Originally Posted By: kmcmahon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
If a panel is not properly grounded, will the outlets show “open ground”?
I just did an inspection where I swear I could not find a ground wire coming into the panel to ground the panel, however, all out the outlets showed proper ground.
Originally Posted By: Joey D’Adamo This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
My guess is the bonding screw that bonds the neutral bus bar to the chassis of the panel and thus the ground bus bar is providing the path to ground through the neutral service wire.
There really should be a grounding wire to a ground rod or water pipe; if it's missing then although it still works it's not correct.
Originally Posted By: Greg Fretwell This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
You don’t have a tester that can verify the quality of the grounding electrode. All your tester is telling you is that the equipment grounding conductor is bonded to the service neutral. That will certainly clear a fault from the line to the grounding conductor but it may not protect you from surges and transients. It can also cause problems where the equipment ground might not be at the same potential as the concrete floor or the dirt outside. For most inspectors the actual grounding of the service will be a visual inspection.
Originally Posted By: jmcginnis This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Yes, your tester will still show ground because the grounded conductor (neutral) is connected back to the xformer from the panel ground/neutral bar… by the way, the grounded conductor (neutral) for the service is also grounded out at the xformer at the base of the power pole. The little plug in testers are far from fool proof. I have seen situations where someone jumpered the green screw (ground) on the receptacle to the silver screw (neutral) to fool the inspector’s tester into showing a correct circuit.
Originally Posted By: Greg Fretwell This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
The service can be grounded at any point from the service disconnect to the customer side of the service point. It is legal and somewhat common to see the GEC connected in the meter base, not in the service disconnect enclosure.
Originally Posted By: jtedesco This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Greg Fretwell wrote:
The service can be grounded at any point from the service disconnect to the customer side of the service point. It is legal and somewhat common to see the GEC connected in the meter base, not in the service disconnect enclosure.
Greg:
In Florida -- this may be common, but in other areas around the country, the GEC is run into the Main Disconnecting Means.
People have mentioned the lightning strikes in Florida as a good reason for the GEC to be installed and "accessible" in the meter socket enclosure.
The rule also allows the GEC to be run up to and connected to the grounded conductor at the drip loop, but I have not seen that in my lifetime yet, and who would want to use another 8-15 feet or more of copper wire anyway.
Originally Posted By: Greg Fretwell This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
It is very common to see the EGC in the meter base here. They then bring 3 wires into the service disconnect enclosure via a PVC nipple to avoid parallel paths and split out the ECG from there after the bonding jumper. It must be a bit more common than we would think since NFPA has amssaged this language a couple times in the last 2 code cycles.
I agree you are probably not going to see this connection made anywhere except the meter base or the service disconnect but if it was accessible it could be other places on the service entrance cable.
The only other place I do remember seeing it was in a gutter where the service entrance was tapped to grouped disconnects.