Equipment grounding conductors turning black

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kec

Senior Member
Location
CT
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
This is a new house.Service panel is fed from a meter bank with 4 conductors.
Panel is grounded to a CEE. Neutral and bonds are separated in panel.
All circuits are 2 wire southwire NM.
Water is all plastic, even from the street.
Had panel cover off today and noticed the grounding conductors are turning black. What could cause this?
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
This is a new house.Service panel is fed from a meter bank with 4 conductors.
Panel is grounded to a CEE. Neutral and bonds are separated in panel.
All circuits are 2 wire southwire NM.
Water is all plastic, even from the street.
Had panel cover off today and noticed the grounding conductors are turning black. What could cause this?

Black or do you have somewhat poor lighting and it is simply darker colored? When copper oxidizes it turns greenish color.
 

kec

Senior Member
Location
CT
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
[No message]
 

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kec

Senior Member
Location
CT
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
So I was at another job and noticed the same thing with bond wire. Must be something with the copper southwire is using. These jobs are only a few months ago.
At first I thought it maybe from bonding of gas pipe that may not have a di- electric union.
Thanks for the reply's
 

hbiss

EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
Location
Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
Occupation
EC
No, it's definitely something in the air that's doing that. It even looks like your crimp is discolored. Shouldn't be Chinese sheetrock now, but could be some other crap that that builder got cheap from God knows where. Indoor air tests are in order before the new home owner finds out about it and drags you all into court.

-Hal
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
No, it's definitely something in the air that's doing that. It even looks like your crimp is discolored. Shouldn't be Chinese sheetrock now, but could be some other crap that that builder got cheap from God knows where. Indoor air tests are in order before the new home owner finds out about it and drags you all into court.

-Hal

The chinese sheetrock caused the issue a long time ago.... New wiring may not have an issue but I would bet that is from the out gassing of the sheetrock.
 

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
The house didn’t happen to have spray foam insulation did it?
 

kec

Senior Member
Location
CT
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Yes, the house with panel did and some spraying was done on the wiring at the box sill above the panel.
But the other job at a different location had only batt insulation.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Are you located in the south? I am guessing you don't believe this is from the sheetrock. I am almost willing to bet that it is...If it is happening in other homes then that is more proof.... It was a major issue years ago especially in the south
 

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
Are you located in the south? I am guessing you don't believe this is from the sheetrock. I am almost willing to bet that it is...If it is happening in other homes then that is more proof.... It was a major issue years ago especially in the south

I am, and my gut is to agree with you.
My mind though is thinking “not again”...
right before the housing bubble bust of 08 we wanted building materials from anywhere as long as it was fast and cheap.
I thought that problem was fixed and couldn’t happen again.

in 2006 9000 tons of this stuff pulled into Wilmington. Several other ships offloaded this crap in Charleston.
you have neighbors in Holly Springs that had problems with it. Not sure of their outcome.

had a buddy of mine built a huge house there in HS, going to make a fortune. It wasn’t ready to sell until Christmas 2008.
He went under...
 

kec

Senior Member
Location
CT
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Are you located in the south? I am guessing you don't believe this is from the sheetrock. I am almost willing to bet that it is...If it is happening in other homes then that is more proof.... It was a major issue years ago especially in the south

No not located in the south. The state of Conn. I now feel if must be a reaction from the sheetrock. off gassing or something else.
 

StarCat

Industrial Engineering Tech
Location
Moab, UT USA
Occupation
Imdustrial Engineering Technician - HVACR Electrical and Mechanical Systems
The Chinese have no boundaries when it comes to making anything they can sell out of anything they " think " is cheap and can be sold for a huge markup. They are the most grossly materialistic nation on the planet.
Max kaiser has a video of a machine they created that makes synthetic " rice." which was making people who ate it VERY SICK. It uses potato startch and a synthetic polymer to make something that appears like rice. There are simply no morals, standards or boundaries. They are possibly the single worst polluter of the oceans. Any quality in that manufacturing sector is very hard to come by.
There are very few exceptions.
 
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