You are on page 1of 2

Wire Gauges

The common US wire gauges - AWG gauges


The AWG - American Wire Gauge - is used as a standard method of denoting wire diameter, measuring the diameter of the conductor (the bare wire)
with the insulation removed. AWG is sometimes also known as Brown and Sharpe (B&S) Wire Gauge.
The AWG table below is for a single, solid, round conductor. Because of the small gaps between the strands in a stranded wire, a stranded wire with the
same current-carrying capacity and electrical resistance as a solid wire, always have a slightly larger overall diameter.
The higher the number - the thinner the wire. Typical household wiring is AWG number 12 or 14. For telephone wires there are common with AWG 22,
24, or 26.

AWG

Diameter
(mm)

Diameter
(in)

Square
(mm2)

Resistance
(ohm/1000m)

40

0.08

0.0050

3420

39

0.09

0.0064

2700

38

0.10

0.0040

0.0078

2190

37

0.11

0.0045

0.0095

1810

36

0.13

0.005

0.013

1300

35

0.14

0.0056

0.015

1120

34

0.16

0.0063

0.020

844

33

0.18

0.0071

0.026

676

32

0.20

0.008

0.031

547

30

0.25

0.01

0.049

351

28

0.33

0.013

0.08

232.0

27

0.36

0.014

0.096

178

26

0.41

0.016

0.13

137

25

0.45

0.018

0.16

108

24

0.51

0.02

0.20

87.5

22

0.64

0.025

0.33

51.7

20

0.81

0.032

0.50

34.1

18

1.02

0.04

0.82

21.9

AWG

Diameter
(mm)

Diameter
(in)

Square
(mm2)

Resistance
(ohm/1000m)

16

1.29

0.051

1.3

13.0

14

1.63

0.064

2.0

8.54

13

1.80

0.072

2.6

6.76

12

2.05

0.081

3.3

5.4

10

2.59

0.10

5.26

3.4

3.25

0.13

8.30

2.2

4.115

0.17

13.30

1.5

5.189

0.20

21.15

0.8

6.543

0.26

33.62

0.5

7.348

0.29

42.41

0.4

8.252

0.33

53.49

0.31

00 (2/0)

9.266

0.37

67.43

0.25

000 (3/0)

10.40

0.41

85.01

0.2

0000 (4/0)

11.684

0.46

107.22

0.16

The higher the gauge number, the smaller the diameter, and the thinner the wire.
Because of less electrical resistance a thick wire will carry more current with less voltage drop than a thin wire. For a long distance it may be necessary
to increase the wire diameter - reducing the gauge - to limit the voltage drop.

You might also like