Wiring accessories..How bad is this?

[msacco]

I'm off this week and did some accessory wiring. For some reason I bought 22 gauge stranded at Radio shack and did wiring for 7 accessories. Then I realized it might be a little light duty. I wanted something easier to work with to snake through various holes and channels so I didn't want to go overkill. Maybe I went the other way.

   Does this pose any hazards? Acessories hooked up were 397 coal loader, 497 lumber loader, rotary beacon, 30 water tower, ice loader, Cattle platform, and 455 oil derrick, etc.

    Most of these don't run for more than a few minutes except for the 455 oil derrick and the rotary beacon, so i'm just wondering if I really screwed up.

thanks,

 Mike S.

[Anonymous]

Install a 5 amp fuse in line from the transformer hot. This will protect the wire. Also run another lead pair from the last accessory back to the transformer. This will make a loop,increasing capacity and decreasing voltage drop. I would run the oil derreck off its own tap and circuit. The coil collapsing the current plays havoc with anything else on that line.

Dale Hz

[eZAK]

As Dale said, A fuse is the way to go to protect the wire.

An alternative would be to leave #22 awg for drops through the table from the acc. then use #16 awg to conect them.

[lionelsoni]

If you take Dale's suggestion of making a loop, be sure you connect the second pair on the load side of the fuse, which I am sure is what he intended.

The British love loops like this in their house wiring, which they call "ring mains".  They're not allowed here for various reasons, one of which is that miswiring of the second end might not be evident until the circuit is overloaded, since they protect them at an ampacity that assumes that both ends are being fed from the same overcurrent device and sharing the load.

I would fuse 22 AWG a little lower, 3 or 4 amperes.

[msacco]

thanks Pat, Bob, and Dale for this.

 

Mike S.