4 Advice to Choose a Metal Wire Supplier

Author: Susanna

Jul. 14, 2025

Electrical Wire and Cable Buying Guide - Lowe's

Armor-Clad (AC) Cable: AC cable includes THHN-insulated conductors with 16-gauge aluminum bond wire placed inside the armor to act as a grounding conductor.

Yubang supply professional and honest service.

Automotive Cable: This is a general-purpose thermoplastic (GPT) wire, also referred to as primary wire. Normal applications are within motor vehicles with limited exposure to fluids, physical wear and abuse.

Bayonet Neill-Concelman (BNC) Cable: BNC cables are small, quick-connect/disconnect radio frequency connectors used for coaxial cables.

Category Cable: This is used for systems and data networking systems. Cat 5e is the most common variety of category cable that’s used for computer networking on internet service installations. The conductor pairs are twisted together to prevent cross-talk and interference from other paired conductors in the cable, as well as external interference. The higher the megahertz (MHz) capability, the more twists per foot.

Coaxial Cable: This is a metallic cable that carries television and video signals. It connects to video equipment and features a central conductor with a dielectric insulator, metallic shield and plastic jacket.

Doorbell Wire: Doorbell wire is used to connect a wired doorbell or video doorbell to a home’s electrical system. 18-gauge wire is the variety most often used.

Dual Armored Cable: This is a durable cable that offers protection without employing electrical conduit, elbows, offsets (which can be expensive) or conduit couplings. For areas where the cable may be exposed to moisture, metal-clad armor prevents corrosion. 

Flexible Cord: Typically used for industrial machinery, washing machines and large appliances, portable tools, equipment, and extension or power cords, flexible/power cord has its own naming convention based on a letter code, with a common option being SJEOOW.

  • S: service cord (when not followed by a J, V or P; also indicates a rating of 600 volts)
  • J: junior service cord, 300 volts
  • T: thermoplastic
  • E: elastomer, thermoplastic that looks and feels like rubber
  • O: oil-resistant outer jacket
  • OO: oil-resistant outer jacket and oil-resistant insulation
  • P: parallel cord (light duty, flat)
  • V: vacuum cleaner cord (light duty, round)
  • W: sunlight- and moisture-resistant

Lamp Cord: Used with lamps, small appliances, radios and other similar products that don’t exceed 300 volts, lamp cord is available between 18- and 12-gauge sizes in a variety of colors. 

Landscape Lighting Low-Voltage (LV) Cable: This underground cable is suitable for outdoor accent lighting, landscape lighting and security lighting. Applications shouldn’t exceed 150 volts. It’s used for direct burial, is suitable for sunlight and is available between 16- and 8-gauge sizes.

Metal-Clad (MC) Cable: MC cable is used heavily in commercial electrical work, for running through concrete or in other commercial environments. Individual THHN wire conductors are run through an aluminum interlocked armor. It includes a grounding wire.

Mobile Home Feeder: This connects a mobile home to a supply of electricity where permanent wiring is required, and it’s suitable for direct burial and underground service entrance cable. It includes four RHH or RHW-2 conductors, with a white stripe for neutral and a green ground conductor. It’s sunlight-resistant.

Network and Data Cable: This comes in three types — fiber-optic, twisted-pair and coaxial cable — and is used to connect multiple networking devices or computers in a network.

NM-B: This is a non-metallic sheathed cable that’s used as a residential building wire for branch circuits for outlets, lighting and other residential applications. NM-B is available between 14 AWG and 6 AWG with two or three conductors.

Preassembled Whips: These are pre-cut lengths of armored cable designed to increase jobsite productivity. Assembly comes with pre-stripped THHN conductors and pre-installed zinc die-cast, snap-in fittings.

Residential Grounding Wire: This is bare copper wire that’s available in 4-, 6- and 8-gauge solid and stranded construction. It’s used to ground the residential electrical system, usually at the meter before it enters the dwelling. It’s also used for grounding the perimeter surface around pools.

Service Entrance Cable: This includes individual conductors rated XHHW-2 or THHN/THWN and feeds power from a main breaker to a subpanel. It can be exposed to direct sunlight and used in wet or dry locations.

  • SE-R: Twisted together with a bare ground, SE-R is used to bring service from the panel to other panels in multiple-unit dwellings and in SE-U purposes.
  • SE-U: Bare conductor strands are helically wound about the two paralleled insulated conductors. It’s used for single-family residential buildings to convey power from the service drop to the meter base and from the meter base to the distribution panel board.

Speaker Wire: Made of copper and designed to transport a low-voltage electrical current, speaker wire has a variety of wiring uses, including doorbells, thermostats, home security sensors, landscape lighting and other low-current systems. 

Sprinkler Wire: Multi-conductor sprinkler wire is suitable for direct burial on applications up to 30 volts. It’s used in central controls for underground sprinkler systems and is available in 18-gauge construction with up to 25 conductors.

Submersible Pump Cable: This includes THWN copper conductors that are heat-, moisture-, oil- and gasoline-resistant. It’s suitable for temperatures below 75 degrees Celsius with two or three conductors. It’s used for power and circuits for submersible pump systems.

Thermostat Wire: Used in heating and air conditioning systems, along with bell and alarm systems, thermostat wire is available in 20- or 18-gauge sizes with up to 10 conductors.

Underground (UF-B) Wire: A copper wire used for underground purposes, including direct burial, it comes in a gray jacket and can be used for deck lighting, outdoor water features, landscape lighting and air conditioner compressors.

For more Metal Wire Supplierinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.

Related links:
The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Metal Fence Panels for Your Property
Greenwood Composite Fence & Gate Company
Metal Fences: A Guide To Picking The Best Metal Fence

Underground Residential Distribution (URD) Cable: Used for secondary distribution and underground service applications at 600 volts or less, it’s suitable for direct burial or placement in ducts. It’s acceptable in wet locations in triplex or quadruplex. Conductors are stranded, compressed aluminum. The neutral conductor has a yellow, triple-extruded stripe.

When completing an electrical project, it’s important to have the right tools and safety equipment to get the job done. Check out some of the most common tools for an electricians tool box.

Boxes and Covers: These are used to house outlets and adapters for operating lights, ceiling fans, kitchen appliances, etc.

Circuit Breakers and Fuses: These are two devices for preventing an electrical current from causing damage by overloading or shorting a circuit. Breakers and fuses interrupt the current during an overload or short and are housed in a breaker box or fuse box. Homes built after the s typically use circuit breakers rather than fuses.

Electrical Tape: Used for repairing electrical cords or insulating a wire, electrical tape is typically black. It can be used to identify wires and should be stretched as you apply it for better adherence.

Electrical Testers: Checking a circuit to make sure it isn’t live can be a life-saving decision. An electrical tester will quickly inform you if you’re working with live cables or not.

Outlets and Adapters: When wires are connected to an outlet or adapter, it allows the electrical current to power anything plugged into it, such as a kitchen appliance.

Plugs and Connectors: These are usually run from an appliance or a power cord and are plugged into an outlet on the wall. They allow an appliance to receive power from an outlet.

Wire Connectors: These connect two wires together with a connector: The exposed end of each wire is put into the connector and twisted so that they’re connected. Check out our DIY Basics video: How Do I Connect Two Wires?

Wire/Cable Cutters: This tool is used to cut directly through wire and cable. There are a variety of cutters for different jobs, so check that you’re using the appropriate one, whether you’re cutting through copper wire or a network cable.

Wire Strippers: This device removes the plastic casing to expose the bare wire underneath. Most strippers offer multiple slots for a variety of wire sizes, while some have an adjustment dial to set the correct size. Simply insert a wire into the correct sized slot, twist and pull it through.

Answer 5 Questions to Help Select the Right Electrical Wire

Wire selection is a critical piece of electrical assembly design as it affects the safety, functionality, ease of use, and serviceability of the assembly. Because there are thousands of types of wire and electrical cable, choosing the right wire or wires can be complicated and daunting.

To clarify, I’m defining “wire” as a single, flexible conductor of electricity surrounded by insulation. Typically, the conductor material is copper; however, it can vary based on the application. Speaking of which, before you start designing anything, you’ll need to fully understand how the electrical assembly will be used. What will its job be and what type of environment will it be working in?

Once you’ve defined its end use, you can get to work answering the following five questions that will help you select the best electrical wire for your application.

1. What size wire do I need?

There are two pieces to the wire size question: thickness (gauge) and length. To determine what gauge wire you need, consider the carrying capacity and the amount of current the wire needs to conduct (measured in amperage or amps). Wire gauge is directly related to how many amps you need to run through it.

The distance you need the wire to go can also impact the gauge of wire you need. Because no conductor is perfect, the longer the wire, the more voltage you can lose through resistance/heat. You can counteract voltage drop by increasing the wire gauge which will, therefore, increase the amperage capacity. This allows you to pump more amps through to ensure the right amount of electricity is received, even if you lose a little along the way.

2. How flexible should the wire be?

Different types of wire offer different levels of wire flexibility:

  • Solid core – almost no flexibility in lower gauge wire; becomes more flexible in higher gauges
  • Coarsely-stranded wire – moderately flexible; it will keep the shape you give it
  • Finely-stranded wire – highly flexible; won’t hold shape

3. What type of wire insulation is best?

The assembly’s working environment will dictate the type of insulation your wires need.

  • Voltage – the higher the voltage level, the thicker the insulation needs to be to reduce the risk of shock
  • Environmental considerations – exposure to the sun and UV, extreme temperatures, presence of chemicals or oils can impact performance
  • Regulatory considerations – UL, SA, SAE, CE, etc.
  • Abrasion resistance – higher vibration environments require thicker insulation
  • Coating – some coatings can make it easier to print on the wire or push/pull them through conduit

4. Does wire color matter?

Using different colored wires within your electrical assembly can help you, the end user, and anyone who may need to service the assembly in the future, understand what the purpose of each wire is. Many companies use standardized wire colors to denote hot wires, ground wires, and neutral wires; some will even color code the different circuits within an electrical assembly.

5. Should I use copper vs. aluminum wire?

While copper is the most conductive metal, it can be heavy and expensive. So, for high voltage, long distance electrical applications, aluminum wire can be used. It’s an acceptable conductor that typically requires a thicker gauge, but it’s much lighter and less expensive than copper wire. For example, power lines use aluminum wire instead of copper.

Simplify the Wire Selection Process

The diverse specifications each industry has for the wires it uses create the need for all of the different types of wire available. But each of those industries typically sticks with a handful of wire types that meet their requirements, which can actually help simplify the wire selection process.

For example, the automotive industry uses mostly GXL wire, which is well-suited for the working environments typically found inside of a vehicle (temperature, abrasion, oils, etc.). On the other hand, MTW (machine tool wire) is commonly used in electrical control cabinets because it’s rated for a higher voltage and the insulation is suitable for the working environment.

Want more information on Mesh Fence? Feel free to contact us.

51

0

Comments

Please Join Us to post.

0/2000

All Comments ( 0 )

Guest Posts

If you are interested in sending in a Guest Blogger Submission,welcome to write for us!

Your Name: (required)

Your Email: (required)

Subject:

Your Message: (required)