Which type of cable should I use for 5V to 24V with high current under the ceiling or in the wall (pipes)?

[OneMoreFarang]

I will use lots of LED stripes in my new apartment. Likely they will use 24V but it could be 5V or 12V.

In general, I will try to put the power supplies near to where the LED stripes are to keep the wires short.

But maybe it is necessary to have a cable of maybe 5m length between the power supply (i.e. 12V) and the LED strip.

In theory that is easy, if I need max 16A I could just use a "normal" power cable which is also used for 230V.

But for obvious reasons it would be good to have cables which look different from the outside and have different isolation colors in the inside (not brown and blue) to make 100% clear that those cables are different.

 

Which cables can I or should I use?

 

For background: I work with electricity and high current low voltage cable since a long time. But until now I only used short cable like this. I never had to use long cables and I never had to put them through pipes in the walls.

 

 

 

 

[Crossy]

I just use normal mains type cables with suitable heat shrink sleeves on the visible ends to identify as LV DC.

 

If you don't mind ordering a whole roll you can get various colours (look on Lazada).

 

I know grandma and eggs, but do check your volt drop sums and tweek the power supply up a bit.

[peterfranks]

28 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

But maybe it is necessary to have a cable of maybe 5m length between the power supply (i.e. 12V) and the LED strip.

In theory that is easy, if I need max 16A

Are you sure LED strips use even near to 16 amp?

[OneMoreFarang]

4 minutes ago, peterfranks said:

Are you sure LED strips use even near to 16 amp?

You can buy LED strips with i.e. 28W per meter. 5m strip = 140W. And if you would use 5V then that's 28A!

That's the reason why more and more LED stripes are available with 12 and 24V.

 

Here are some high-power LED stripes:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32948777264.html

 

[peterfranks]

3 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

You can buy LED strips with i.e. 28W per meter. 5m strip = 140W. And if you would use 5V then that's 28A!

That's the reason why more and more LED stripes are available with 12 and 24V.

 

Here are some high-power LED stripes:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32948777264.html

 

So OK, you just confirmed that they actually use less than 5 amp, because why would you use them with 5V

[OneMoreFarang]

18 minutes ago, peterfranks said:

So OK, you just confirmed that they actually use less than 5 amp, because why would you use them with 5V

I tried to explain the principle.

People use LED strips with 5V, 12V and 24V for multiple reasons.

This thread is about cables. The 16A was/is just a sample.

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

But for obvious reasons it would be good to have cables which look different from the outside and have different isolation colors in the inside (not brown and blue) to make 100% clear that those cables are different.

 

Which cables can I or should I use?

For my 52 x 9w units I used 1mm sq single core with white neutral and yellow, red, and blue line cables as there are 3 and 2 circuits and the colour coding made wiring them up easy

[xtrnuno41]

Certainly wouldnt use 5 Vdc. Maybe for a single light on table with a 5 VDC charger, but thats it.

I guess you want several LED lightnings on one power supply and splitting it further away in condo?

I found you a calculation for the desired diameter.

 

In which A= calculated diameter.

ρ = specific resistance of copper  Ω.m. However this one is also again

      depending on temperature.

10 E8 = calculation constant to make formula work, due to probably     

            combining formulas        

l = length of cable in meters

P = power in Watts

ƒ = choosen powerloss for cable 2 or 3 %, THIS number to be filled in formula.

      As you will have powerloss depending on current strength and type of             cable. The lower you stay the bigger the cable. 2% of 12 volt= 0,24 V 

U = Power supply voltage, as you see square. 

 

You can as Crossy said, afterwards tweak up power supply, ok must have such tweak pot, until you have 12 or 24 Vdc at the end of the line. As well tagging the cables as a DC cable. I can understand you want to make it other color to make difference in it, but it will be probably only for you and you know.

 

 

Mmm first formula was real tiny, finally I could convert it from SVG to jpg, but ok now you can see clear????

I found this in electric Dutch site and had to translate.

Well there are calculators on net, you can fill it in and you get recommendations and results. You dont get to see how they are calculating. and could be also based on you buying more costly, then you need?

However finding an answer in formula, you need to rond it up to the next higher cable for safety