wire size for ac/heating forced air unit

03-04-2009, 12:11 AM	#1
macfluke 1.21 jigawatts     Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: SoCal Posts: 10	wire size for ac/heating forced air unit My ac/heating forced air unit(220V) has a 50A breaker with two 8g hot leads and one 12g neutral wire with NO ground wire. I saw on a chart that it needs 6g hot leads, and I was wondering what size the neutral wire needs to be? (the 12g looks small for some reason). also... what size the ground wire needs to be?

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03-04-2009, 01:08 AM	#2
InPhase277 My License Ain't 4 Sale..   Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Atlanta, Ga/Hamilton, Al Posts: 1,813	wire size for ac/heating forced air unit Quote: Originally Posted by macfluke My ac/heating forced air unit(220V) has a 50A breaker with two 8g hot leads and one 12g neutral wire with NO ground wire. I saw on a chart that it needs 6g hot leads, and I was wondering what size the neutral wire needs to be? (the 12g looks small for some reason). also... what size the ground wire needs to be? If it is 240 V, it doesn't need a neutral. It needs two #6 hots and a #10 ground.

03-04-2009, 01:29 AM	#3
frenchelectrican " Euro " electrician     Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: WI & France { in France for now } Posts: 4,963	wire size for ac/heating forced air unit It must have #6 conductors in there however the major gotcha is if you have standby electric grid heater that can affect the rating if you are under 10 KW you can get by with #6's but if more than that you will need to get proper sized conductors with correct OCPD in there, Merci,Marc