Wire

A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal.

It comes in solid core, stranded, or braided forms.

Copper is the most popular material.

A conductor is an object or type of material that allows the flow of an electrical current in one or more
directions.

Copper wire, as metal, also conducts heat.

As you can see:

Resistance vary with temperature. Resistance is directly proportional to temperature.

The graph is ideally linear, practically does not change at minimum temperature.

Temperature Coefficient of Conductors are positive

Temperature Insulator at high temperature of Conductors are positive

Ampacity is the maximum amount of electric current a conductor or device can carry before sustaining
immediate or progressive deterioration.

As temperature of a material increases, we know that the material’s molecules vibrates rapidly.

Moving electrons can collide with the ions in the metal.

This makes it more difficult for the current to flow, and causes resistance.

As the temperature increases, the metal ions vibrate more.

There are more collisions with the electrons and so the resistance increases.

Imagine a hallway full of people. Half of the people (the electrons) are trying to move in the same
direction you are and the other half (the protons) are evenly spaced but stationary in the hallway. This
would represent a cold wire. Since the wire is cold the protons are not vibrating much so the electrons
can run between them fairly rapidly. As the conductor (hallway) heats up, the protons start vibrating
and moving slightly out of position. As their motion becomes more erratic they are more likely to get in
the way and disrupt the flow of the electrons.

Wire Size and Amp Rating

Copper Aluminum
60°C (140°F) 75°C (167°F) 90°C (194°F) 75°C (167°F) 90°C (194°F)
Wire Gauge Size NM-B, UF-B THW, THWN, THWN-2, THHN, THW, THWN, XHHW-2, THHN,
SE, USE, XHHW XHHW-2, USE-2 SE, USE, XHHW THWN-2

14 15 15 15 --- ---
12 20 20 20 15 15
10 30 30 30 25 25
8 40 50 55 40 45
6 55 65 75 50 55
4 70 85 95 65 75
3 85 100 115 75 85
2 95 115 130 90 100
1 --- 130 145 100 115
1/0 --- 150 170 120 135
2/0 --- 175 195 135 150
3/0 --- 200 225 155 175
4/0 --- 230 260 180 205
250 --- 255 290 205 230
300 --- 285 320 230 260
350 --- 310 350 250 280
500 --- 380 430 310 350
600 --- 420 475 340 385
750 --- 475 535 385 435
1000 --- 545 615 445 500
Does magnetic field heats the wire?

Wire accumulate a small amount heat from surroundings. Ambient heat slightly increase the wire
temperature through thermal conduction.

Wire heating up is largely caused by the current passing through the wire. While conductors permits the
flow of electrons, practically, conductors has a small amount of resistance due to area, length etc. This
resists the current and produces heat by friction on electrons.

As we all know current produces magnetic field. This field wraps around the wire with directions can be
determined using the right hand rule. Magnetic fields between to wires with opposite current directions
can oppose each other. Unfortunately, this does not generate heat. Although there is a force present
between parallel wire carrying current because of the magnetic field, it only determines the attractive
and repulsive force between conductors.

Wire insulation are primarily made of rubber. Our intuition says if we heat something up, it would
expand i.e. copper. Heating up rubber doesn’t make it expand, but it shrinks and make it brittle. That is
why it gets tighter and can break easily. Although this is a downside of rubber as wire insulation, it is still
the best and economic choice in protecting wires.