On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:48:00 -0400, Goedjn wrote:


On 13 Sep 2006 13:52:06 -0700, "matt"
wrote:

grounding bar or lugs should have only bare copper wires only. as long
as the connection is good, it doesnt matter how many grounds per lug.
neutral bar should only have white wires, not doubled up.
breakers or fuses should have only black or red wires, not doubled up.

So you're saying that I really need two ground-busses - one for bare
copper ground wires (doubled up okay), and one for neutral white wires
(but not doubled up)? I think I can do that.

Of course none of my black (hot) wires are doubled up. That seems
common sense, at least to me.


My understanding was that you need keep the ground-buss and the
nuetral-buss separate in sub-panels, but that you can mix and
match in the main service panel, because that's the one and
only place where ground and nuetral are supposed to meet.
(which explains why service panels come with only one buss,
but doesn't explain why there's never enough holes in that buss.)

Further, I was under the impression that whether or not you
can end two wires in any one spot was a function of whether
the connector in question is rated for multiple wires.
Granted that most of them aren't. It SHOULDN'T make
any difference whether the wires in question are
nuetrals, grounds. Either the connection
method is reliable for two wires, and specified that way,
or it's not. (I can see not wanting to mix nuetrals
and grounds, on the theory that the pair might come loose
from the buss, but not from each other. That would be bad.)

Likewise, breakers may or may not be rated for two wires
under the screw. I'd expect most not to be, and any that
are should be labled to say so. I'll confess that I can't
think of all that many reasons to WANT to put two wires
under one breaker.

--Goedjn


Hiya

I have been away and am just now reading the various posts on my
query.

Thanks for your info. I don't know if my panel is a sub-panel of a
main-panel. You see, I live in a manufactured home that has a big
service panel inside the home that services everything within the
home. Then there is a second panel outside the home (on the side,
under the electric meter) that services mainly everything in a
separately built large garage. That box has a 200A main that, when
tripped, cuts off current to the other box in the house. That could
make this outside box a main service box, but if I didn't happen to
have a garage, then I guess the inside box would be the main.

Further, I had an electrician wire a porch addition I had done, and he
connected to the outside box. Further, I had another electrician
install a surge protector to protect my house, and he connected to the
same outside box.

All I wanted to do was add two 15A breakers to the outside box to
handle two new outlets I added - (1) for my porch window A/C and (2)
for my computers/printers. When I added the two breakers to the
outside box, it was then that I discovered the lack of sufficient buss
connections for the ground and neutral wires. I also discovered at
that time that the electricians I mentioned above had doubled up on
the bus connections for their work, and so, I assumed that I could
too. Now I see that is not entirely true, and since not true, I
thought I should add another buss to enable single wire connections on
all the busses. I have bought a buss, and #6 wire to connect it to
the present buss, and am waiting for news group comments before I
proceed.


Thanks

Jethro