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I built a little man cave outside of the house. The whole thing is being fed by a single 20m wire, not sure what gauge, its just the one I had.

With all the electrical stuff turned on at the same time (computer, projector, ac, fridge, ventilation, lights) the combined power draw should be ~2.5kW. While its all on, I can feel the main cable being somewhat warm-ish, almost body temperature. Is that Ok?

Doesn't have to last forever, I have plans for next summer for some upgrades and am probably going to switch it out then anyways.

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    What size breaker are your using on this circuit? Is this circuit fed by a dedicated breaker or did you plug into an existing receptacle on the outside of the house or in the house or in the garage? I assume this is a single pole breaker and so 120 V, right? If so, you are pulling 21 A. You are supposed to be using 12 AWG Cu for this. What is the size of the wire? People here will want to know. Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 19:23
  • @JimStewart I shoud mention this is in europe so ~230v. Its hooked up to the splitter box in the garage, the garage breaker is good for 20A but there's nothing there other than a few lights.I still have no clue about the wire, there are no markings on it. Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 20:20
  • OK so 11 A and probably the wire you have is OK. You could measure the diameter of the conductor in mm and look up what the current capacity is for wire of that diameter. Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 21:04
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    If I feel a wire is warm , I do something different .Maybe that is conservative, but wire is cheap. Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 21:33
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    If it's that warm, it's causing voltage drop, it may be browning out your loads, and they may not like that none too much. Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 22:24

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Most circuit breakers, wire, and equipment are designed to operate up to 75°C which is 167°F.

Normally, they are not that hot, but if they are fully loaded they could become hot enough that you don't want to hold on to them for very long.

Body temperature is pretty cool for a cable operating with a reasonable load on it.

I would not worry until it burns your hand to touch it.

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