![]() Of course, if you’re running something as big as 4-gauge, a 17V loss is probably going to be negligible at best. If you ever want to know the voltage drop for a given gauge, inside of a bubble-as in a rating without any external or internal factors that could change the math-you can always jump online and use a voltage-drop calculator.įor instance, if you were to string out 500’ of 4-gauge wire and you wanted to know the drop in voltage at the other end of where you’re plugged in, it would be about a 17.4V loss at a rate of 14.5%. This is true of all wiring and there’s a percentage of loss despite the placement of or lack of resistance mechanisms. The more feet that you string a wire out, the more voltage it loses from the starting point to the ending point. Voltage drop is defined as the amount of current loss over specific distances. What is the Voltage Drop with 4-Gauge Copper and Aluminum Wire? You can find it in battery cables sometimes, but nowhere near as much as 2 and 6 gauge. The lack of applications has ultimately relegated 4-gauge wire to a kind of background, novelty wire gauge. While there are applications for 4-gauge wire, there’s nothing there that 6-gauge can’t normally handle or 2-gauge for something larger scale. The truth is, 4-gauge wire isn’t listed in most industrial or residential manuals as a common wire, simply because it is not. Read also: How Many Amps Can a 10 Gauge Wire Handle (220 Volts) Unless you live in a mansion, there’s nothing in your home that’s going to require that kind of wire thickness to operate. After all, 4-gauge is more than capable of handling 10, 15, and 20 amps with little to no effort at all.įor practical purposes, however, you will only find 4-gauge wiring in industrial-sized furnaces and large electric heaters the kind you would find at an industrial level. In fact, you could use it in most of your residential appliances if you wanted to waste some money. ![]() Your washing machine uses a 12-gauge and it all makes you wonder what in the world you would need a 4-gauge wire for? There’s just no application for it.Įven the most power-hungry appliances such as washers, dryers, your HVAC system, and water heaters won’t use anything more than a 10-gauge wire. Manufacturing industries use it more for large-scale projects that dwarf anything that you would see in a neighborhood.Īs far as a home is concerned, there won’t be any 4-gauge wiring in the electrical system unless something wild and crazy was added before you purchased the home. You don’t see 4-gauge wiring in a lot of applications and you certainly won’t see it in any kind of residential or most commercial wiring. In other words, there are different insulation jackets for 4-gauge and all of them are based on determined temperature ratings which, in turn, are determined by the application of the wire. Aluminum at 194☏ – XHHW-2, THHN, THWN-2.Aluminum at 167☏ – THW, THWN, SE, USE, XHHW.The temperature rating differences determine the type of insulation that the wire will be jacketed in. If 4-gauge copper wiring was considered an uncommon wire, aluminum is even more so, by a long shot. Read also: How Many Amps Can a 14 Gauge Wire Handle? (Best Tips)Īlthough aluminum is regarded as one of the top five metals in terms of electrical usage, you can tell the separation between it and other conductive metals and that gap is a fairly wide one.Īluminum doesn’t have a usage at a 140° temperature rating and is 20 amps below its copper cousin at both the 167° temperature rating and the 194° temperature rating. There are also many different insulation types, and while they don’t affect the kind of current that the copper or aluminum can conduct, they are necessary for the temperature rating or for what the application for the copper or aluminum wiring is going to be. There are different temperature ratings for each type of wire. As such, the same gauge of aluminum wiring-4-gauge in this case-won’t conduct the same number of amps that an equivalent copper wire will.įor instance, at a temperature rating of 167☏, a 4-gauge copper wire is capable of conducting 85 amps while the equivalent aluminum wire at a temperature rating of 167° is only capable of conducting 65 amps. What’s the Difference Between 4-Gauge Copper and 4-Gauge Aluminum?Īluminum is a metal that is resistant to both current and heat. What is the Voltage Drop with 4-Gauge Copper and Aluminum Wire?.What is 4-Gauge Wire Typically Used For?.What’s the Difference Between 4-Gauge Copper and 4-Gauge Aluminum?.
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