Grounding Electrical Panel

By shunting excess line voltage back to the panel s neutral pole the ground current forces the circuit breaker to trip.

Grounding electrical panel.

The connection is often unreliable. When this happens you must bring an appropriately sized equipment grounding conductor over with the circuit to the subpanel you must not have a neutral to ground bond in the panel and the grounding electrodes are optional although highly recommended. Two problems make the safety of these approaches questionable. The grounding pathway is generally formed by a system of bare copper wires that connect to every device and every metal electrical box in your home.

Which scenario is recommended. Grounding and bonding happen simultaneously during the installation of an electrical system and branch circuits. In standard sheathed nm cable this bare copper wire is included along with the insulated conducting wires inside the cable. If your electrical cables have metal sheathing that runs all the way to the panel the sheathing can serve as a ground path.

The tripped breaker shuts off the circuit s current preventing a potentially dangerous situation. Because the panel must be connected to the. Alternatively you might consider connecting the ground terminal to a water pipe by means of an exposed ground wire. They work hand in hand in order to make it safe.

Your service panel s ground wire prevents a line fault from becoming a shocking experience. Grounding a main panel the ground bar is bonded internally when an external bond to earth is installed as described at the link for electrical grounding below. The grounding wire that runs from your electrical panel to grounding electrode helps even out voltage increases that often occur because of lightning and other causes.