Vans harness wire gauge

[Kokemiller]

I bought the prefab harness from vans and I am have started to run the wires. The strobe switch breaker is 10amp running 16 gauge wire all the way to the strobe lights, according to my chart 16 ga will only handle 10 amps for about 8 ft. Am I safe to run it Vans way or am I begging the smoke to come out of the wire?

[Dean_aeroleds]

Originally Posted by N4744Z

I bought the prefab harness from vans and I am have started to run the wires. The strobe switch breaker is 10amp running 16 gauge wire all the way to the strobe lights, according to my chart 16 ga will only handle 10 amps for about 8 ft. Am I safe to run it Vans way or am I begging the smoke to come out of the wire?

16 gauge wire has a resistance of 4 ohms per 1000 feet. A 10 foot run has 0.04 ohms of resistance, so if you wind up with a 10 foot run in your airplane you will drop 0.4 Volts from the battery to the end of the run and dissipate a whole 4 Watts of power in 10 feet of wire which isn't a lot.

A 20 foot run will drop 0.8 Volts and burn 8 Watts of power in 20 feet of copper.

I think you are OK if you don't exceed 20 feet.

[Kokemiller]

It is your ns90s and suntail I am powering. I know I am overdoing it on breaker and wire size, I just want to make sure that in the event of a short the breaker pops, not the wire frying.
BTW I have them installed in my tips and they look great!

[Dean_aeroleds]

Originally Posted by N4744Z

It is your ns90s and suntail I am powering. I know I am overdoing it on breaker and wire size, I just want to make sure that in the event of a short the breaker pops, not the wire frying.
BTW I have them installed in my tips and they look great!

OK, in that case you are fine, because each wingtip draws only 3.5 Amps peak, and it is only for a short duration, so the 16 gauge wires are more than adequate. Glad to hear that you like them.