What’s the recommended gauge wire to use to connect a floathub to bilge switches? Most of mine will probably have between 15’ and 45’ of wire distance (when you account for all the up/around/over sections).
It can be extremely low gauge (16 or even 18), as it is not carrying any load to run the pump, merely sensing when the voltage is going above ground. It can even endure a fairly extreme voltage drop. As long as it sees at least 2.0 volts above ground, it will timestamp the pump as turning on. Anything below that (i.e. floating at ground) it will register as off.
As with all marine wiring, however, it should be fused. It is always conceivable that miswiring, shorts, etc. could result in a situation where a load occurs on the line, and you certainly want the fuse to blow rather than the wire heating up.
I figured as much. Yes, I planned on having inline fuses. No sense having one thing going wrong leading to other problems.