Would be a rant about "electrician" ability but whatever...

[Big Cheese]

Originally Posted by MITT41

One thing to keep in mind, is that the bonding screw/strap needs to be established on the incoming service only! Any sub distribution down stream needs the bonding screw/strap lifted....
How you guys treat the neutral and ground terminal bars is a little funky for me.

Dirk

Neutral bars are bonded to the can in this neck of the woods Dirk. All neutrals have a path to the earth ground.

[vafatboy]

Originally Posted by Scabbydoo

Many if not most of the trades in new construction are subs. They generally are doing jobs on a flat rate contract with the amount based on the various models. The quicker they can get the job done, the quicker they can move on to the next house, the more money they can make. If they can minimize material usage, that's a few more bucks they can pick up.

While most of that is true, the real reason quality is lacking is because no one takes the time to teach and enforce the right way of doing things anymore.

[DAK47]

Originally Posted by Big Cheese

Neutral bars are bonded to the can in this neck of the woods Dirk. All neutrals have a path to the earth ground.

Absolutely, but by code ( ours anyways ) we can only establish the earth / neutral connection once at your incoming service panel, all our sub panels from that main panel downstream have their bond screws lifted....

Dirk

[DAK47]

Give this a quick peruse, secondary circulating ground currents do happen.... And can cause some very funky things to happen

http://www.naplia.com/homeinspectors...ndingFinal.pdf

Dirk

[Big Cheese]

Originally Posted by MITT41

Absolutely, but by code ( ours anyways ) we can only establish the earth / neutral connection once at your incoming service panel, all our sub panels from that main panel downstream have their bond screws lifted....

Dirk

Got it, didn't pick up on the sub panel.

Found these tidbits:

The neutral wire does not carry voltage, but it does carry current (amperage). If the neutral and ground are bonded together, then the ground could be carrying some of the current. But, the ground is there only as a safety/backup and is not supposed to carry current, except in rare cases where there is a fault. Therefore, neutral and ground are isolated everywhere, except in the service equipment.

The neutral *IS NOT ALLOWED* to be bonded to ground at any location downstream from the "service equipment".
A simple explanation is:
If the neutral becomes (or is intentionally) bonded to ground downstream of the service equipment, the neutral current now has multiple paths back to the service equipment.

Typically, the neutral and ground bars on mounted on plastic insulator standoffs.
The exception being those ground bars which are mounted directly to the back of the enclosure with screws.
Neutral bars are never mounted that way ... unless the enclosure is "Suitable for Service Equipment ONLY". In which case it is not allowed to be used for anything other than service equipment.

[Uesque]

My breaker box is conveniently located behind the hot water tank.

Which is better than our old house. When I took down the overhead light fixture in the kitchen in 1997, the wire connections were wrapped in a 1958 edition of the newspaper.

[Xkvator]

Originally Posted by Uesque

My breaker box is conveniently located behind the hot water tank.

youre gonna hafta move the HWT out 3'...more, if ya need to get a fat electrician in there...