cable overkill

[dreadnought]

hi all, i`m first fixing my services on my nb,and just looking at cable size for my fridge, i`m going for a standed fridge witch draws about 5 amps,the fridge is about 7 metres from batteries so i was going to run 9mm cable, is this overkill, or should i go with 6mm, many thanks,

[RichLech]

My fridge is about 7m from supply and I used 10mm. Prior to this the voltage drop on the smaller cable meant that the fridge would not start unless batteries were at their peak of charge.

 

Definitely use the larger cable.

[Alan de Enfield]

Don't forget that whilst your fridge is physically 7 metres away from your batteries, 'electrically' it is 14 metres (there & back)

 

Assuming it is 12v - looking at my Waeco fridge installation manual 7 metres would require a minimum of 6mm² and 14 metres would require 10mm².

"Overkill" will have no detrimental effect, except to your pocket.

 

Edit :

Just to confirm we are talking about the same units.

10mm is the area of the copper conductor, not the diameter of the copper, or the outer diameter of the cable

Edited November 22, 2015 by Alan de Enfield

[jonathanA]

hi all, i`m first fixing my services on my nb,and just looking at cable size for my fridge, i`m going for a standed fridge witch draws about 5 amps,the fridge is about 7 metres from batteries so i was going to run 9mm cable, is this overkill, or should i go with 6mm, many thanks,

 

9mm2 is not standard cable size nearest would be 10 mm2. As Alan said make sure you are looking at the conductor size or cross sectional area (csa) in square mm not the diameter.