DC wire run length in parallel?

freedj

I currently have a 40' length of 10awg wire connecting my charge controller to my PV array. My array is 20' from my charge controller. Obviously i want to shorten the run, but I have enough wire that I could run 2 lengths in parallel.

10awg is to small for my application. I am probably loosing between %5 and %10 over the length of my current run. I am trying to find some cheap 6awg, but If i can gain most of the same benefit from using a parallel link between the array and the charge controller using the materials i have on hand, that's even better.

I couldn't quite find the right search terms to learn more.

How would 2 parallel runs of 10awg compair to a single 6awg or 8awg wire?

waynefromnscanada

Re: DC wire run length in parallel?

freedj wrote: »

I currently have a 40' length of 10awg wire connecting my charge controller to my PV array. My array is 20' from my charge controller. Obviously i want to shorten the run, but I have enough wire that I could run 2 lengths in parallel.

10awg is to small for my application. I am probably loosing between %5 and %10 over the length of my current run. I am trying to find some cheap 6awg, but If i can gain most of the same benefit from using a parallel link between the array and the charge controller using the materials i have on hand, that's even better.

I couldn't quite find the right search terms to learn more.

How would 2 parallel runs of 10awg compare to a single 6awg or 8awg wire?

Excellent thought. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe two parallel runs of #10 is very close in resistance to one single run of # 7.

Cariboocoot

Re: DC wire run length in parallel?

What are the array specs? Twenty feet isn't very far; you should not be experiencing huge Voltage drop on that distance unless the array Voltage is low (12 V nominal) and the current is high (more than 16 Amps).

Using those minimal numbers, 10 AWG would be about 5% drop, 8 AWG about 3%, 6 AWG about 2%.
If you double the 10 AWG it's like halving the current, so each run would take 8 Amps and have about 2.5% Voltage drop (nearly the same as a single run of 6 AWG).

BB.

Re: DC wire run length in parallel?

Wayne is correct... 3 AWG increase in size is a doubling of the diameter. There still may be the issue of surface area/insulation/cooling which would be srt(2) larger.

NEC, as I remember, does not "allow" paralleling of smaller conductor cables (when you get the big stuff-something like 1/O or heavier(?), then they do allow paralleling).

As long as the one wire carries rated load, then you should be OK even if the other parallel path gets "broken"--the remaining wire will not overheat.

-Bill