Found some "car audio" power wire spools while cleaning...

[Mithril]

So I started spring cleaning in the garage and ran into some spools of 00, 4, and 8 gauge that I still have from my days of caring about car audio systems.

It's all fine stranded tinned pure copper, the insulation is rated for engine bays (oil and heat). I'm temped to upgrade the size of a bunch of my cables since I "now" have a bunch of it. However, I have a gut feeling wiring made for "12v" systems may not be safe for "48v" systems. I checked some and the wire itself is good condition as is the insulation.

If nothing else I can over-size the 12v stuff I'm feeding with a 48-12 Victron DC-DC lol

 

[cs1234]

I'm guessing it has no voltage and temperature ratings on the insulation?

 

[Mithril]

Not on the wire itself. I think it might have said on the original boxes but I only have the inner spools lol. It's audiobahn super flow but I can't find any actual specs online, and I don't think they even sell that brand/kind anymore lol

 

[cs1234]

Just remove the insulation, then it will have a very high temperature rating, but be really prone to shorts.

 

[crossy]

In reality, the amount of insulation required to actually "insulate" is significantly less than that required to provide mechanical strength.

I'd suggest that it would be just fine on 48V, look at the insulation thickness on regular phone cable, and that's good for >60V.

Long, long ago (I was very young), I sent 230V mains down some phone cable (mains flex was out of stock - or maybe it was raining), the lamp on the other end worked just fine, nothing fizzed and nobody died. It was like that for several weeks until my dad quietly changed it for some proper flex.

 

[Mithril]

In reality, the amount of insulation required to actually "insulate" is significantly less than that required to provide mechanical strength.

I'd suggest that it would be just fine on 48V, look at the insulation thickness on regular phone cable, and that's good for >60V.

Long, long ago (I was very young), I sent 230V mains down some phone cable (mains flex was out of stock - or maybe it was raining), the lamp on the other end worked just fine, nothing fizzed and nobody died. It was like that for several weeks until my dad quietly changed it for some proper flex.

Honestly since the shorter sections I could easily add heatshrink to double insulate, and the long run between battery bank and main bus I keep isolated in "smurf tube" (hot and negative in a tube each) anyways, it should be fine. This insulation is 2x as thick as other high quality cable, it was at the time rated for Engine Bay install (so high temp and oil/grease resistance). I would bet for anything rated below 600/300V it's all the "same" (as in if it's PVC, its largely the same formula etc).

I have some high voltage rated wires (10kv+ ) and those usually have more interesting/expensive insulation since at high voltages insulators get envious of conductors

Realistically, the way I've seen some people have installs where 48V and ground wires touch each other begging for insulation abrasion worries me. Way too many things (like AIO) have bare metal at 48V and 0V close enough together it bugs me. I'd rather not have anything at a distance where an arc could sustain if started.