The ultimate "shared neutral"

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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
Recently I had to run a new circuit in an old home/funeral parlor that was for sale. As I was working in the new 200 amp panel I noticed something strange. There was about 2 wires on the neutral bar and one #6. The panel had about 20 circuits in it. The service had been upgraded at some point and relocated about 40 feet. They ran all the circuits through an 1 1/4 conduit but spliced all the neutrals to a #6 in the j-box and just ran that #6 for all the neutrals. I can't believe the Electrical Inspector would pass this or maybe he didn't open the panel. They recently had a HI through and they didn't catch it either. I didn't mention it to the HO at first but I told her today that some inspector might question it. (the first sale fell through). Should it be changed?
 
jumper

jumper

Senior Member
Location
3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
Super neutrals except a few specific cases were banned in 2011. Don G's proposal.

200.4 Neutral Conductors. Neutral conductors shall not
be used for more than one branch circuit, for more than one
multiwire branch circuit, or for more than one set of ungrounded
feeder conductors unless specifically permitted
elsewhere in this Code.
 
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petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
GerryB said:
Recently I had to run a new circuit in an old home/funeral parlor that was for sale. As I was working in the new 200 amp panel I noticed something strange. There was about 2 wires on the neutral bar and one #6. The panel had about 20 circuits in it. The service had been upgraded at some point and relocated about 40 feet. They ran all the circuits through an 1 1/4 conduit but spliced all the neutrals to a #6 in the j-box and just ran that #6 for all the neutrals. I can't believe the Electrical Inspector would pass this or maybe he didn't open the panel. They recently had a HI through and they didn't catch it either. I didn't mention it to the HO at first but I told her today that some inspector might question it. (the first sale fell through). Should it be changed?
Click to expand...

It is not in compliance with the latest code but was before the the 2011 version. I see nothing inherently unsafe about it. It would be very low on the totem pole as far as things I would worry about.
 
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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
Interesting, I never thought it would be compliant. We are on to 05 code in CT so I can tell the owner not to worry about it. From what I understand though if you do a service change and have some short wires you are supposed to splice individually with the same size. This is in the panel I'm talking about. Is that correct? What's the reference?
 
jumper

jumper

Senior Member
Location
3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
GerryB said:
Interesting, I never thought it would be compliant. We are on to 05 code in CT so I can tell the owner not to worry about it. From what I understand though if you do a service change and have some short wires you are supposed to splice individually with the same size. This is in the panel I'm talking about. Is that correct? What's the reference?
Click to expand...

Any wire you splice must be large enough to carry the load. Not sure if this is what you want.

210.19 Conductors ? Minimum Ampacity and Size.
(A) Branch Circuits Not More Than 600 Volts.
(1) General. Branch-circuit conductors shall have an ampacity
not less than the maximum load to be served. Where
a branch circuit supplies continuous loads or any combination
of continuous and noncontinuous loads, the minimum
branch-circuit conductor size, before the application of any
adjustment or correction factors, shall have an allowable ampacity
not less than the noncontinuous load plus 125 percent
of the continuous load.
 
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