Can I use a 12 gage wire for pos and a 14 gage wire for neg in a 12V dc system? I wonder whether there will be any problems with the different gages. thanks!
DC: mixing 12 and 14 gage
Jul 14, 2003
2 Replies
it's for a boat. All loads need to have ground wiring. I was just wondering whether the bigger negative wire could cause something that I am not aware of.
None, except you'll experience more voltage drop in the 14 gauge wire than with the 12. This simply means that the voltage on the load will be the supply voltage minus the voltage drop on the #12 + the larger drop on the #14.
Harry C.
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