AWG gauge wire is rather versatile. You can find anything from 10 gauge stranded wire to 10 gauge electrical wire for home appliances; you can get 10 gauge copper by the foot.

The key part is that we cover each wire individually; from the big 4/0 – 1/0 wires to the most popular 12 gauge, 14 gauge, 16 gauge wires, and down to the smallest 40 AWG gauge wire. The wire size chart below shows allowable ampacities of insulated conductors rated up to and including You can consult the wire ampacity chart from the 1st Chapter and see that the most appropriate wire size for 20 amps is 14 AWG wire.You can consult the wire ampacity chart from the 1st Chapter and see that the most appropriate wire size for 60 amps is 6 AWG wire. In mm2, the cross-section of the 14 gauge wire is 2.08 mm2. Both these numbers make the 14 gauge electrical wire very useful. Why? The ampacity of the 00 gauge wire is determined primarily by the cross-section. The complete cross-section of 2/0 gauge wire in mm2 is 67.4 mm2. 2/0 gauge wire is thus smaller than 3/0 gauge wire but bigger than 1/0 gauge wire we cover further on. d n = 0.005 i n c h × 92 ( 36 − n ) / 39 = 0.127 m m × 92 ( 36 − n ) / 39 {\displaystyle d_{n}=0.005~\mathrm {inch} \times 92 gauge wire has a rated ampacity of 17 amps at 75°C. That means it can handle 15 amps well, for example, since it is limited by the maximum current of 17 amps.

The higher the number - the thinner the wire. Typical household wiring is AWG number 12 or 14. Telephone wire is typical AWG 22, 24, or 26. What is 9 gauge wire used for? It is less used for electrical purposes. Instead, we usually associate these kinds of wires with the 9 AWG gauge: Increasing gauge numbers denote logarithmically decreasing wire diameters, which is similar to many other non-metric gauging systems such as British Standard Wire Gauge (SWG). However, AWG is dissimilar to IEC 60228, the metric wire-size standard used in most parts of the world, based directly on the wire cross-section area (in square millimetres, mm²). The AWG originated in the number of drawing operations used to produce a given gauge of wire. Very fine wire (for example, 30gauge) required more passes through the drawing dies than 0gauge wire did. Manufacturers of wire formerly had proprietary wire gauge systems; the development of standardized wire gauges rationalized selection of wire for a particular purpose. in millimeters (mm) is equal to 0.127mm times 92 raised to the power of 36 minus gauge number n, divided by 39:The AWG - American Wire Gauge - is used as a standard method denoting wire diameter, measuring the diameter of the conductor (the bare wire) with the insulation removed. AWG is sometimes also known as Brown and Sharpe (B&S) Wire Gauge. For 16 gauge electrical wires, it’s also useful to know the wattage; ie. how many watts can a 16 gauge wire handle. gauge wire is very frequently used. It’s important to know the diameter and cross-section of this wire; ie. 14 AWG wire to mm and 14 AWG wire to mm2. With 8 gauge wire, the most frequently asked question is ‘Can 8 gauge wire handle 50 amps?’. Well, that does depend on the temperature (secondarily). The primary factor is ampacity is obviously the cross-section.

The n gauge wire diameter d n in millimeters (mm) is equal to 0.127mm times 92 raised to the power of 36 minus gauge number n, divided by 39:Knowing it can handle 17 amps we can calculate that the 16 gauge wire has the capacity to handle 2,040 watts (at 120V) and 3,740 watts (at 220V).