Can you run a stand alone ground wire from the panel to a junction box?

Without going into all the details about no free breakers, location of junction boxes, finished ceilings, etc., I'm looking for a "yes it's code" or "no it's not code" answer to this question:

There's a junction box with a 14/2 without ground coming directly from the panel. Leaving this box is a 14/2 without ground and a 14/2 with ground. The ground wire is attached to the junction box but of course it isn't actually grounded.

Can you run a single insulated ground wire from the panel to the junction box to provide a ground for the 14/2 with ground that leaves the box.

The 14/2 without ground that leaves the junction box goes to GFCI receptacle as the first receptacle on that run. That's fine for now. However, the 14/2 with ground goes to some receptacles which should have an equipment ground. My friend would like to add that ground in the easiest manner possible, which is to simply add a ground wire from the panel the junction box. Can he do that?

Thanks!

Reply to
DerbyDad03
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*Yes. Check 250.130 and 250.120 for details. If he is able to pull a ground wire, why not just pull a whole new cable?
Reply to
John Grabowski

If I was buying a house and saw shit wiring like that, I'd run like hell.

And really, if you can run a separate ground wire you can run new romex.

Reply to
Joe

I agree you probably could run a whole new cable/wires, but if it is code, why not just run the ground, and, you don't have to be profane in your description of the proposed solution, have you priced wire lately, there are folks who are on limited budgets!!!!

Reply to
hrhofmann

Yes, you can, but as others have said, it makes a neater job to install a new cable to the box. This way it is also clear what the cable is and what it's doing. A single ground conductor, bare or green isn't necessarily going to be obvious as to it's purpose and could be cut or removed unintentionally

Reply to
RBM

If you were buying a house, how would you have determined that this situation existed?

Reply to
DerbyDad03

I agree with what everyone says about the new wire vs. just the ground. I mainly wanted to know if a separate ground was even allowed.

As for the details into the situation, I purposely left something out so as not to confuse the issue. OK, maybe I even lied a teensy bit.

What is really going in the junction box is that it is part of an Edison circuit. Pulling a ground wire just to supply a ground for the circuit that he wants grounded leaves everything else just as it is. It would take some pretty serious rewiring to eliminate the Edison circuit since it incorporates part of the first floor and part of the second.

Pulling a new run of Romex with a ground wire would still mean that only the circuit he wants grounded will use the new ground wire, which might be just as confusing for someone else later on. Finding an Edison circuit in a house is confusing enough for most people. Any way that we supply a ground to one side of it is going to be just as confusing.

In any case, whatever we do will be labeled both at the panel and at the junction box. I already used a Sharpie on the junction box to note that it contains the neutral for an Edison circuit.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Converting from an Edison circuit to two seperate circuits really has nothing to do with the ground issue, does it?

If it's as you described, then the new Romex with ground enters the first junction box. From there one cable leaves which has a ground. It's now grounded. The only possible confusion is that the other half of the edison circuit doesn't have a ground, but that's what you have now. And that half is GFCI protected from the first receptacle on.

Finding an Edison

It must have been a rework that resulted in only one half being grounded. Sounds like they tied one half onto an old circuit, the other half was a new run with ground.

But I think running a completely seperate ground wire is taking it to another level of being weird. For example, if a home inspector saw a seperate ground wire running from the panel to the junction box, for sure it's going to raise questions and call for a closer look. He'd probably call it out in his report. If all that is there is a romex there from panel to junction box, then it looks perfectly normal.

Reply to
trader4

Thinking about this a bit more, if I understand this correctly, the Edison circuit splits at the junction box, correct? The only shared neutral is between the panel and the junction box, correct? If that's the case, why not just replace the double breaker with two single breakers, run two new Romex to the junction box, one for each circuit? Then you have one regular grounded circuit and one circuit that is ungrounded and they are not sharing anything in common.

Reply to
trader4

And thinking about it still more..... You stated:

"There's a junction box with a 14/2 without ground coming directly from the panel. Leaving this box is a 14/2 without ground and a 14/2 with ground. The ground wire is attached to the junction box but of course it isn't actually grounded. "

But later you said that what's going into the junction box is part of an Edison circuit? How do you do an Edison circuit, ie shared neutral, with one 14/2 coming from the panel?

I'm very confused.

Reply to
trader4

While others have answered as originally asked here, "yes". There are exceptions in several places to allow the equipment grounding conductor for the grounding-type receptacle that has been added to a circuit where no equipment grounding conductor is available to be run separate from the other circuit conductors and to run by itself without a cable or raceway.

W/o the whole Code the various subsections that allow the conductor to be run separately from the circuit conductors go to 300-3(a) and (b) exception, then to 250-57(b) exception No. 3. To follow the Code on why this conductor can be run by itself without a cable or raceway go to

250-92(c)(2) and the exception.

The Code is realistic in approaching existing work understanding there sometimes just isn't a practical way "to get there from here".

What I didn't notice anybody else mentioning was that there's another alternative as well. And that is one from

250-50(a)and(b) Exception --

"For replacement of nongrounding-type receptacles with grounding-type receptacles and for branch-circuit extensions only in existing installations that do not have an equipment grounding conductor in the branch-circuit, the grounding conductor of a grounding-type receptacle outlet shall be permitted to be grounded to any accessible point on the grounding electrode system as described in 250-81."

It doesn't _necessarily_ have to go back to the panel iow.

I don't have recent copy at hand and didn't work at trying to find online--the above is from a ca '96 NEC release. I don't believe any of this has been changed altho as always, if it is really necessary to follow Code it's the local jurisdiction that is going to control so a phone call to City Hall is probably the ticket.

As for the Edison circuit there's not enough info give to fully understand what was done (at least in the parts of the thread I've read) so I'll not try to address it directly.

The following link, however, does had a pretty complete list of the points NEC makes that you can use on the actual configuration to check against...

Scrolling around on that page will lead you to other useful areas as well...

Reply to
dpb

Look in the basement for stray ground wires? Look in the entrance panel for grounds entering separately from the other wires? Look in the back of a box?

Reply to
krw

I took his "wiring like that" comment to be related to the existing situation where the circuit leaving the junction box is grounded to the box but there is no ground coming in. I was wondering how he would "see" that situation.

If he was indeed talking about the external ground wire, that's different. Of course, since it allowed by code, I wonder if he would still run away from an otherwise acceptable house.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

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