Electrical - Wire Gauge Calculators

High power Luminus LEDs are rated for high currents such as in the example below for a CBT-140-W where the maximum rated drive current is 28 A. This requires a large wire gage for correct operation. The proper size wire for a given current considers the voltage drop and the temperature rise constraints for the desired wire length. Various free calculators can be used for these calculations.

Luminus uses a 14 AWG wire harness in our development kits to accommodate the range of the possible currents that may be used. There are situations where the connectors/headers in the power supply boards are not big enough to insert a 14-gage wire and multiple parallel wires with a smaller gage need to be employed. 

A simple gage calculator based on maximum current and insulation temperature ratings can be found here: http://wiresizecalculator.net/calculators/wiresize.htm

An equivalent gage calculator for parallel combined wires can be found here:

https://www.wirebarn.com/Combined-Wire-Gauge-Calculator_ep_42.html

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