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American Wire Gauge AWG
Definition
‘’’American wire gauge’’’ (’’’AWG’’’), also known as the ‘’’Brown & Sharpe wire gauge’’’, is a standardized wire gauge system used since 1857 in the United States and other countries for the diameters of round, solid, nonferrous, electrically conducting wire.<ref>ASTM Standard B 258-02, ‘’Standard specification for standard nominal diameters and cross-sectional areas of AWG sizes of solid round wires used as electrical conductors’’, ASTM International, 2002 </ref> The steel industry uses a different numbering system for their wire thickness gauges (for example, W&M;Wire Gauge or US Steel Wire Gauge or the different Music Wire Gauge) so data below does not apply to steel wire. Since AWG is specifically for electrical conductors, the cross-sectional area of each gauge is an important factor for determining its current-carrying capacity.
Increasing gauge numbers give decreasing wire diameters, which is similar to many other non-metric gauging systems. This is derived from the fact that the gauge number is related to the number of drawing operations that must be used to produce a given gauge of wire; very fine wire (for example, 30 gauge) requires more passes through the drawing dies than does 0 gauge wire.
The AWG size is one of the essential specifications that are printed on data cables. For instance, an AWG of 24 is common for network cables such as a Category 5 UTP, and an AWG of 26 is the norm for Serial ATA cables.
Although the AWG tables are normally for a single, solid, round conductor, there are many cases in which AWG is applied to wires with multiple strands. When a stranded wire needs to be converted to an AWG equivalent size, the cross-sectional area of the conductor which determines its current-carrying capacity and electrical resistance (not its diameter), is taken as the determining factor. This permits stranded wire to have a slightly different diameter than solid wire having the same AWG.
Use in audio
All the wiring in your system is going to be of some AWG. The important ones that you have control over are power cable and speaker wire gauge.
An 18awg power cable is rated at 10amps, if your equipment draws more than that, you should use a higher rated, thicker cable. A majority of IEC connector cables are going to be this size. Aftermarket power cables are generally of the 12awg variety, though examples can be found of 14awg and 10awg or higher. A 12awg cable will give you all the current carrying capability you will need and then some.
In speaker wire you will see the entire gamut run. From super thing 24awg to 18awg that some manufacturers supply, all the way up to wire that looks like a garden hose. Generally people max out at around 12awg here too. A general guideline to use if wiring your large theater room is to use at least 16awg wire, preferably higher if possible.
Pronunciation
‘’AWG’’ is colloquially referred to as ‘’gauge’’ and the zeros in large wire sizes are referred to as ‘’aught’’ ({{PronEng|ɔːt}}). Wire sized 1 AWG is referred to as “one gauge”; similarly, smaller diameters are pronounced “‘’x’’ gauge”, where ‘’x’’ is the positive integer AWG number. Larger wire (#0 and up) is referred to as “one aught”, “two aught” etc, depending on how many zeros are in the AWG rating.
References
*Donald G. Fink and H. Wayne Beaty, ‘’Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers, Eleventh Edition’’,McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978, ISBN 0-07-020974-X, page 4-18 and table 4-11.
Sourced from Wikipedia article American Wire Gauge
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