Can I join two difference gauge size cables together without causing any problems?
Question:My son has a new fishing boat and he has asked me to wire up the new navigation lights, deck lights and radio that he bought.
The deck lights and radio came with there own power cable. But the navigation lights didn't. The power cable I have is slightly thicker than the wire coming out of the two navigation lights.
My question is, would it be all right to use my slightly thicker cable to complete the wiring?
Thank you from Noelene.
Answers:
It should be ok. A heavier guage wire is better than too thin a guage. The heavier guage can carry a heavier load (obviously), and shouldn't cause problems. I had to rig up a hot cable for my van battery for a temporary use. It hasn't caused any problems so I haven't gotten around to re-rigging it yet. Works just fine. Going with a heavier guage is always better than going with too light a guage.
You can, and it'll probably work, but I dunno. The larger gauge will have more resistance. So you're changing the amps or voltage. If it's amps, you may get a short. Voltage=Amps x Ohms.
If the diameters are not too different go ahead an use them. There will me more resistance on the larger diameter wire .. but shouldn't make much difference because those are all low draw items.
The smallest conductor "must" be capable of handling the greatest current.
If one is going to carry 5 amps but the smallest wire only handles up to 3 amps it will melt and cause a fire. that smallest cable has to be able to handle the maximum current _ and then some.
sooo if your largest current is 5 amps the smalles cable should carry more than this.
NOTE: Resistance is greater for smaller conductors - this is why it will carry less current and will give off much more heat for the same current.
If the only resistance present is the conductor itself.
If conductor one is carrying 3 amps its resistance is ( at 12 V)
V/A = R
12/3 = 4 ohms
If conductor two is carrying 5 amps its resistance is ( at 12 V)
12/5 = 2.4 ohms
Therefore, the conductor that can carry 3 amps is a smaller conductor and has a higher resistance than the conductor that can carry 5 amps. Which means, smaller conductor has a higher resistance.
Remember this, the Amps are not just pumped through and the light will get what is sent to it. No, the lights will draw the current (amps) through but at a rate determined by the resistance and the voltage. So if the smaller wire came with the lights, for a certain voltage this will be capable of handling the current. If you connect a larger wire to this that will easily handle the same current. The only way more current can come through is if the lights themselves draw more current, then the larger wire will handle this but the smaller wire will not. So either the lights themselves will short out of the wire will melt / cause fire.
As it is though you can connect a larger wire to handle the current that will be drawn by the lights.
Note: In plumbing, the exact water flow in a larger pipe will not flow through the smaller pipes - they would burst. Also, in electricity, the current carried by a larger conductor would melt the thinner conductor since the current is greater for the larger conductor.
think of it like plumbing, the larger pipe will easily feed multiple smaller pipes but not the other way around. One thought though, if you have a problem with the wiring do you want to lose both nav lights and your radio? one would be bad but both would be really bad. You might think about seperate circuits. good luck
For most of the answerer's, you are talking nominal voltages of 120/240 like you would find in a house or business. BUT you have a boat with most probably 12 or 24 volt system. There isn't much code for low voltages, but the resistance is really what your asking about. I've always used the heaviest wire size for the main wire then tapped off with no less than 1/3 of the largest size. So as long as the heavy wire is the main line from the battery, your fine.
if it has a bigger diameter then no problem you only get trouble if you use a smaller cable
be safe go and buy the right cable you dont want any accidents
If you are connecting the deck lights and the radio to a power source, like the battery, using the power cable that came with them, you have to make sure the power source (battery) is large enough to handle the total load that is anticipated to be "ON" at the same time (the load is the current needed to run the combination of the deck lights plus the radio, plus the navigation lights).
Since it did not come with its own power cable, if all you need is a "power cable" to run from the power source (battery) to the new navigation lights, you can use as large a wire as you can find without causing any problems, except the physical connection of a smaller wire to a larger one. Since you describe it as only slightly larger, you have nothing to worry about, go for it.
You never want to use a smaller wire to connect to the device you are connecting, like the navigation lights, and sometimes you actually have to use a larger wire, if the device is a far distance from the power supply.
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