And some current is used up in powering motors and lights in the home. Plus, my understanding is that alternating current changes direction 60 timers per second and so electrons only really flow along the wires when electricity is being consumed by those motors and lights, etc.
And I thought the grounding conductors run back to the grounding bus bar, not the neutral bus bar.
I’ll tell you Mike, I’m looking right at Code Check Electrical, it says right there “Faulting Current Returns to Transformer” as you said. I don’t understand their explanation either. I can memorize the defects, but sometimes I don’t think I’m ever going to really understand the physics that determine how these systems really work.
How can some current be used up if, as a previous poster stated, and several agreed, “what goes in must come out.” That seems to imply that if 100 amps are coming in, then 100 amps are going out. How does electricity get used? Does the appliance use electricity and then return it for recycling, as well? And we know that nothing is 100% efficient, so I’m confused. This whole setup smells of collusion or someone drinking waaaaaaaay more margaritas than me.
if 100 amps are going in, then 100 amps are going out. The difference is that they are going out at zero volts. They came in at 120 volts and came out at 0 volts. Power equals voltage times current. So 100 amps at 120 volts will do 12,000 watts or 12kw worth of work.
Under normal circumstances an electrical system is a closed system. Imagine a water system: a pipe, a pump, and some type of water-powered device. The pump takes the water in at some reference pressure (we’ll call it 0 psig). It pushes the water out at a higher pressure (we’ll assume 120 psig). The water flows through the pipe and turns the water-operated device. While turning this device, it does work and in the process loses pressure. In fact, it goes back down to the pressure at which it is being sucked into the pump. The same amount of water is always flowing through the system, the only thing changing is the pressure of the water.
The same thing happens in an electrical system. The same amount of current is always flowing (assuming the electical load doesn’t change). The only thing that changes is the voltage. The current flows back to the pole, transformer and ultimately to the generator to be “represurrized.”
Oh, fine. Throw some new terms in there for us. That’s gonna make it easier for me. 
Electricity is simply the way we move power around, much like a belt moves power from an engine to the alternator. It comes around again too. You can think of the friction of the belt as the resistance of the wire, wasted power, expelled as heat, that never makes it to the load.
In that regard virtually all energy ends up being heat when it is used. When you size a computer room HVAC system, the main componant for the sensible heat load is the input power to the computer equipment and the lights. It is all considered to be heat. The same would be true in your home.
The other componant is latent heat, basically the people load. It is really the heat in water vapor.
Bump…I liked GREGS analogy so well…I bumped the SUCKER again…
Getting back to grounding vs bonding, the Fla IAEI just had this discussion and decided the only real “grounding” conductor in the system is the one to the ground rod. Everything else is bonding or circuit conductors. 100 years of tradition is still hard to overcome so we say equipment grounding conductor when we mean equipment BONDING conductor. All fault current is still supposed to get routed back to the common hub on the transformer via the main bonding jumper (between the “ground” bus and the neutral) to the neutral conductor in the service conductors.
You don’t think the world will let little ole’ FLA IAEI change the WORLD do ya…
Russel,
Think of the electrical wires as conveyer belts that transfer full margarita glasses from the margarita factory (installed on a pole just outside your door you lucky duck) to your kitchen. If the empty glasses do not find their way back to the factory, well then they can’t be re-filled and sent back to you, can they?
Now I like that one a lot. 
Refresher…Bumped for the Newbies:)
P.S. If you hate when I BUMP old posts…lol…sorry…good info and JUST ignore them…newbies are not good at searching so it is good info to resurface…
So I’m a newbie, huh?
No…you are a SEASONED fella…
You’re not making some sort of insinuation about my drinking habits, are you?
lol…ahhhhh…NO…
lol…Bonding means being Shaken…not Stirred !
Question
In the original picture what would you say if there was NO egc, green wire, going from the box to the outlet(s)?
I would say depending on the NEC you are in one of the changes would have been that if the box is metal and bonded and the device is a grounded type that the connection of the device to the BOX would meet the bonding requirement.
I dont make these images Mike…I just post information to assist the HI’s to understanding the different terms and methods they may see.