Copper Wiring Sized to Save Energy and Money
You may of not considered how you can save energy by increasing the size of the copper wire in your structures, but it is a method of saving energy over the life of a building.
As wire transmits electricity heat is a natural part of the process. A larger wire
size has the ability to carry electricity with less heat (energy) loss. If you are
building new or rewiring structures bump up one wire gage as you purchase wire at
only a small cost and you will be generating savings for many years to come.
As an example a single-phase, 15 amp load operating continuously has a short payback.
With a 100 foot run, # 12 AWG has a 77 Watt loss and costs $10.80 for the wire.
Increasing the wire size to #10 AWG results in only a 48 Watt loss, the wire costs $16.80 (+6.00),
saves 254 kWh per year and at $0.10 per kWh has a payback in only three months.
A simple method that results in dramatic energy savings.