OT: electical sub panel grounding

Morgans · 2014-10-08T13:24:15+00:00

OK, here is the deal. I have the original breaker panel fed by a 150 amp line off of a new panel necessitated when an addition was added years ago. The sub panel is fed by a line with three conductors and ground of the correct size. The inspector at the time ended up getting fired for enforcing code that was not there. With this in mind, he said he wanted a #6 bare ground wire to tie between the original panel and the new panel. That means it would be in parallel to the ground in the service feed cable. Was he full of it when he told me this? I have been "neating up" the panel along with my renovations for my new basement workshop. The old panel was wired by a left handed chip, or a big bird, it was so messy. I took all but about 5 circuits out and re-organized the whole thing neatly and added a few new circuits for the shop. I feel much better about it, and solved a few mysteries that had always bothered me. Jim in NC

Oct 08, 2014 42 Replies

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clare 11 years ago

Nowhere did he say what you say he said. He said: Insulated neutral busses ---- and ground busses mounted and wires only as described --- will meet those NEC requirements.

He did not say: Insulated neutral bus and ground bus bars --- mounted and wires ONLY as described --- will meat those NEC requirements.

So no, he was NOT wrong.

You just chose to read it wrong.

And so are you - - - - in the interpretation of what he wrote.

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krw 11 years ago

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Wrong. "INSULATED neutral buss and ground buss bars" means the both are INSULATED (the symmetry of the phrase indicates such). Since he refuses to clarify...

That's *exactly* what he did say. It may not be what he meant but it's what he said.

Perhaps he wrote it wrong but since he refuses to clarify...

You must be illiterate.

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John McCoy 11 years ago

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:54395b42$0$64426 $c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:

Actually it does. If you read the NEC you'll find several instances where multiple grounds are described. In general every building is allowed to have a ground.

What the NEC cares about is having only a single path for the neutral (which they occasionally call the "grounded conductor", just to make things confusing).

I cannot find this wording in the NEC(*), at least not in section

250.30, which I think is the relevant section for subpanels. All that that section specifies is that the neutral on the subpanel be isolated (and it does say isolated, not insulated).

It definately does, and no-one is disputing that. However I think your source is going beyond the NEC, and is perhaps looking at a specific situation rather than the general case (in particular, I think it's looking at a situation where the ground is tied to the neutral, and the neutral is bonded to the case. In that situation to use the panel for a subpanel the tie between neutral and ground and the bond to the case must be removed, and a new bond between ground and case added).

John

(* 2008 handbook, I don't have access to the 2014 edition).

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