1977 home with underground service. There were no readable labels on the panel. This meter is installed on top of a 5’ or so metal raceway/pole into the ground. I believe they built the deck around the meter which is why it is so low on the deck. I’m planning on writing it up for not meeting minimum height which is at least 48" by our local POCO.
This is throwing me off though…The panel appears to be factory bonded to the enclosure which the neutral is connected to. What is not visibly bonded to the enclosure is the GEC and the service ground, they’re just bolted together and the GEC and ground are visibly touching the raceway. Since the raceway is metal, is it bonded to the raceway somehow in the ground and/or does that qualify as acceptable bonding to the panel/neutral? Or does the GEC/ground need to be connected to the same bus as the neutral? Did they run out of length and cheat?
Thanks Lon! I was reading some similar posts before posting this one and raceway bonding/grounding keeps coming up in some situations so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something on this scenario before noting it as a defect
The grounded conductor (neutral) appears to be properly bonded. But the question is…are the GEC and service grounding conductor PROPERLY bonded to the neutral/enclosure? I don’t know if there is any bonding to the raceway in the ground and I don’t know if that is even acceptable if it is. Just having the bare GEC and grounding conductor contacting the raceway does not make that an acceptable connection/bond.
The neutral in the service disconnect is factory bonded so there is no MBJ (main bonding jumper) to install therefore that’s correct. The GEC which is likely the bare solid copper conductor must terminate on the neutral bus. The EGC for the feeder to the panel should also terminate on the neutral bus although since it’s an EGC it could be terminated separately directly to the metal enclosure.
Well it’s improper because the GEC should not be connected to the EGC for the panel feeder. It does appear that the split-bolt is the type that is listed for aluminum to copper connections.
I was not able to see a ground bus or bonding to the enclosure for the EGC’s due to all the wiring. I could not see much on the neutral bus either. I thought a bonding connection was just hidden but now I’m rethinking that. It looks like the branch EGC’s are just crimped onto a connection that is bolted to feeder EGC’s and I can’t imagine how it is bonded to the enclosure.
