Quick Guide to Electrical Wires and Cable

In order to light-up bulbs or run electrical appliances, we need to connect them to a power supply. Cables and wires are used for this purpose.

Though the terms cables and wires are used interchangeably, there’s a subtle difference between the two:

• Cable is an assembly of two or more wires inside a jacket.

• Wires are either insulated or bare conductors inside a jacket.

Wires can have different sizes depending upon the amperage of a circuit; the most common sizes used in residential works are generally of 14-gauge and 12-gauge. However, larger appliances often use 10, 8 or even 6-gauge wires.

An electrical cable is normally denoted by two numbers separated by a hyphen, such as 10 - 2, the first number indicates the conductor’s gauge while the second specifies the number of conductors inside the cable.

Individual conductors are also sometimes color-coded, depending upon their uses in the circuits.

They can be put to action through Anchor Modular switches fitted on the walls or ceilings. Modular switches and modular switch boards are relatively convenient, safe and easy to use than traditional ones.

Classification of Cables: Single Phase Power cables:

#Two core and earth cable: It has three cores, namely, a live core, a neutral core and a earth core - the 1st two are insulated and carry current to and from the outlet socket while the earth or earth continuity conductor (ECC) is not insulated, except for the outer sheath; providing route for the current to flow to ground in case of any fault.

#Three core flex: It has three cores: live, earth and neutral, each of the cores is insulated with a layer of color-coded PVC -- all three cores are then covered by an additional outer PVC layer, called sheath.

#Two core flex: This type of cable is normally used to connect small appliances. They are double insulated and has no earth; two cores being live and neutral. They are generally of circular shape with an outer sheath and color-coded PVC insulated cores.

Three-Phase Power Cables:

• Three-phase and neutral: These cables are commonly used for industrial use and in high rise buildings; as they have the ability to supply much more power than a single-phase cable. They are usually circular in shape and contain 4 cores -- 3 of them being live and 1 being neutral.

• Optical Fibre Cable: Also known as fiber-optic cable, is a special type of cable which contains strands of glass fibers inside an insulated casing. Compared to wired cables, they provide higher bandwidth and can transmit data over long distances.

• Fiber optic cables price is a bit higher than conventional ones, and are mostly used for running world wide web or internet, cable television, and telephone systems. On average, fiber optic cable installation costs $1 to $6 per foot depending on the fiber count.

Conclusion

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