I’m wanting to add a couple new circuits to the garage for tools, and have had a new main installed in the last year or so with plenty of room. The problem is that it looks like the ground and neutral wires are connected to the same bar, rather than having separate ground and neutral bars. This seems odd. Is it proper to wire both to the same bar, or am I missing something?
Thanks!
Replies
In the main panel the ground and neutral conductors are connected together, and it is proper to connect them to the same bus. If the panel were a subpanel, then they must be separate.
Thanks Wayne. Do you know why that is that in the main they share but in a subpanel they're separate?
Dean
For safety, electrical systems are designed so that the neutral is at the same potential ("voltage") as ground. To accomplish this, the neutral has to be grounded somewhere, and by code this is done at the main panel.
In the circuits throughout your house, power "goes out" on the hot line at 120 volts to an appliance and returns on the neutral, completing the circuit. The grounding conductor does not carry any current unless there is a short, in which case it carries the short to ground instead of through something else, like you.
In a subpanel, circuits are similarly arranged. But from the subpanel back to the main panel, the current is supposed to return on the neutral. If the neutral and grounds were connected together in the subpanel, the returning current would be split between the neutral and the ground wire, thus causing the ground wire to carry current. So, the neutral and ground wires are not connected together in subpanels.
Thanks so much for the explanation. I just didn't get it, but now it makes sense. Happy New Year!
Dean