60 amp ceramic fuses

Hi Lowell,

If I'm reading your response correctly, you are saying two things; you are supplying the calculations regarding heat dissipation & voltage drop, and you are stating that a (the?) reason for using stranded wire is because it is easy to bend.

What I'm saying is that what I was taught (by the electricians I worked under) was that stranded wire of a given dimension (for example 12 AWG) is superior compared to solid wire of the same dimension in its' ability to dissipate heat. The reason given was that the composition of stranded means that there is more surface area (relative to stranded) through which the wire [core of several wires in the case of stranded, single wire in the case of solid] may 'shed' or dissipate heat. That being the case, the stranded wire will perform better in that respect.

Dave

 

Dave,

But in any case, if the wire dissipates a lot of heat, this heat must have somewhere to go, and the only place it can go is through the surface of the insulation around the wire, stranded or not. So the outer surface of the insulation will be hot.

If the wire dissipates a lot of heat, since heat is a form of energy, this means that the wire is losing rather than transmitting energy, and you should use a wire of larger overall diameter (stranded or not) which has less electrical resistance so that less heat is generated.

Lowell