Thin wires on amp/Volt meter?

[JoshuaW]

I have this amp/Volt meter that I am getting ready to install. My question is, it comes with some very thin Guage wire. Is it still okay to use on my 50amp 240v panel, or do I need to some how replace the wire or solder in a fuse?

 

[MrNatural]

Wires just power the meters/sensor which have very little load.
Perfectly adequate as they are.

 

[Riot]

How does the meter measure amperage? Three ways I have seen are wires in and out of the unit, external metal shunts, and through a torroid ring on the back. With the first one you are limited by the units wire size. With a shunt or a torroid just run appropriately sized wiring to it and you are fine. And just like MrNatural said, it doesnt matter for the voltage sensor, those things draw under 100mA

 

[JoshuaW]

How does the meter measure amperage? Three ways I have seen are wires in and out of the unit, external metal shunts, and through a torroid ring on the back. With the first one you are limited by the units wire size. With a shunt or a torroid just run appropriately sized wiring to it and you are fine. And just like MrNatural said, it doesnt matter for the voltage sensor, those things draw under 100mA

Its a ring. Neither the wires for the voltage meter or the ring were long enough to do anything with (2.5" or so?), so I soldered 16 guage wire to extend the 20 gauge wire that was already there. According to my multimeter resistance is basically the same, so hopefully I didnt kill the accuracy of the amp meter. If I did, its not a real loss, my system is appropriately sized, I shouldnt be brushing against my limits. The meters are more there for informational purposes.

 

[Brumateur]

it will work , but16 awg wire is overkill for this purpose

 

[Riot]

Any chance you can post a picture of the back of your ammeter? Usually the torroid ones don't ship with wire for the amperage, you just route your main power feed through it in a loop. I may be misunderstanding the device you are using.

 

[JoshuaW]

it will work , but16 awg wire is overkill for this purpose

I figured as much, that was just what I happened to have extra of.

Any chance you can post a picture of the back of your ammeter? Usually the torroid ones don't ship with wire for the amperage, you just route your main power feed through it in a loop. I may be misunderstanding the device you are using.

This is what it had:

 

[ajdelange]

Usually the torroid ones don't ship with wire for the amperage, you just route your main power feed through it in a loop.

There may be ones where the CT in integral to the meter case but I've never seen one. In most the CT has leads (or terminals to which you attach leads) and you slip it over the load carrying conductor then route the leads to wherever the indicator (meter) is located.

Also note that a typical turns ratio is 50:1 or 100:1 so if your load is carrying 50 amps the secondary (wires to the indicator) will be carrying 1 amp or 0.5 amp.

PS: like the picture in #7 that got posted while I was typing this.

 

[Riot]

It is the same type I was thinking of, I just have one that has the torroid permanently attached to the back of the meter. Just run your main power in wire through the ring and you should be good to go.