What Size Breaker For 1 Ott Wire

fifty amp is i of the most common amperages nosotros demand a estimate, breaker, or a wire for. The primal questions regarding the fifty amp wire include:

What is a wire size for 50 amps 240 volts? (50 amp wire gauge; NEC code applies)
Wire size for fifty amp sub console 100 feet abroad? (Here nosotros will have to account for voltage loss)
What electrical devices can y'all run with a 50 amp wire? (Wattage volition depend on voltage)

Let'due south start clear the AWG wire judge size:

If you check the wire guess ampacity chart here, you tin can see that at that place are 3 AWG wire sizes that take ampacity almost 50 amps. These are:

8 AWG wire with 50A ampacity (too minor).
6 AWG wire with 65A ampacity (merely right).
4 AWG wire with 85A ampacity (besides big).

At present, choosing the 8 AWG wire with 50A ampacity seems like a good choice every bit a fifty amp wire size, right? Nonetheless, in about all cases, the right fifty amp wire size is 6 AWG with 65A ampacity. That is true for whatever voltage; 12V, 110V, 115V, 120V, 220V, 240V, you name it.

Why is that?

We have to account for the 80% billow rating rule, set by National Electrical Code (NEC) rules. Maximum loading for whatever branch circuit is 80% of the rating of the excursion for ampacity of wire for any load.

Allow's have a quick look at how you tin choose the right AWG approximate wire for 50 amps (or any amps for that matter). Afterwards on, nosotros volition also wait at when 6 AWG wire is non acceptable as a 50 amp wire (due to voltage loss at a distance), and what you tin can run with a 50 amp 110V or 220/240V excursion:

50 Amp Wire Size (Using NEC 80% Rule)

You tin't use 50A ampacity wire to create a 50 amp electrical circuit. If you do that, you will likely fry the circuit.

The fourscore% rule serves as a safety measure out. You should at least take that extra xx% on top of 50A ampacity.

Here is how you calculate at to the lowest degree how much ampacity should a fifty amp wire take:

Wire Ampacity For 50 Amps = 50A / 0.8 = 62.5A Wire

That ways that you should use a wire that can handle 62.5A as a 50 amps wire. At present, we don't have 62.5A wire. The closest wire nosotros accept is the six AWG wire with 65A ampacity.

Notation: Y'all can always use a bigger wire simply never a smaller wire. For fifty amps, you lot could use 4 AWG wire with 85A ampacity (a scrap of overkill only it'due south OK), but you lot tin never use 8 AWG wire with 50A ampacity (you lot will fry the circuit).

In most cases, 6 AWG is an almost perfectly-sized wire for a l amp breaker. In limited cases, you volition probably accept to use a larger 4 AWG wire. That'southward when you have a long circuit and are sending electrical current at some distance (100 feet or more than).

l Amp Wire Size 100+ Feet Away (Account For Voltage Drop)

Even you're sending electricity through a long distance (for instance, to a 50 amp sub console 100 feet away), you lot have to account for voltage drib.

A good rule of thumb for voltage drop is this:

For every 100 feet, voltage drops past 20%.

In guild to get the same wattage (power) at the sub console 100 feet away, you take to increase the amps by xx% (to remainder out the 20% driblet in voltage).

That, of course, means that you are dealing with more than current (more than amperes) and yous take to choose a bigger-sized wire.

Example: fifty amp wire is usually the 6 AWG (we crave at least 62.5A and 6 AWG tin can handle 65A). If y'all have to power an electric device 100 anxiety away, you demand 20% amps more. Instead of 62.5A, you're looking at 62.5A × one.2 = 75A.

In this case, the 6 AWG gauge wire with 65A volition non exist enough. We need at least 75A. The adjacent wire size that can handle more than than 75A is the iv AWG gauge wire. This 1 can handle at 85A and is usually used as a 50 amp wire size for 100 feet away sub panels.

In that location are quite a lot of questions regarding 50 amp and different voltages. Allow's tackle this 1 also:

What Size Wire Do I Need For fifty Amp At 110-240V?

A common misconception regarding 50 amp wire is that we need different wire sizes for different voltages. Nosotros don't need a bigger (or smaller) wire size for fifty amp at 240V than for 50 amp at 110V, for example.

In all cases (with the exception when we accept to account for voltage loss) we use six AWG wire for 50 amps.

Now, the wire size and the amps might be the same. With unlike voltages, we don't get different amps; we become different ability (wattage).

For example, 50 amp wire on a 240-volt circuit can handle up to 12,000W of ability (this is a very common electricity setting for RVs). Here is how yous can summate that:

Wattage = Amps × Volts = 50A × 24oV = 12,000W

If you have a 110V circuit, the l amps volition produce 5,500W of power.

We hope the topic of 50 amp wire sizes is a bit more clear now. You lot can besides bank check out a similar post for:

60 amp wire size (4 AWG).