Electrical question 4 gauge wire

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patrickkawi37

Well-Known Member
I am running 4 gauge wire about 100 feet to a subpanel . The electrician said he knew what he was doing but I'm quite sure now he was full of shit. The wire is getting warm. On the subpanel I am running a dual 50amp breaker and dual 30 on one leg and the other leg is a dual 20 and two single 20s. I am mechanically retarded so I really have no idea what im talking about when it comes to this. I am worried with the wire getting warm that I am using too much juice? As far as I know, individually none of the breakers are being overloaded . It has been working for a few months now, I am just worried one day it will start a fire or something. Please someone with info on this subject, give me some insight .thanks
 
WeedFreak78

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
4Ga or 14Ga??? I used, i believe, 8ga when i made an extension for my welder..that will draw upwards of 200A at full blast..and i overrated the cable..could have gone with a 10ga. A 4ga should handle a few hundred amps....I'm going to assume 14ga, and if that's the case..FIRE HAZARD. I ran 10ga for one 30 A 240V circuit, an 12ga for my 120V's...
 
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patrickkawi37

Well-Known Member
WeedFreak78 said:
4Ga or 14Ga??? I used, i believe, 8ga when i made an extension for my welder..that will draw upwards of 200A at full blast..and i overrated the cable..could have gone with a 10ga. A 4ga should handle a few hundred amps....I'm going to assume 14ga, and if that's the case..FIRE HAZARD. I ran 10ga for one 30 A 240V circuit, an 12ga for my 120V's...
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It is definitely 4 gauge. I am running 240 and 120 on the box. The air conditioners and the lights are on 240 everything else is 120. I've estimated about 60 Amps being used of 240 and about 25-30 amps on the 120. The wire is warm to the touch. So I assume this means it is closed to max?
 
Herb & Suds

Herb & Suds

Well-Known Member
Mine runs warm
shorter run too
Seems you are really close but those charts run to the safe side...
Resistance should be a non-issue with #4
Light it up !
 
HydroRed

HydroRed

Well-Known Member
Just to clarify, what color is the wire? With 4 Ga wire, you should be good to like 70 Amp if NM wire was used. If aluminum wire was used your max amp rating gets decreased significantly. As for overloading, you should use a breaker that will exceed your max amp draw by 25% according to most local codes in the U.S. As for the length of the wire, it getting warm (not hot) is normal for long runs of wire with higher amp draw as you had mentioned already.
Are the breakers themselves warm or just the run of wire?
 
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patrickkawi37

Well-Known Member
I am to
Scared to open the subpanel and feel the breakers lol I will
Ask a friend to do it when they come over next haha. The wire is definitely warm but it is about 100 feet from the panel to subpanel. The breaker feeding subpanel is 100 amps. Sorry it took so long to write back I didn't see the messages
 
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patrickkawi37

Well-Known Member
HydroRed said:
Just to clarify, what color is the wire? With 4 Ga wire, you should be good to like 70 Amp if NM wire was used. If aluminum wire was used your max amp rating gets decreased significantly. As for overloading, you should use a breaker that will exceed your max amp draw by 25% according to most local codes in the U.S. As for the length of the wire, it getting warm (not hot) is normal for long runs of wire with higher amp draw as you had mentioned already.
Are the breakers themselves warm or just the run of wire?
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The wire is black
 
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clayawesome

Well-Known Member
Honestly i think you want at least 2 gauge copper for the hot leads. probably can do 6 gauge for the ground.
But 4 gauge is too small. you could replace the 100 amp breaker with a 60 or 70 to supply the power to sub panel and it would be safe.
If you need all 100 amps you should upgrade your wire.
 
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patrickkawi37

Well-Known Member
clayawesome said:
Honestly i think you want at least 2 gauge copper for the hot leads. probably can do 6 gauge for the ground.
But 4 gauge is too small. you could replace the 100 amp breaker with a 60 or 70 to supply the power to sub panel and it would be safe.
If you need all 100 amps you should upgrade your wire.
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I'm pretty sure it needs a hundred . Specially with the number of breakers on the subpannel. I spent 700 in wire to run it that far. That sure sucks to have to throw it away. Isn't this something the electrician should of known ahead of time? What a fucking idiot
 
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patrickkawi37

Well-Known Member
It took the dude like 4 days to do it all and made all kinds of noise and had me freaking out panicing. I rent lol. So the thought of having to do this all over again is breaking my heart and my wallet
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
patrickkawi37 said:
It took the dude like 4 days to do it all and made all kinds of noise and had me freaking out panicing. I rent lol. So the thought of having to do this all over again is breaking my heart and my wallet
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A 100A breaker is too large for that gauge wire, even if it was a short run, let alone a 100' run.
 
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