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Re: 16 guage wire in service panel
"At the bottom exterior of the service panel is a photo cell that controls an exterior light at the garage door. The wires coming from the photo cell go on to a 15 amp breaker, neutral bus and ground bus and are 16 guage wire."
That is okay because the photo cell is a listed and labeled unit.
"It appears that the (spliced) wire from photo cell goes out to the light and is also a 16 guage wire."
The 16 AWG coming from the photo cell is okay, however, the spliced on #16 to the light is not, unless (of course) that is the wire coming *directly* from (part of) the light, which is another listed and labeled unit.
If the #16 AWG conductors are spliced to get from point A (the photo cell) to point B (the light), then those conductors would need to be #14 AWG minimum. The photo cell is only acting as a 'powered switch', so it will have a ground, a neutral, and a hot going to it. Then, it will also have a hot (switch leg) coming out from the photo cell to the light. The light will have a circuit containing a ground, a neutral and a hot going to the light. The switch leg from the photo cell connects to the hot circuit conductor to the light. The light will also have a ground, a neutral and a hot.
The photo cell and light are listed and labeled units, and as such, they may have #16 AWG conductors made as part of those units. The circuit (conductors) connecting the two together, however, will need to be #14 AWG minimum.
Now, if the wires coming from the photo cell 'are too short' to reach the breaker and the terminal bars (for the neutral and ground), then *those* circuit conductors will also need to be #14 AWG minimum.
Sounds crazy? Why use #14 to connect to #16 just to connect to #14 just so you can connect back to #16? Because the #16 are 'part of' the listed and labeled units (photo cell and light), while the #14 are 'branch circuit conductors' (which could conceivably be used for another purpose.
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