"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article
, Bob
Villa wrote:

No one mentioned the fact that stranded wire, at the same diameter,
can carry more current.

In residential applications -- nonsense.

First of all, the NEC doesn't make a distinction between solid and
stranded in
the limits it places on the ampacity of a conductor. The only factor is
size.

Second, presumably you're referring to the "skin effect" -- which at 60Hz
is
completely negligible. The frequency needs to be a *lot* higher than that
before there's any noticeable effect.

I was going to bring this up as well.

It depends on how the NEC defines gauge of a wire.

If it accurately sums the cross sectional area of each strand, so that this
sum is equal to the CSA of solid, then the ampacity should be very nearly
equal. But the diameter of the stranded would be slightly bigger -- because
of the inherent inefficient of "packing circles" -- ie, gaps between
non-touching parts of a circle.

If the NEC determines gauge based on diameter, then stranded will have less
ampacity than solid, for the same circle-packing reason -- less net CSA of
copper.

So, how DOES the NEC define "gauge"?
--
EA