Car Battery Cable Size Calculator

Our battery cable is american made and comes in gauge awg sizes of 6 4 2 1 1 0 2 0 3 0 and 4 0 with 6 gauge being the smallest and 4 0 gauge being the largest.

Car battery cable size calculator.

Outside engine compartments the ambient temperature should generally be 20 c. Cable sizing selection. Too small a cable size and you ll run the risk of generating heat in the cable. Battery banks are typically wired for either 12 volts 24 volts or 48 volts depending on the size of the system.

Too large and you ll be wasting money on copper you don t need. One of the most important aspects of designing and building any part of a vehicle electrical system is determining the correct size and type of cable to use for each circuit. Automotive wire size calculator this is a simple calculator for determining approximate wire gage size based on the length of the wire in feet and the current in amps in general automotive applications. Choose a higher ambient temperature when conductors are expected to pass through.

For example if the same 20 ah battery is discharged in one hour it can only deliver 12 4 a for one hour which amounts to 12 4 ah. You may want to consider 600 800 amp hours of capacity based on this example depending on your budget and other factors. Actually for my current installation i ve sized all of my dc cables to meet the 175 amp worst case scenario. Think of this as the minimum battery bank size based on your typical usage.

In summary when selecting the correct size of battery cable you need to take into account the total maximum amperage your electrical system requires the voltage of your system usually 12 volts the total length that your cables need to be and the amount of voltage drop you are willing to accept versus the amount you want to spend. Battery cable is used to power your electrical system and is sized according to the american wire gauge or awg for short specification for electrically conductive cables. Average run cycle is 10 hours. Choosing the correct gauge automotive wire depends on the acceptable voltage drop length of the feeder branch circuit conductor load amperage and the ambient temperature of the compartment where the primary wire will pass through.

Using the inverter calculator indicates 14 35 amps dc load and then running the sizing calculator suggests that i need battery capacity of 306 ah 20 hrs. So all interconnecting cables are 2 0 based on the chart below. As far as i know these values are valid as of today. The rating of the battery reduces by approximately 62 if it is discharged in 1 hour.

This can be helpful if doing your own repairs or adding custom wiring to make sure each circuit is not overloaded. The following maximum amps versus cable size awg come from the nec version 2011.