24V House Wiring

[jcdillin]

Most of the electrical in my bus is going to be 24V, this is for fans, lighting and other DC items.

I have been looking at options for running wire and found this stuff.

http://amzn.to/2eJBUFk

Does anyone see any reason why that wouldn't work for my application? According to the wire charts 14awg is good for 5.9 amps in power transmission which is going to be plenty for lighting and the other stuff I have planned for it. I like the idea of this stuff since it has a outer jacket that will help protect the inner conductors when ran through the walls of the bus.

[Tikvah]

You'll get some comments about solid wire.  I don't know.

I used extension cords for everything in my bus, both A/C and D/C wiring.  You can buy different colors for different applications and sizes.
I have yellow 12ga for 20amp/115, orange 14ga for 15amp/110, Black 12ga, 12V, and green 14ga 12V
I don't have any interior 24v, but if I did I would use blue.

Double coated, flexible, rated for whatever is necessary, easy to buy, easy to use.

[jcdillin]

Thanks for the response, that item has a bad description, it's stranded wire, just solid copper.

[zimmysurprise]

Dave- that's a great idea color coding with extension cords. Could prevent an expensive mistake.

[bevans6]

That wire is fine.  I presume with two wires you will home-run the grounds, which is what I prefer although it doubles the length of the run.  It eliminates chassis ground issues which always crop up later.  Not sure what chart you found, but 14 gauge wire is normally rated and used for 15 amps over any reasonable distance.  12 gauge is used for 20 amps and 10 gauge is used for 30 amps.

Brian

[scanzel]

I used a wire similar to that for all my 12/24v and have no issue. All my basic 120v ac is 12ga mc lite.

[brmax]

I think after your brand and quality choice it comes down to the length of the run, many times needs a bump in the gauge size requirement.

good day
Floyd

[Lin]

14 gauge is fine to run 120v at 15amps. That's theoretically 1800 watts of AC.  For DC, the capacity changes with the length of the run.  However, your lights, fans, and other DC loads should be far less than that.  If you figure the amperage and length you need in a particular run, you can figure the wire size.  You could probably go with a thinner wire.  I see they have both 16 and 18 gauge too.

[Iceni John]

One reviewer ohmed it and determined it's actually 15 AWG instead of the advertised 14 AWG.   That probably won't matter for you because you'll be using it for 24 VDC.   What is its maximum voltage rating for the temperatures encountered in a bus?

I would still sheath it inside 1/4" splitloom, and secure it every 12 to 18 inches.

John

[Lee Bradley]

Should work. Similar to what I used for my 12/24 volt systems. 

I got mine here
https://www.delcity.net/store/Duplex-Brake-Cable/p_818437.h_180698.t_1

[Hi yo silver]

Uhh, another thing to consider here, guys. The insulation on extension cords is not intended for permanent use. It won't be happy with high temps, for one thing. The insulation is prone to become brittle eventually and flake off when it's handled. I would reconsider using extension cord wiring for anything other than temporary purposes!
Dennis (former fire investigator)

[bevans6]

I didn't want to say anything about extension cords, particularly since the OP's wire is pretty decent well insulated wire for the purpose stated, but I once had a coiled extension cord melt down under a quite reasonable load.  That led to investigation, and finding that extension cords are designed for very different conditons than bus use, and they don't perform as you might imagine when closed in a chase or conduit.  I use extension cords for extension cord use, I use solid house wiring for AC house wiring, and I use decent quality stranded wire for DC wiring, and I under-estimate loads by around 50%.  I never load cables past 80% of their rated capacity.  So far I haven't burnt anything down, still keeping score thought...

[Dave5Cs]

Also Speaker wire is not as high a quality as DC or AC stranded electrical wiring ...
Dave5Cs