About a 100 ft total, is that what you consider a long run? 60 ft underground in conduit, 8-10 ft up the back of the garage and 22 ft from back to front of gar. to the breaker box. Also, my HVAC buddy that installed it for me is old school, rather over compensate than be sorry.
Well for a normal 50a branch circuit @ that distance, #6 would be more than sufficient. But this is feeding an AC, if I remember right. Without the FLC of the unit, I can't calculate the proper wire size, but your contractor probably sized it right!
@Jkeyser- I went back and looked @ the pic again and your missing something:
....It shows one larger gauge ground wire and one larger gauge neutral wire. So what I said is correct.
Yes, he already said he has a 4-wire feeder.
Assuming this is a detached structure he either has a 3 wire feeder with bonded neutral/ground where the ground goes to the ground rod
No, incorrect, the ground/egc/neutral in a 3-wire feeder always goes back to the service main or subpanel its originating from NOT the ground rods! If this wire went to the ground rods like you're suggesting INSTEAD of the neutral bar in the feeding panel, how would u have a solid neutral return path for 120v loads? A separate wire, usually bare #6 cu called the GEC goes to the ground rods. This is what you're missing and basing your incorrect statement off of! And it appears in the photo that there is a bare #6 cu in the panel.
...or he has a 4 wire feeder which is improperly bonded and he is missing a ground rod. Three wire feeders were and still are legal in the NEC if it existed pre-2008.
Yes, he has a 4-wire feeder and yes you're right about this. His neutrals need to be isolated from the ground bus bar and the panel enclosure. But how does the neutral and ground being bonded in the panel tell you that he's missing a ground rod? He could still have ground rods regardless if the panel was mis-wired! I think you're not using your brain here or u don't know, like I said above, that a separate wire, called the GEC goes to the ground rods. So he should have a green ground feeder wire AND a bare #6 cu going to the ground bus bar. If he had a 3-wire feeder, then no need for an isolated neutral bar BUT there would still be a separate GEC going from the neutral/ground bar to the ground rods!
4 wire.