Hi all, I had an inspection today and found this. There had been a Zinsco panel box replaced in a closet and a new Square D moved to the outside of the home. I did not see any grounding conductors in the new panel there is one grounding cable in the the lug to the left. Is this normal?
EMT?…
……post body too short
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So this is the service panel? I see the neutral is bonded but it has a separate EGC bus. What was the function of the large green conductor was that a GEC going to a grounding electrode? If there are metal raceways then you might not see any wire type EGC’s since the metal raceway is the EGC.
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Did they leave the old panel in place and convert it into a junction box?
If so, they may have left all the grounds in that panel/J box and bonded the new panel to the ground buss in the old panel/J box via the green wire.
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what they said…
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How old is the home? There won’t be circuit grounds in a home that predates them.
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Yes the old box was still there but all the breakers and and bus bar were gone. I should of opened it up to see how the wires were tied together.
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Thanks for your all the help.
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A 1971 house will have grounding conductors. All distribution/branch wires should terminate in the new main panel. Call it out for evaluation and correction by a licensed electrician.
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OK, thank you I will.
Around here we have many homes with backup generators due to our third-world style electrical service (PG&E calls them “Public Safety Power Shutoffs,” like they are doing you a favor shutting off your electricity several times per year on short notice in order to reduce their legal liabilities for not maintaining their infrastructure, but I am not biased - lol). When they install a generator, they generally install new panels for just those circuits that are going to be backed up and leave the rest in the original panel. Sometimes they just bring the hot conductors over to the new panel and leave the neutrals and grounds in the original. At least in yours, they brought over the neutrals. Most often what you mainly see in the original panel is a ton of splice connections to the new panel. Sometimes the new panel has a (redundant) main shutoff and other times they rely upon the original. It is a mess, typically. As long as there are no grounding / bonding problems or other issues (everything works the way it should), I generally just describe the sad situation and include all the pictures so that the new owner is aware of the in-elegant, messy, wiring.
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Thank you, This is a pre-listing inspection. It is good to Know that when I need help You guy’s are there.
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Hi, So I made up an excuse to go back and check the old panel which I should of done the first time. I am still new at this. I still think the main panel ground is not bonded to the neutral or am I wrong there?
Is what you’re calling the main panel the one below? There is a green bonding screw serving as the Main Boning Jumper. The large green conductor appears to be bonding the old panel enclosure and the new panel together.
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So I’m wondering, @rmeier2 Does the GEC need to be a solid conductor from the service disconnect panel to the grounding electrode, or is this set up okay?
Hi Robert, yes that is the main panel. So the green bonding screw is typically in contact with the panel? Thank you so much. I learn a lot just by reading what you say!
Good question. I’ve looked at this photo several times and I don’t see a GEC. The larger green insulated conductor appears to simply run from the new panel to the old panel enclosure as an EGC.
In answer to your question about a GEC, it is required to continuous from the electrode to the neutral bus in the service disconnect or any point upstream of the service disconnect. That means for example that if the utility allows the connection to be in the meter enclosure the GEC can actually terminate in the meter.
You’ve also mentioned solid, the GEC is not require to be solid it can be stranded with insulation or it can bare or solid without insulation. I see electricians using #4 solid copper for a GEC and I ask myself why would you want to work with such a horrible conductor when you can just use stranded.
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Thanks for the answer Robert. 
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