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Connecting Neutral and Ground at Power Outlets
Hi,
I Have had a 200amp panel fitted approx 2 years ago and notice that the neutral and ground terminal blocks at the panel are joined as one, the ground wires and white wires are connected randomly to these terminals...........
In other words the ground and neutral are as one at the panel
My question is that if some of my older power outlets are renewed to include a ground socket, the ones that have old wiring with no ground wire, then can the ground be taken and connected as an extension from the white neutral ?
Many thanks
Is this for real? Didn't we just go through this? I looked and the thread was gone. Was that even here?
NO! YOU CANNOT DO THIS!!
The fact that neutrals and grounds terminate at the same bars in the MAIN panel is of NO consequence. It's what they are and do once they leave the panel is what matters.
There was another post with this topic here that had a picture within the last week. Not sure where it went.
And the dozen or so replies all discussed how dangerous connecting the neutral and ground wires on a receptacle is.
Trust Petey on this one. Don' do it.
Yeah, I guess that was not enough to convince him that he had to ask again to see if the answers would be different.Originally Posted by arfeller
Its not always good to jump to conclusions....perhaps an appropriate name (speedy) toooo speedy! I WAS NOT THE FIRST POSTER OF THIS SIMILAR QUESTION! but thanks for the advice, I asked the question as a learning exercise......does not mean that I am just dying to get out there to do it!
Wonder if anyone could elaborate on the reasons for the dangers to this, It was just that I was sure that dryers sometimes linked neutral to ground at the dryer.
Thanks for the support!
The other poster was obnoxious from Michigan.
The ip and email is different.
OK, thanks Terry.
Invisible, the text in your post is extremely similar to the other thread. It is natural for us to assume an alias was made to repost this since it was removed. I am a moderator at a few other message boards and this problem is rampant.
The danger is that once the conductors leave the panel the neutral is designed to carry the circuit amperage. The ground is supposed to carry ONLY fault current. If you join them then in the case if a neutral failure the bare ground, and everything metal associated with the circuit can and will carry current and potentially deliver a fatal shock.
The situation with dryers and ranges was that the ground was allowed to be omitted, and the insulated neutral served both purposes. This has been gone for quite a while now.
I trashed the other post pretty bad also. I made the statement that he should have his arms cut off.
The permission to bond the frame of ranges and dryers required that the circuit originate in the service equipment also. This kept the bond isolated to just that one circuit. Bonding the equipment grounding conductor and current carrying neutral downstream of the service will elevate any exposed metal such as those 6/32 by ½ inch screws holding the plate covers in place to the voltage of the circuit.
If this link will open, here's another take on this subject
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_and_neutral
If you draw the circuit as it should be and then draw the circuit with different combinations of open circuits or short circuits [i.e., faults] in different places, you will see the effect.
With two and three wire circuits there are many combinations and permutations of ways to fail.
In some cases you will need to take the conductor resistance and current flow into account. E.g., the resistance for #14 AWG is about 2.6 milliohms per foot.
The NEC procedures are supposed to reasonably guard against commonly occurring failure modes. These failure modes have been identified by analysis and experience.
Last edited by Thatguy; 11-01-2010 at 07:52 AM.
In the opening statement here at this link, the poster is way off base.
We do not connect to earth to establish any type of low impedance path. The reason we connect to earth is outlined in 250.4 and there are four reasons why we connect to earth:
Lightning
Surges
Unintentional contact with higher voltages
To stabilize under normal usages
WE DO NOT CONNECT TO EARTH FOR ANY OTHER REASON!!!!!!!!!
All this bull about leaking current into earth that can’t come back….. to establish a low impedance path for current flow…. and so forth is nothing short of the biggest joke I have ever heard. The law of physics concerning current flow states that every one of them electrons that leave the source MUST return to the source. Not even one can be lost of stray off to somewhere else.
And we wonder why Wikipedia is not allowed to be used in our school systems.
Wikipedia can be edited and you are qualified to do this editing.
Thank you but no thank you
The million dollar question is what the heck is an Englishman doing with a 200 amp panel?
With 240 volts in England, you don't come across those everyday! Most homes there run off 60 amps.
You also use less power
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ty_consumption
Each of us colonists use 2 hp, all the time.
We are 5% of the world's population
and use 25% of the world's resources,
5x more electrical power than the average person
and our defense budget is 1/2 that of the whole world.
How long can this go on?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...22&btnG=Search
Last edited by Thatguy; 11-02-2010 at 03:23 PM.
Not hard to use less power when the standards of living don't compare.
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