LEDgardener

I see a lot of you guys using 16-18 gauge wire for your builds. I thought RapidLED was a good spot for a few things like wagos and wire. Will their #22 wire be okay too?

Best to give a few more details

I’ll have a 480w driver running 4 quantum boards at 2100 mA.

Really just needing to know what size wire is best to run from the driver and from board to board.

https://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

Handy dandy chart, there. As well, you can really get away with a good bit more current in a cooled indoor environment, for each gauge.

What matters most for the wire limits are the voltage drop and current load. So, if you have 2.1A all in series (230V), then 18 would be a shoo-in. But, honestly, if you had double that at 115V, and the 18ga didn't have a super thick jacket, you'd never have a problem with it, as long as it was a short run. 22ga is a but small for such currents, though.

There are other factors to include for sizing:

1.) What ambient temps are the wire going to be exposed to?

2.) How long is the run?

3.) How many other wires are running alongside those wires?

There are other factors outside of wire sizing to consider:

How are you protecting the individual conductors?
(Cable jacketting or some type of conduit)

How are you planning to protect from ground fault shocks?



I recommend using oversized wire sizes and SOOW hard usage cabling for most remote mounted applications...don't forget to ground your lights properly.