Take a look at the charts below, we have 12V, 24V, and 48V charts. It’ll give you an in-depth understanding of the relationship between these two factors, and tell you everything you need to understand before choosing your wires.Answer: Which cables you need are based on – How long the cable needs to be and how many watts you’ll be running. You might also find our voltage and wire speed chart interesting. If you’re worried about what size battery cable you should be using, take a look at our battery cable sizing chart. This allows it to pump the correct amount of power to your circuit, powering your appliances in a way that doesn’t damage them. Your battery needs to be connected to adequately-sized cables.

The battery stores this energy and allows you to access it whenever you need to. Your solar panels are connected to an inverter by wires, which contains a battery. The LiFePO4 12V battery is a great option!Ī battery is needed because you need to be able to access solar energy even when the sun isn’t shining. This is the energy that’s used to power your indoor and outdoor lighting. Your solar setup needs a battery to store the energy it traps from the sun’s rays. This also prevents any shorts in the circuit from being exposed to the elements, protecting your light bulbs as well. Outdoor wires are prone to being nicked and knocked around, so it’s best to make sure these have a thick plastic sheath to protect them. These wires are often exposed to the elements, so a thing non-conductive paint layer won’t be sufficient to protect them. Landscape, or outdoor lighting, needs to be protected a bit more. Have a look at our wire gauge voltage chart if you want to understand wire gauges a little better, and decide if the wires you’re using for your inside lights are sufficient for the voltage required. This is sufficient for the inside of your house. This means you can use a wire that has a very thin protective layer – some low-voltage wires even have a painted layer. If your lights are indoors, your wires will be well-protected from the elements. Something you should consider though is how protected your wires are. Remember, wire gauge refers to the wire size, which influences how much current and voltage can move through it. Long story short, you won’t need a different wire gauge for a light of the same voltage and current being used indoors or outdoors. Wondering if you need different wire gauges depending on whether your lighting is indoor or outdoor? We’ll explain below. This is why it’s important to make sure you’re using the correct wire – somebody could get injured if you’re running a high voltage through a low voltage wire with a thin sheath. The biggest difference between low-voltage wire and higher-voltage wire is the protective sheath around it. If your lights are more for ambiance, low-voltage wire sizes will be perfect for you. If you’re installing huge, bright lights in your house, then low-voltage wires aren’t for you. It’s best to use low voltage wire sizes for lighting that requires a low voltage to operate properly. You should also look at a solar wire size calculator to know which wires you need to get depending on the strength of your lights. These lights will be dimmer, which is what some people prefer. Low-voltage lights are usually used outdoors, but some people opt to have low-voltage lights on the inside of their houses too. Why Use Low Voltage Wire Sizes for Lighting? Here’s a chart indicating the voltage of wires at different wattages and lengths in feet. Have a look at our high-voltage cable size chart if you’re working with electronics and appliances that require thicker wires that can carry a higher voltage safely. Low voltage wires can have a thin protective sheath because there’s a small amount of electricity moving through them, so the barrier between you and the wire doesn’t need to be very thick to do its job. If a wire has no protective sheath on it, there is the risk that anybody that touches it will get shocked. In other words, it’s there to protect you. This sheath stops the electric energy from exiting the wire before it’s meant to. Low-voltage electronics can make use of a thin wire gauge with a very thin sheath coating it. This tells us that the diameter of a wire, or the wire gauge, is also responsible for determining the amount of voltage that can move through the wire. The diameter of a wire determines how many electrons it can safely transport, and therefore the amount of current that can move through it.Ĭurrent is directly proportional to voltage. The size or thickness of a wire is referred to as the wire gauge in the electronics world. Why Use Low Voltage Wire Sizes for Lighting?.Wire Size Chart for Low Voltage Lighting.

24v wire gauge chart