Originally posted by Parker Woodruff:
Ok, this is making a little more sense. So if I were doing the setup you have, then I'd have about 18 guage wire going b/t the switch and relays. Then once the switch is turned on, the relays would activate charge coming from the battery.
But I assume I wouldn't need a relay if I was just putting something small in, like if I wanted a switch to control a small interior light or something like that. Is that correct?
thanks for your help.
The switches are rated for a bunch of power but I'm just not comfortable with using them with that much power. The heavy gauge wires run to the relay and then up to the lights - the wire from the switch to the light relay is light gauge. They make a whole lot of sense with bumper mounted lights where running heavy gauge wire into the cab is saved.
The measure of load also known as electral power or "work" performed by a device is watts. You want to match the wattage of the wires, and switches to be greater than the load. The fuse should be just slightly more than the current requirement. With small 55 watt lights you can get by with a good toggle switch ... with 300 watts worth of light up your life pencil beams you can't.
Current in amps times voltage in volts is equal to watts.