For a dead front cover, using a wrong screw type like a wood screw and having it bore through a hot conductor and then contact the metal panel creates a “short circuit” not a “dead short”. Am I right?
It creates a flash and a bang, which is a result of the screw exploding in a “fuse” fashion. I think “dead short” refers to an ongoing connection.
It creates a ground fault. The enclosure is grounded and is connected to the ungrounded conductor through the screw.
I did that once. It created was a stain in my shorts!:shock:
LOL!
It can be somewhat dramatic
Thank you Robert, I had a feeling I wasn’t quite right.
A dead short is a type of short circuit. A ground fault is also a short circuit since the path does not follow the designed path.
The NEC does not use the terms short circuit and ground fault interchangeably. Although not directly defined a ground fault would be a fault to the equipment grounding conductor or a grounded metal part. A short circuit would be a phase to phase or phase to neutral fault. Here’s one example of the two terms from the NEC:
So for the purposes of educating home inspectors, a wood screw through a conductor and contacting the metal panel would be a ground fault, even though it might somehow also be considered a short circuit.
Right?
