Electric Heater Wire Size

Wire gauge refers the physical size of the wire rated with a numerical designation that runs opposite to the diameter of the conductors in other words the smaller the wire gauge number the larger the wire diameter.

Electric heater wire size.

These 3 heaters would require 12 2 wire and a 20 amp 2 pole breaker if they were to all be placed on the same circuit. Wire is sized by the american wire gauge awg system. When placing multiple heaters on a circuit do not exceed the wattage listed for the corresponding wire and circuit breaker size. Rounding up this means that 7 feet or 84 inches of heater is needed.

How to choose the right wattage size for an electric baseboard heater. Standard heaters are not available in this length so in this case a single 8 foot or two 4 foot heaters would be the likely choice. Baseboard heaters come in many sizes to match the heating needs of the room. For example a 20 amp hot water heater needs 12 gauge wire a 25 amp hot water heater requires 10 gauge wire and a 30 to 40 amp hot water heater requires 8 gauge wire.

Common sizes include 14 12 10 8 6 and 2 gauge wire. 2 1000w 1 1500w 240v heaters 3500 watts total. In other words a 10 x 10 room 100 square feet will require 1000 watts of electric baseboard heating. As a rule of thumb assume a room requires 10 watts of electric heating per square foot of room.

Choosing a heater size. Dividing by 250 the normal wattage per linear foot equals 6 84 feet of baseboard heater required. Some large heaters draw up to 50 amps requiring 6 gauge wire.