Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

What's everyone using for interior wiring. Are you using the standard stuff that you buy at home depot. Or the romex (the wire with the metal sheathing) or something totally different. Will most likely have two different runs with about 4 outlets per run..Going to use a distribution panel.

The other question is how do you run it up the walls with insulation in place. Do you carve a channel in the insulation or some other nifty way. Probably will make more sense when I get my trailer in April but trying to buy materials now when they go on sale.

Cheers
Al

Standard romex (plastic sheathed wire with 3 wires ( white/black/green)) should be fine. If you are expecting water where the wires are ie running through floor you could use the wire rated to be buried. It is grey color and basically the 3 wires are encased in solid plastic -- the replacement for steel covered wiring.

Al:

Just a thought..... you could run the wire (14/2) along the top of the wall, cut the opening for your plug in the wall, then "fish" the wires down to the plug, THEN cover the wires with some moulding....works nicely if you want/need access later.

In my home reno days, we used to do this when a client wanted ceiling lights where none existed before. We'd fish the power up to the top of the wall, then run the wires around the top of the wall, cut the holes for the lights, fish the wires across, then cover the wires on the wall with crown moulding. Got the job done easily and the added bonus was crown moulding that usually wasn't asked for, but was very much appreciated by the home owner.

Just my $0.02. Hope this helps.

Thanks Coventry and Doug:

Good point Doug..I was actually thinking of running them on the outside of the wall and covering it with a finishing cover or even small diameter pvc pipe painted the wall colour. Much of this will be run behind the sofa's and cupboards so won't be seen much.

What gauge of wire are most people using for the build (sorry coverntry see you stated 14 gauge..Need to read twice before typing lol). In one run I will have 4 outlets which will supply small appliances like coffee maker, maybe toaster etc. The other run will be a direct run to a AC wall type (5000BTU), nothing else. I think the max number of outlets per 15amp run is 6 or 7 depending on what their being used for. I'll also have the first outlet in each run be a GFCI

Al

14 gauge wire should be protected by a 15 amp breaker/fuse maximum in a typical 120 volt AC circuit. #12 gauge on a 20 amp breaker/fuse.

The continuous load should not exceed 80% of the breaker/fuse rating. Ie: 12 amps on a 15 amp breaker. 16 amps on a 20 amp breaker.

This works out to 1440 watts on a 14 gauge wire protected at 15 amps.

#12 wire can safely handle 1920 watts.

Theses numbers are based on 120 volt AC

Hope this helps.

I bought appropriately sized extension cords and cut them apart to run most of my 120 volt power. It has a better jacket (more abrasion resist
ant) than romex, its stranded and very flexible. I also used this for my 12 volt runs in a different color to keep them segregated.

Low277..Thank you for directions on the load capacities..It might be worth running a 15amp for the toaster etc and a 20 amp for the air conditioner. Thoughts?

msnglinc - interesting thought on the extension cords..Might give that a go

Cheers
Al

yycwrangler wrote:Low277..Thank you for directions on the load capacities..It might be worth running a 15amp for the toaster etc and a 20 amp for the air conditioner. Thoughts?

msnglinc - interesting thought on the extension cords..Might give that a go

Cheers
Al

Check the ratings on your AC (amp draw), most will need a 20A circut. Your AC probably needs to be on a dedicated circuit. The toaster you'd probably be OK with 14/2 on a 15A breaker even though some toaster ovens are high draw appliances. Undersizing your wire runs will limit the number of appliances you can have ON at any one time.

Martin

As an electrician I'm often asked why not use # 12 wire or even #10 wire for everything? In buildings some of it is regulated by the NEC code. For 120 volt circuits used for lighting or receptacles you could use #12 for everything, although it is sometimes more desirable to use multiple circuits for convenience and ease of working with smaller wire.

In residential settings it is very common to use #14 wire on a 15 amp breaker for lighting circuits and general convenience receptacles like bedrooms, family rooms, dens etc.

#12 wire on a 20 amp breaker is used for higher load areas, kitchen counters, laundry, microwaves, etc.

You could certainly do the entire trailer with #12 just to keep it simple. If you have to buy the wire, you only need the one size.

Lots of very knowledgeable people on here with lots of tips and advise!

A modern 5000 BTU AC unit draws 4 amps. While I'd guess any outlet on a TD will be fine with #14 on a 15 amp breaker, I'd wire it all with #12 Romex.

QueticoBill wrote:A modern 5000 BTU AC unit draws 4 amps. While I'd guess any outlet on a TD will be fine with #14 on a 15 amp breaker, I'd wire it all with #12 Romex.

4amps? 480 watts?
What make and model specifically takes that amount? The 5k btu ones i was looking at were all above 10amps i thought.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

There are a lot of 10-12k btu that are under 10amp.... when i was shopping most small ones are between 4-5amps... i believe even a few under 4.0 amp.

ACs went stupid for a while until they figured out they had to run freon replacements at higher pressure for higher efficiency, or perhaps they knew, just couldn't be assed replacing all the old tooling. Used to have a 15,000 BTU freon unit that drew 12A and would chill a whole 1200 sqft house in an hour if placed upstairs. (I'm regretting getting rid of it when I moved into central air.)

Anyway, in recent years they've been "getting back to where they should be." with higher pressures and efficient motors.... even the cheapy cheapy 5200 you can grab in mallwart only runs 5 and a half amps I think, the "good" ones, drop at least another one.

Anyway, about wire sizes, it's partly about heat dissipation and heat generation in long runs. Wire of same gauge is rated higher for open rather than conduit use. Typically, conduit use is assumed. However, if you went all under floor, with weatherproof stuff, you'd not need to care about oversizing it. Bear in mind that it's also rated for much longer runs than are even possible in trailers so I see little point in oversizing. Only reason I'd consider it, is if you're running it the same side of the insulation to your skin, and solar heating of the skin is going to have it hot enough to cook eggs, then yah, go oversize.

Edit: It's also theoretically possible that larger size wiring will pull heat out of a circuit breaker and thus not cause it to break the circuit at the rated amps. For example, cool conditions, you went with bigass 10 gauge on a 15A and you might pull 17 or 18 amps before the breaker pops. Now you might regard this as just dandy, but it could be causing damage downstream, like your 15A plug melting at the hookup or something.