Regarding car audio setup, if I were to have an 8 ga power cable powering an amplifier for subs, what would happen if I were to use a smaller ga grounding cable? What if I used a larger ground cable?
the ground dose not matter it the power wire if you have a 8 ga power wire your amp needs to be like a 1000 watt amp if you have a 1500 watt amp you need a 4 ga wire and if you have a 2000 and up 0 ga BIG BIG BIG BIG thing from a 1500 watt amp and up you need to a double ground if you dont no what that is its were you take a wire and run it to your car battery and hook it up to the nigative on the battery then run that wire to the ground you have already made run the ground in to your amp this well save you money and time bc if you dont do it it can make your battery frie and you well blow fuses out the ***
well i am using a 10 ga power cable for my subs it is going perfect, i have used 14 ga speaker wire before also and it works just fine. But in my opinion i dont think it matters how big your ground wire is, im not an expert on this but i still know quite a bit though ;).
Using a larger ground should have no effect. A smaller ground could be okay but if the ground were to somehow burn from the current your amp will fry. You can 3 feet of 8ga ground for less than $10 why would you risk it.
alphadog and danhandi are correct. The actual wire size for 200 amps is 3/0, but the NEC allows you to use 2/0 for dwelling units. The allowable neutral would be 1/0 and the ground would be 6 AWG. This is for copper only as dan said.
size ground cable power cable effect sound system
