John Ross wrote:


wrote:

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:51:35 -0500, "Robert Green"
wrote:


I'm adding two new outlets to my circuit breaker panel. I've got the room
for the additional breakers in the box but the neutral bus bar has no more
room for the neutral and ground wires required. Is it permissible to put
more than one wire per set-screw hole on the neutral bus bar? Some sites
I've researched say yes, others say no. If no, what are the options besides
replacing the whole circuit breaker panel?

TIA,


You can double up or maybe even triple up GROUND wires (depending on
brand) , Neutrals are one per hole. Look at the panel label to see
about the grounds. Don't pull of any neutrals if the power is on. Bad
things can happen. Trip the main.
Certainly adding supplimental bars is a better way to go but don't put
neutrals on suplimental bars, only grounds. If you put a neutral on
the supplimental bars you are putting circuit current through the
metal can and the green bonding screw.
(that is 250.6 for you code guys)


I'm completely confused. I thought the neutral and ground bars were
bonded together. And, one of the ways of accomplishing that was a
screw to the panel.

So, in that case, wouldn't the neutral wires be connected to the
casing?

I recently had a post where I had the same set up as the OP
(everything on the neutral bar--old 1960 panel). However, there was an
unused ground bar in the panel and an electrician recently added some
new grounds to it. I was concered that I forgot to ask him if that
ground bar was bonded to the neutral. Everyone here said most likely
the neutral had a "screw" that is hard to see that connects it to the
box, and therefore they should be bonded since the ground bar is right
on the metal box. So if that is true, then there must be current
running through the metal case, which you say is wrong. Or am I
misunderstanding your point?

--
John

there is a neutral coming in from the service, that should be connnected
to the ground/neutral bus in the main panel. All neutrals should be
connected to that bus, one per screw. If you don't have enough screws
add an auxiliary one, and you can add ONLY GROUNDS to the added bus bar
(note: I don't know if this is Code or not but it is a good idea) and
you should also bond it to the original ground/neutral bus bar with some
heavy gauge copper wire (also just my idea of a proper installation.)
That way even without the bonding there is NO current flowing through
the backbox unless there is a ground fault somewhere - it goes direct
from the original bus straight to the service.

I have a book that says you can connect more than one ground under a
screw BUT NOT NEUTRALS but I don't know if current codes have changed
any or not. In any case it is a very bad idea to put more than one
neutral under a screw; if that were to happen, you'd need to shut off
the power to the whole house if you needed to remove one neutral from
the bus for whatever reason. Otherwise, you could end up with a
momentary open neutral on a live 120VAC circuit, and that can cause lots
of damage.

nate

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