0403 0.8230 0.0013 1.6243 6.385 20.948 16 2.3
19 0.9116 0.0359 0.6527 0.0010 1.2881 8.051 26.415 14 1.8
20 0.8118 0.0320 0.5176 0.0008 1.0215 10.152 33.308 11 1.5
21 0.7229 0.0285 0.4105 0.0006 0.8101 12.802 42.001 9 1.2
22 0.6438 0.0253 0.3255 0.0005 0.6424 16.143 52.962 7 0.92
23 0.5733 0.0226 0.2582 0.0004 0.5095 20.356 66.784 4.7 0.729
24 0.5106 0.0201 0.2047 0.0003 0.4040 25.668 84.213 3.5 0.577
25 0.4547 0.0179 0.1624 0.0003 0.3204 32.367 106.19 2.7 0.457
26 0.4049 0.0159 0.1288 0.00025 0.2541 40.814 133.9 2.2 0.361
27 0.3606 0.0142 0.1021 0.00020 0.2015 51.466 168.85 1.7 0.288
28 0.3211 0.0126 0.0810 0.00013 0.1598 64.897 212.92 1.4 0.226
29 0.2859 0.0113 0.0642 0.00010 0.1267 81.833 268.48 1.2 0.182
30 0.2546 0.0100 0.0509 0.00008 0.1005 103.19 338.55 0.86 0.142
31 0.2268 0.0089 0.0404 0.00006 0.0797 130.12 426.9 0.7 0.113
32 0.2019 0.0080 0.0320 0.00005 0.0632 164.08 538.32 0.53 0.091
33 0.1798 0.0071 0.0254 0.00004 0.0501 206.9 678.8 0.51 0.088
34 0.1601 0.0063 0.0201 0.000031 0.0398 260.9 855.96 0.43 0.072
35 0.1426 0.0056 0.0160 0.000025 0.0315 328.98 1,079.3 0.43 0.072
36 0.1270 0.0050 0.0127 0.000020 0.0250 414.84 1,361 0.33 0.056
37 0.1131 0.0045 0.0100 0.000016 0.0198 523.1 1,716.2 0.33 0.056
38 0.1007 0.0040 0.0080 0.000012 0.0157 659.62 2,164.1 0.27 0.044
39 0.0897 0.0035 0.0063 0.000010 0.0125 831.77 2,728.9 0.26 0.043
40 0.0799 0.0031 0.0050 0.000008 0.0099 1,048.8 3,441.1 0.21 0.035

Read Also: What 18 Gauge Wire Used For?

What is the standard wire AWG size?

AWG is used for defining the standard wire. The AWG of standard wire denotes the sum of the cross-sectional diameter of a single strand, and the gap between strands is not considered. For circular strands, these gaps make up 25 percent of the wire area, so the total bundle diameter is about 13 percent larger than that of solid wire of the same gauge.

There are three numbers used to define the stranded writes overall AWG size, strands, and AWG size of the strand. The number of strands and AWG of strands are parted through the use of a slash. Such as 22 AWG 7/30 stranded sire is 22 AWG wire created with 7 strands of thirty AWG wire.

What is Wire Size and Amp Ratings?

  • The highest current that can be handled by the conductor is known as ampacity. The current measuring unit is the ampere. So use accurate wire for the current requirements of the circuit to prevent the wire from overheating.
  • The type of electrical device and the quantity connected to the circuit define the ampacity features of the conductor. Normally, the circuit in the house comes with twenty amps. Lighting circuits can be made for fifteen amperes.
  • To measure the length of the circuit, first of all, add the wattage of the connected devices. After that, divide the total watts by the voltage of the system, normally 120 or 240, and, as a result, get the required current.

AMPACITY CHARTS

Copper Aluminum
Wire Gauge Size 60°C (140°F)
NM-B, UF-B		 75°C (167°F)
THW, THWN,
SE, USE, XHHW		 90°C (194°F)
THWN-2, THHN,
XHHW-2, USE-2		 75°C (167°F)
THW, THWN,
SE, USE, XHHW		 90°C (194°F)
XHHW-2, THHN,
THWN-2
14 15 20 25 — —
12 20 25 30 20 25
10 30 35 40 30 35
8 40 50 55 40 45
6 55 65 75 50 55
4 70 85 95 65 75
3 85 100 115 75 85
2 95 115 130 90 100
1 — 130 145 100 115
1/0 — 150 170 120 135
2/0 — 175 195 135 150
3/0 — 200 225 155 175
4/0 — 230 260 180 205
250 — 255 290 205 230
300 — 285 320 230 260
350 — 310 350 250 280
500 — 380 430 310 350
600 — 420 475 340 385
750 — 475 535 385 435
1000 — 545 615 445 500

Related Post: THHN wire insulation code

Faqs

What size wire can handle amps?

 

 

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