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I am receiving a significant number of enquiries on how to use the cable sizing chart for 400V motor feeders. With this reason, I want to provide some explanations on the assumptions used on the chart and on how to use the chart in selecting cable lengths for motors.
- Assumptions
- Allowable Voltage Drops
- Running Condition: 5%
- Starting Condition: 15%
- Starting Condition Power Factor: 0.3
- Maximum Cable Length: 3000 m
- Derating Factors are based on IEC
- Cable Data: Draka Cable
- Motor Data: Brook Crompton
- Allowable Voltage Drops
- Other Conditions
- If the cable length exceeds 3000m, the cable length will display blank instead of the cable length. To display the values beyond 3000m, increase the maximum cable length to a high value.
- If the motor full load current is higher than the cable current carrying capacity, the chart will display ":". This indicates that the cable is not suitable for the motor.
- Cable size constraints - normal and italic fonts. The normal fonts indicate that the motor full load current is the deciding factor in the cable selection else it will be the motor starting current.
- Examples
- 0.75kW motor at 300m from Motor Control Center (MCC).
- There are 2 possible cable selections, 2.5mm² and 4mm². Both are possible but a 2.5mm² cable is cheaper than a 4mm² so for the purposes of economy, select 2.5mm².
- As an additional note, some projects require that the minimum cable size for power is 4mm² thus a 4mm² need to be selected.
- 11kW motor at 200m from Motor Control Center (MCC).
- The motor full load current exceeds the current carrying capacity of a 2.5mm² cable, thus the ":" which means that the cable is not possible to be used for the purpose.
- As the expected cable length is 200m, a 4mm² will be selected as it has a maximum cable length of 234m which is greater than the required length.
- 0.75kW motor at 300m from Motor Control Center (MCC).
This chart is very useful when you are selecting cables for hundreds of motors in a project. You can not afford to calculate the cable size for each motor as you will incur a significant amount of time to complete it.
This motor selection chart is commonly called waterfall chart as it looks like a waterfall. It is an acceptable method worldwide of selecting cables for motors.