A question on high voltage wiring

QuestionEdit

Hi, I've never used this service before so please forgive me if I'm asking the wrong person. I bought an HID lighting system for my motorbike, and I need to extend the wiring as its not long enough to mount the ballast at a suitable location. The ballast takes the 12 volt system voltage and amplifies it to 20,000 volts. What I'd like to know is, how is it possible to have 20,000 volts on a thin wire (approximately 1.5mm diameter) without it melting? I've searched as hard as I can to find a similar question on google but I remain with no answer. I hope you can help, many thanks for your time. Best Regards, James

AnswerEdit

Wire is generally rated for voltage and amperage. There are other factors in wire rating that concern the insulation, etc.

But to answer your question; Wattage is a result of multiplying amps times volts (in a purely resistive circuit).

So by using math you can see that if you increase the voltage (for the same wattage) the amperage goes down.

Therefore, the wattage is the same and it is the wattage that relates to heat.

The main thing is that you want wire rated for the type of voltage you are using. Then you want to make sure it rated for the amps.

Let me give you an example:

If this is a 12 watt system and it takes 12 volts that means it uses 1 amp.

If you transform the volts to 20,000 volts the amps go down to about 0.0006 amps.

I hope this helps. If not, feel free to ask.