Is 24/0.2 wire too large for DCC dropper wires?

[Dungrange]

Simple question really.  I understand that 7/0.2 wire is generally considered okay for short length droppers between the track and the DCC Power Bus (up to 300 mm) and 16/0.2 wire should be used for longer droppers.  How long would a dropper need to be before I should step up to the next wire size (ie 24/0.2)?

 

The reason that I ask is because I'm looking at adding block occupancy (current) detectors between the track and the DCC Power Bus (something like https://www.digikeijs.com/en/dr5088rc-digidetect.html) which effectively means that I'll have some dropper wires that will be more than 2 metres in length and have to cross baseboard joins.  I'd prefer to purchase a couple of reels (red and black) of either 16/0.2 or 24/0.2 for all dropper wires, so is there a reason not to go with 24/0.2 apart from the extra couple of pounds per reel?

 

The DCC Power bus is 2.5 mm2 and the DCC System I'm using is capable of delivering 5 Amps.

[WIMorrison]

I use 16/02 as my droppers and feeds everywhere with some feeds from detectors are 3m long

[Miss Prism]

Continuous current rating for 16/0.2 is 4A.

 

I would imagine you would not need that level of continuous current,

 

[Andymsa]

I don’t direct solder wire to the track, I make a small 0.7 copper wire up to connect the wire to. It’s much less intrusive than adding large wire to the track.

[Poor Old Bruce]

11 minutes ago, Andymsa said:

I don’t direct solder wire to the track, I make a small 0.7 copper wire up to connect the wire to. It’s much less intrusive than adding large wire to the track.

 

I would agree with that, I use 1/0.6 wire to the rails then go to heavier wire asap below the baseboard.

[steve W]

Depending the load in the section you are feeding, but assume a double headed train with lights it would still be hard pressed to exceed 4A in 00.  Therefore in a 2m length of 16/0.2mm with 4A load will give a volt drop of about 0.3Volts or, if it's an out and back circuit, 0.6V. Not enough under DCC to make any real impact and certainly not enough to get the wire hot.  As for connecting to the rail, the advice to use solid conductors is good and makes them inconspicuous. I use this on '0' scale trackwork, but usually put two droppers per yard length of track, close to either end of the length.