neutral ground question

[ctgo4it]

As I understand it, neutral and groung need to be seperate anywhere past the main. So if this picture is a subpanel (it is) this is wrong. Is that correct?

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[Brian G]

It's a fuzzy picture, but yes, the neutrals and grounds should be on separate, isolated bars (for starters).

Brian G.

Come On Man, You've Got to Focus!!! [:-scared][]

[ctgo4it]

yeah, I just wanted to confirm. This is the first sub panel I've inspected. In general this panel had issues, I just wanted to check this before I printed the report. I wrote the neutral should be on seperate bars with the bus bar broken to seperate the neutral and ground.

Thanks

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by ctgo4it

As I understand it, neutral and groung need to be seperate anywhere past the main. So if this picture is a subpanel (it is) this is wrong. Is that correct?

You're correct. It's wrong.

Just remember that there were tens of thousands of sub-panels wired this way and in the vast majority of cases it causes no harm.

Every so often though. . .

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Brian G]

Originally posted by ctgo4it

I wrote the neutral should be on seperate bars with the bus bar broken to seperate the neutral and ground.

A set of bars like that can almost never be separated (by design, at least). What you'll probably need to do there is add a new equipment ground bar to move the bare ground wires to (make sure the enclosure bond is to the new bar, not the old one). All electrical panel manufacturers make those add-on bars.

Brian G.

A Big Fan of Full Neutral Bars With a Bolt-On Jumper [:-thumbu]