Monthly Archives: June 2021

Temperature is a fundamental concept to understand. If something's too hot, it melts or catches fire, and if somthing to cold, it freezes or breaks. This is true for everything from metals, food, clothing, and even liquids. This article will be going over why temperature is a fundamental consideration for all electrical applications, what happens to wire and cable in hot and cold environments, and the different temperature ratings for the most popular wiring materials.

The Difference Between Cables, Wires & Conductors

Wire: A wire is defined as a single rod of metal with a small ratio of diameter to length.

Conductor: A Conductor is an uninsulated piece of metal suitable for carrying an electric current. There are different types of conductors, and they're known as solid conductors and stranded conductors. The stranded wires are made up of a group of smaller solid strands. These wires are twisted together to create a more flexible stranded conductor. For example, cables may be referred to as 7/36 wire in 26 AWG. The conductors have seven strands of 36 gauge wire, all twisted together to make the 28 AWG conductor.

Cable: A cable is either a single-stranded conductor or a combination of conductors insulated from one another (multi-conductor cable).