First I've been on here looking around quite a bit and LOVE the information you guys provide, so thank you for that!
I'm done re-wiring my house and going to swap out our main panel.. my question lies in bonding.. I looked and couldn't find the answer, so I really have 2 questions:
1. Main service panel (200 amp): comes off the pole, 3 wire service cable coming in, I installed 2 ground rods on the other side of the house and running a dedicated ground in for the new panel (our old panel, just had 2 hots and a neutral). I have a Square D homeline box that has 4 spots up top (2 for hots, 1 for neutral, 1 for ground.. obviously) so my question is.. should I use a separate ground bar and run the ground to that instead of up top? if so, would I need to bond the neutral? OR just run the ground to the spot it has available (which would also be the neutral bars) and would I need to bond the neutral then? I would assume I would bond it at this point, but not if I use the separate ground bar.. is that correct? or is the main panel always bonded no matter what?
2. "sub panel" which really isn't a subpanel.. it too comes off the meter (100 amp), 4 wire, separate ground bar.. the electrician who ran the wires and hooked up the box told me this wouldn't need the bonding screw on the neutral bar, but to me it would seem it does since it's basically another "main" panel.. unless my first question about the main panel doesn't need to be bonded, then I get it..
I guess, in my mind, if you're using a separate ground bar, you wouldn't want to bond the panel, because if something happened, you wouldn't want it to follow your neutral bar, you would want it to go to the ground so you wouldn't bond the neutral.. I know I'm thinking too much about this, but this bonding vs grounding thing has me confused lol.. Thanks for any help!!
I'm done re-wiring my house and going to swap out our main panel.. my question lies in bonding.. I looked and couldn't find the answer, so I really have 2 questions:
1. Main service panel (200 amp): comes off the pole, 3 wire service cable coming in, I installed 2 ground rods on the other side of the house and running a dedicated ground in for the new panel (our old panel, just had 2 hots and a neutral). I have a Square D homeline box that has 4 spots up top (2 for hots, 1 for neutral, 1 for ground.. obviously) so my question is.. should I use a separate ground bar and run the ground to that instead of up top? if so, would I need to bond the neutral? OR just run the ground to the spot it has available (which would also be the neutral bars) and would I need to bond the neutral then? I would assume I would bond it at this point, but not if I use the separate ground bar.. is that correct? or is the main panel always bonded no matter what?
2. "sub panel" which really isn't a subpanel.. it too comes off the meter (100 amp), 4 wire, separate ground bar.. the electrician who ran the wires and hooked up the box told me this wouldn't need the bonding screw on the neutral bar, but to me it would seem it does since it's basically another "main" panel.. unless my first question about the main panel doesn't need to be bonded, then I get it..
I guess, in my mind, if you're using a separate ground bar, you wouldn't want to bond the panel, because if something happened, you wouldn't want it to follow your neutral bar, you would want it to go to the ground so you wouldn't bond the neutral.. I know I'm thinking too much about this, but this bonding vs grounding thing has me confused lol.. Thanks for any help!!
