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#41
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Why must ground & neutral be seperate in subpanel?
"Doug Miller" wrote in message
et... In article , "The Streets" wrote: So, what is the proper way to connect a 220v sub-panel that has a single bus bar for neutral and ground to a main panel with the neutral bar bonded to the ground bar? There isn't one. To make a Code-compliant connection, you must install a second bar so that you can separate the neutral and ground conductors for the various circuits to separate busses. The neutral bus must be electrically insulated from the ground bus and from the panel chassis, and the ground bus must *not* be insulated from the chassis. *Also* you must connect the subpanel to the main panel using *four* conductors, e.g. black, red, white, and bare (or green). White goes from the neutral bus bar in the main panel to the neutral bus bar in the subpanel. Bare (or green) goes from the ground bus bar in the main panel to the ground bus bar in the subpanel. Black and red go from the two lugs on the circuit breaker in the main panel which feeds the sub, to the lugs on the main breaker in the subpanel. -- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com) It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again. Thanks for your help and advice. I've located a grounding bar kit from the panel manufacturer and will install it along with (4) wires from the main panel (white, greeen and two black) so that the neutral and ground are separate. |
#42
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good book on this? Why must ground & neutral be seperate in subpanel?
In article ,
Charles Schuler wrote: wrote in message oups.com... I installed a subpanel when I switched from an electric stove to gas. I used the 40A 220V breaker that formerly served the stove to power the sub panel. The cable is #4 with two conductors and a ground. I have 6- 15 amp breakers in the panel providing branch circuits for my kitchen and other areas of my house. The grounds and neutrals all share the common bus bar in the sub panel. Everything has worked fine for years now. Can someone explain why I read that ground and neutral are to be isolated in the sub panel? Please don't answer because of the NEC since that does not explain why. What is the risk of my current situation? The neutral (white) is a return ... it carries the same current as the hot wire (black). The ground wire is a non current-carrying safety wire (often bare copper). The purpose of the ground wire is to reduce voltages in the case of lightning or an accident (wires falling across other wires outside of your home and raising the voltage with respect to ground to a dangerous level). The ground wire only conducts current in the case of a fault. Ground fault circuit interrupters need the ground wire to detect such faults and open the circuit when they occur. People are often shocked and even electrocuted with voltages with respect to ground ... one is standing on a wet basement floor ... one is touching a faucet ... one is in the tub or shower. The voltage with respect to ground is the big issue here (for safety reasons). An ungrounded electrical system in your home would allow voltages to rise to thousands of volts above ground and fry you if you happened to be grounded (in a tub or standing on a wet concrete floor). Are there one or more books that actually coverf *this* kind of stuff, ie that's being discussed in *this* thread? Not some home-improvement book you might find at HD, but something that really, tutorially, gets down to the depth of *this* stuff, this "more complex" stuff than you usually see covered in the home-improvement-style electrical-books. Something so that when you finish a subject, you really understand it, not so that you can merely "do" some home-job, but even would let you (correctly!, and usefully) contribute to eg this current thread. Ideas? Thanks! David PS: eons ago I took some EE courses in college, but of course that knowledge was pretty useless for this current subject. |
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