Elk M1 wiring awg

Silly question... What awg alarm wire do you use for wiring your panels? Will 22/4 suffice or do you recommend getting 20/4 or 18/4? I will use cat5e for the panel runs and some 18/2 I have laying around for speakers. This wire will be used for the most part to connect the data bus modules and connections to the aux supply.

Thanks,

22/2 or 22/4 is fine for door and window contacts and other sensors, such as motion detectors or glass break detectors.
 
For smoke detectors, use 18/2 or 18/4 fire-rated cable (FPL or better).
 
18/2 or 16/2 is good for speakers and sirens.  Use heavier gauge wire on longer runs.  If you are running it in walls, it needs to be rated CL2 or better.

What would would you use to connect a MDBH to the data bus connection and from the DC out of an aux supply?

Smcross03 said:

What would would you use to connect a MDBH to the data bus connection and from the DC out of an aux supply?

Click to expand...

 
For the 2 data bus wires, 22 gauge wire is fine.  Those wires don't carry any significant current.
 
For the 2 power wires, I'd use 18 gauge.  You might get by with 22 gauge if you've only got a few devices plugged into the DBH.  But the M1 seems sensitive to voltage drop to data bus devices, especially when the AC power is out and you're running on battery.  So I'd use the heavier wire and avoid potential problems.

Thanks RAL,
Youre always helpful! I was looking for wire and Lowes,of all places, had 18/4 alarm wire 75% off. Got 500 for $47! I figured it wouldnt hurt to go a little bigger!