![]() ![]() 12-gauge wire is too small to operate a 30A breaker safely. In truth, wires with a small gauge do not always lead to disaster.įor instance, I do not want you to pair 30-amp breakers with 12-gauge wire. Some homeowners grow complacent because their houses have thin wires, yet they haven’t observed any signs of overheating. ![]() Contractors use thin cables all the time to save money. Thicker wires have heftier price tags than their thinner counterparts. People use small wires despite the dangers involved because they are cheap. But a smaller gauge will burn your house to the ground. The breaker can still respond to the current passing through a large wire before the wire overheats. In other words, the current running through the circuit is high enough to cause overheating in the thin wires but too low to trip the breaker.Īs such, if you want to change the breaker in your house, you must also change the wiring. If the wire size is smaller than the breaker size, the wires will overheat and melt, and the breaker won’t respond because it has to detect more current than the small wire can carry to trip. This is the reason why the size of the cables has to match the size of the breaker. If the wires carry more current than they can handle, the breaker will trip to prevent them from overheating. SIze Of Wire Has To Match The Size Of The Breaker If you have a large breaker that can accommodate large volumes of electricity, you need an equally large wire. ![]() But it carries less electricity than an 8-gauge wire. This is why the gauge is so important.Ī 10-gauge wire carries more electricity than a 12-gauge wire. In turn, the size of a wire tells you the amount of current the wire can safely carry. Lower AWG Is BetterĪs you now know, the gauge determines the size. To identify the correct wire size for a 30A breaker, you have to keep a few factors in mind, namely: 1). How Do I Determine The Correct Wire Size For 30 Amp Breaker?
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