1.1This practice is intended as a guide to shipbuilders, shipowners, and design agents for use in the selection of conductor size for single conductor or multiple conductor cable sizes either in American Wire Gauge (AWG) or metric designations for commercial ship design and construction.
1.2The comparison chart of electrical conductor sizes shown in Table 1 presents a combined listing of international standard sizes of Class 2 stranded copper conductors in accordance with AWG (Specification B8) English units or IEC (IEC 60228) metric units.
TABLE 1 Conversion Table—AWG/Metric Preferred Sizes of Conductors
Size Metric, mm 2 | Size AWG/MCM | Area in Circ Mils (Nominal) | AmpacityA | dc Resistances at 20°CB |
Ohms per 1000 ft | Ohms per km |
| 2000*C | 2 000 000 | 1155 | 0.0053 | 0.0177 |
1000* | | 1 970 000 | 1145 | 0.0054 | 0.0176 |
| 1750* | 1 750 000 | 1070 | 0.0063 | 0.0199 |
800* | | 1 580 000 | 1009 | 0.0067 | 0.0224 |
| 1500* | 1 500 000 | 980 | 0.0071 | 0.0232 |
| 1250* | 1 250 000 | 890 | 0.0085 | 0.0278 |
630* | | 1 240 000 | 886 | 0.0096 | 0.0286 |
| 1000* | 1 000 000 | 780 | 0.0106 | 0.0347 |
500* | | 987 000 | 772 | 0.0105 | 0.0369 |
400* | | 789 000 | 675 | 0.0133 | 0.0475 |
| 750* | 750 000 | 655 | 0.0141 | 0.0463 |
| 600* | 600 000 | 575 | 0.0176 | 0.0578 |
300* | | 592 000 | 570 | 0.0211 | 0.0607 |
| 500* | 500 000 | 515 | 0.0211 | 0.0694 |
240* | | 474 000 | 499 | 0.0219 | 0.0762 |
| 400* | 400 000 | 455 | 0.0264 | 0.0867 |
185* | | 365 000 | 431 | 0.0286 | 0.1000 |
| 350* | 350 000 | 420 | 0.0302 | 0.0990 |
| 300* | 300 000 | 375 | 0.0353 | 0.1157 |
150* | | 296 000 | 372 | 0.0353 | 0.1260 |
| 250* | 250 000 | 340 | 0.0423 | 0.1388 |
120* | | 237 000 | 327 | 0.0436 | 0.1540 |
| 4/0* | 211 600 | 300 | 0.0500 | 0.1639 |
95* | | 187 000 | 265 | 0.0551 | 0.1950 |
| 3/0* | 167 000 | 260 | 0.0631 | 0.2065 |
70* | | 138 000 | 230 | 0.0752 | 0.2700 |
| 2/0* | 133 100 | 225 | 0.0794 | 0.2605 |
| 1/0* | 105 600 | 195 | 0.1002 | 0.3288 |
50* | | 98 700 | 185 | 0.1044 | 0.3910 |
| 1 | 83 690 | 165 | 0.1261 | 0.4139 |
35* | | 69 100 | 144 | 0.1495 | 0.5290 |
| 2* | 66 360 | 140 | 0.1588 | 0.5211 |
| 3 | 52 620 | 120 | 0.2005 | 0.6577 |
25* | | 49 300 | 115 | 0.2057 | 0.7340 |
| 4* | 41 740 | 105 | 0.2528 | 0.8295 |
16* | | 31 600 | 89 | 0.3259 | 1.160 |
| 6* | 26 240 | 80 | 0.4023 | 1.320 |
10* | | 19 700 | 63 | 0.5167 | 1.840 |
| 8* | 16 510 | 55 | 0.6380 | 2.093 |
6.0* | | 11 800 | 43 | 0.8543 | 3.110 |
| 10* | 10 380 | 40 | 1.017 | 3.335 |
4.0* | | 7 890 | 30 | 1.304 | 4.700 |
| 12* | 6 530 | 25 | 1.620 | 5.315 |
2.5* | | 4 930 | 22 | 2.067 | 7.560 |
| 14* | 4 110 | 20 | 2.573 | 8.442 |
1.5* | | 2 960 | . . . | 3.417 | 12.20 |
| 16* | 2 580 | . . . | 4.020 | 13.19 |
1.0* | | 1 970 | . . . | 5.213 | 18.20 |
0.90 | | 1 773 | . . . | 6.45 | 21.10 |
| 18* | 1 620 | . . . | 6.82 | 20.95 |
0.80 | | 1 576 | . . . | 6.52 | 21.40 |
0.75* | | 1 480 | . . . | 6.82 | 24.80 |
0.60* | | 1 182 | . . . | 9.5 | 31.16 |
| 20* | 1 020 | . . . | 10.5 | 34.45 |
0.50* | | 987 | . . . | 11.4 | 36.70 |
| 22* | 640 | . . . | 16.9 | 55.44 |
0.20* | 24* | 404 | . . . | 26.7 | 87.60 |
| 26* | 253 | . . . | 43.6 | 143.04 |
1.3As a precautionary caveat, some conductor sizes listed in Table 1 may exceed minimal size requirements of the U.S. Coast Guard, the American Bureau of Shipping, and IEEE STD 45 for specific applications.
1.4The values stated for ampacity and dc resistance are presented as maximum values and are provided for information only.