Most electrical appliances come with an electrical label either on the cable directly or in the user manual, outlining all sorts of crucial information.
Reading this information and understanding what it means are crucial parts of electrical safety.
In addition to appliances, electrical cabling and wiring has its own labelling system that can tell you a lot about the wire type, its voltage and amperage and most importantly, what that wire or cable is appropriate for.
The problem is that very few people understand what these mean!
While they’re dense and hard to decipher, understanding what this information says can be a big help in ensuring that your business or home is safe by ensuring that you’re using the right wires and cables.
And today, our commercial electrical contractors and residential electricians are here to explain how to decipher this all-important information!
What do the labels on electrical wiring mean?
When it comes to electricity, it isn’t one-size-fits-all.
As we’ve said before, any electrical circuit has a finite capacity, dictated by the type of material as well as its amperage and wattage.
Wires and cables are also affected by these limitations.
Informing you of what these limitations are, as well as how far you can safely push your electrical wiring or cabling can help prevent a range of electrical problems and keep your business safe.
Your cables might feature a label that looks a little bit like this:
14-2G 1000V TYPE NM-B
While it might not mean much to you, to those “in the loop”, each character tells us an important piece of information about the cable…
Wire gauge
Why does wire gauge (thickness, in other words) matter? There are a couple of reasons.
First off, a thicker wire is more difficult to work with, as it’s less flexible and malleable – this can be a problem depending on how much space you have to work with.
There’s a simpler reason, however: the thinner a wire, the more electrical resistance there is.
And that in turn means more energy loss, as well as its ability to handle temperature and current-carrying capacity.
Gauge is represented by the digits before the dash on the label. So if the label says 12-3G, that would mean that your cable uses wires with a gauge of 12.
(Just remember that higher numbers don’t mean thicker wires – confusingly, it’s the other way around!)
The number of wires in a cable
The next number in the label refers to the number of wires in a cable.
Every cable needs at least 2 wires: one to carry the current towards its target, and the other to bring it back.
Some cables however use more than two wires.
While there are good reasons for this, it does mean that you’re going to need to be careful when selecting electrical cables for your workplace, as it can make your work more difficult than it needs to be.
Luckily for you, the electrical label tells you pretty clearly how many wires are in your cable – just look at the first digit after the dash.
For example, if the label says 12-3G, meaning the cable has 3 wires in it.
Just note that the ground wire is not one of these wires – rather, it gets its own part of the label…
Grounding
We’ve talked about electrical grounding before, and its role in keeping you safe.
If you want to learn how it works, click here to read up. In short however, ground wires give electrical currents a safe avenue to return to ground in the event of a short circuit or other electrical fault.
In order for that to happen however, your cables need to have a built-in ground wire.
You’ll know whether or not your label has a ground wire if there’s the letter G at the end of the code.
Voltage
One of the most important parts of buying cabling for your business is making sure it can handle the voltages you need.
Getting the right voltage is crucial, as it directly impacts how much power your cable is capable of carrying (and by extension, how much juice you can expect).
Luckily, this part of the label is pretty easy to understand – most labels will simply state outright how many volts the cable is rated for.
Properties
Many types of cables have other properties that can determine whether or not they’re suitable for your business. This part of the label is all about telling you which of these properties the cable you’re holding features.
The first is what material it’s made of. There are 3 common types of wire material, each with their own code:
- Copper (CU)
- Aluminium (AL)
- Non-metal (NM)
Each of these have their own features, and are , as well as which applications and settings it’s suitable for.
These properties will be represented by the cable type on the cable tag.
Of course, it isn’t always this simple – there are a huge range of different cable types out there. For example, in addition to standard non-metal (NM) wires, there’s also type 2 NM wires, which are more resilient to heat.
Depending on what you’re planning on doing, you might need to choose cables that have specific properties.
Luckily, that’s something our commercial electrician in Mordialloc can help you out with!
Putting it all together
Let’s go back to our example code 14-2G 1000V TYPE NM-B.
Knowing what you now know, you should be able to tell that this particular cable has:
- Wires with a gauge of 14
- Two wires
- A ground wire
- A maximum capacity of 1000 volts
- It uses non-metal wires (type B)
Armed with this information, you’ll be able to find the perfect cabling for your business needs.
Data cabling labels
It isn’t just electrical cables that need to be labelled – so too do data cables.
Ethernet cables, just like their electrical cousins, have a finite amount of data they can transmit, as well as the added complication of transfer speed.
When buying bundles of data cables, you’ll need to look closely for information that tells you how much capacity they bring to the table.
Data cables are placed into one of a handful of categories:
- Cat 5
- Cat 5e
- Cat 6
- Cat 6a
- Cat 7
- Cat 8
Each carries a different amount of data and is rated for certain transfer speeds, so
While some manufacturers include handy tags, oftentimes the information you’re looking for will be printed directly onto the cable itself, so you may need to break out the magnifying glass to find out what your cables can be used for.
If you want to ensure that your office’s data setup is capable of handling all the data you generate, you need to get the right data cabling solution.
Luckily, our commercial electrical contractors once again comes to the rescue!
Call our electrical service company for all of your business’ electrical requirements
Finding the right types of data or electrical cables is just step one in setting up your business’ electrical system – you’ll also need to find someone to actually install it and ensure that it’s all up-to-code.
Specialising in electrical solutions for all sorts of businesses, our trustworthy, punctual and reliable electricians work hard to give you the systems you need to function.
We offer a wide range of industrial and commercial electrical services:
- Wiring and rewiring
- Data cabling
- Electrical maintenance
- Repair services
Whatever it is that you need done, our team ensures that you’re ready to face it, and that you have the electrical system that you need to power your home or business.
Call our residential and commercial electrician in Highett today on 1300 410 141, or click here to get in touch online.