Electrical Panel Neutral And Grounding

This is a brief walk through of a simple grounding and bonding system and what happens with the flow of current in normal operation and in a ground fault c.

Electrical panel neutral and grounding. When grounding an electrical panel the following applies grounding a main panel. Sub panels are grounded through the cable that provides the sub feed circuit power. The code defi nes grounding as the connecting to ground or to a conductive body that extends the ground connection and the code defi nes ground as the earth. Basically grounding is connecting to the earth.

Grounding a sub panel. The main bonding jumper provides a ground connection between the neutral ground bus and the service panel. The tripped breaker shuts off the circuit s current preventing a potentially dangerous situation. If your electrical panel is the first service disconnect point and the utility has only provided normally current carrying conductors phase and neutral wires plus a ground wire then no you do not make a neutral to ground connection.

Another ground connection is made by the grounding electrode conductor or gec. By shunting excess line voltage back to the panel s neutral pole the ground current forces the circuit breaker to trip. That is for simple single panel installations. The panel that s located directly after the electric meter is the main service panel.

Three wires come from the electric meter and go into the main panel. The ground bar is bonded internally when an external bond to earth is installed as described at the link for electrical grounding below. The electrical path main panel. Please see nec article 250 28 for when to make a neutral to ground connection.

Installing a ground wire to your electrical service panel can be done easily with a few hand tools. For multiple panels the situation is more complex. Main panels and sub panels. The code defi nes bonded or bonding as connected connecting to establish electrical continuity and.

There are several different ways main panels are configured in homes here it is in a nutshell. Two live hot wires and one neutral. A second panel or sub panel should have the neutral and ground terminals or bars isolated from each other this is why the main circuit feed to the sub panel must have 4 wires with a dedicated insulated wire for the neutral and a separate wire for the ground.