Electrical Cable/Wire Sizing

Wiring Techniques

How to sizing the electrical cable/wire?

This time i want shared about how tosizing the electrical cable.This topic is important because its involved withsafety issue,cost and time line for theelectrical installation project. Cable or wire sizing matter already discussed for a long time ago and its a hot topic for Electricians and Engineers.So i hope from this post,it can give a clear view and understanding how to select current rating for wire,cable rating,voltage drop, and wire sizingfor wiring project application.From cable/wire sizing calculation we can estimate the proper sizefor cable to our wiring installation project.One thing that we need to prepared before cable or wire sizing is several data or information about wiring project includes : 1) Type of load : For feeder,control panel,distribution board (DB) or motor 2) Power Source : AC /DC power for Three phase or single phase 3) Full load current (Ampere) 4) Circuit Breaker size 5) Types of cable ( PVC,XLPE,Fire proved) 6) Installation Condition ( Underground, trefoil,trunking,tray or conduit) 7) Distance / length of cable run from source to load

How to sizing electrical cable/wire? Ib In Iz

Ib = Amperage load

In = Circuit Breaker size Iz = Current rating for cable/wire

Example : We plan to install 1 unit induction motor 75 hp for running a water pump.Power factor value is 0.8 and motor efficiency is 0.85.Power supply for this motor is 415 volt 3 phase 50Hz.Distance from panel to motor is 75 meter.This panel and pump is located at outside of factory.Please sizing the suitable circuit breaker,electrical cable and also type of cable for this application. Calculation

Ib In Iz
Ib = ( hp x 746) / (3 x Volt x PF x Efficiency) Ib = (75 x 746) / (3 x 415 x 0.8 x 0.85) Ib = 114.5 Ampere

In = Ib breaker sizing In = 114 150 ampere In = 150 ampere (we decide to used MCCB 3 pole with 150 ampere rating)

Iz = In Iz Iz = 150 Iz Iz = 187 ampere ( carried capacity for 50mm cable size) So we decide to used cable size = 50 mm with 4 core cable and clipped direct to cable tray.To confirm this cable size,we need to calculate the voltage drop.

* For full table of cable size,please download cable size chart / table below.Clink link to download PDF file for Cable Current Rating Table DOWNLOAD CABLE SIZE CHART

Voltage Drop Calculation

Below is a voltage drop calculation that i made for cable power supply from panel to induction motor. From Panel to Induction motor = 75 meter mV = 0.87 ( refer table below )

Formula voltage drop : Vd = Ib x length(meter) x mV / 1000

Vd = (114.5 x 75 x 0.87) / 1000

Vd = 7.47 ( Acceptable refer to IEE 17th edition ) * Voltage drop acceptable value is 4% x 415 volt = 16.6 Volt Conclusion From this calculation, we fully confident to laying cable size 50mm with 150 ampere ofMCCB,using multicore PVC Armored cable (due to outdoor wiring application) and also cable laying with cable tray. That why all Electrician and Electrical Engineer need to know about cable sizing calculation to make sure wiring installation project successful and meet the requirement of Electrical Safetyand Regulation without any disaster.