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Say I've calculated the minimum wire gauge necessary to give me an acceptable voltage drop over my length of cable run at the voltage and current my application will use.

Are there any disadvantages to using thicker cable, aside from cost? Is the answer different for AC vs DC? For power vs signal transmission?

Robert Atkins
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2 Answers2

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Electrically, thicker is better in this case. However, thicker cable has other disadvantages beyond just the extra cost:

  • Less flexible. This makes it harder to install and harder to work with in general.

  • Bigger, which means it might not fit thru some small holes or tight places.

  • You get diminishing returns with AC due to the skin effect. Thicker is never worse than thinner electrically, but after some diameter the extra area gives you less and less return. This effect is proportional to frequency, so thicker cable is more useful for something like 60 Hz power as apposed to 10 kHz signal to a loudspeaker.

Olin Lathrop
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    And when dealing with both power and fast signals, larger geometries generate higher inductivity which causes problems with inductive kicks and slew rate respectively. (by the way, when can I start giving people badges? because what you wrote here is exactly what I was about to write, really nice answer) – user36129 Aug 07 '13 at 15:38
  • @user26129 Badges are awarded by the system, not by users. You can upvote good comments and answers, which indirectly contribute to badges. – JYelton Aug 07 '13 at 16:45
  • Heavier, which can matter in portable or implanted systems. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Aug 07 '13 at 20:07
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    The tip about thicker cable for fast AC giving diminishing returns is the kind of non-obivious kind of thing I was looking for, also user2619's comment about induction and slew. Awesome answers, thank you all. – Robert Atkins Aug 08 '13 at 19:53
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Thicker wire also has the benefit of stronger/more resilient copper strands, which will be less likely to break as the wire gets old. Also, if you ever try to crimp new connections to this wire, it will be easier to clean oxidation off the copper strands without breaking them. In short, more durable!

wild coast
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