3 wire sub panel

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Stevenfyeager

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Location
United States, Indiana
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electrical contractor
Existing 240v sub panel in attached garage is fed with a 6-2 , only 3 wires. They are using the bare #10 ground in the cable as a neutral. Therefore no ground in the outlets plus I believe it is not code to use the uninsulated ground for a neutral? A long distance makes it expensive to replace the 6-2. Even if it were still code to drive a ground rod at the sub panel, the uninsulated ground used as a neutral is wrong, correct? Thanks
 
Even if an insulated wire was used as the grounded conductors is was never permitted to bond it to the GEC in an attached structure. That only applied to detached structures.
 
Do you need 240v? If not just jump the hot conductor to the other phase and make the white a neutral. The bare would be equipment grounding conductor. You can use the same breaker just disconnect the one side where the white wire was made hot and connect it to the neutral bar
 
This brought up an interesting memory for me. In the early 80's when I was wiring homes in the Orlando area, if we had a service where there just a meter outside and the main breaker was in the panel in the garage, it was acceptable to run 10-2 to the dryer and #8 SEU to the range. I never understood why they passed these jobs. If the main was located outside and we had a sub-panel in the garage, we were required to have insulated neutrals at these appliances.
 
Rick 0920 said:
This brought up an interesting memory for me. In the early 80's when I was wiring homes in the Orlando area, if we had a service where there just a meter outside and the main breaker was in the panel in the garage, it was acceptable to run 10-2 to the dryer and #8 SEU to the range. I never understood why they passed these jobs. If the main was located outside and we had a sub-panel in the garage, we were required to have insulated neutrals at these appliances.
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Three wire appliance circuits from the main panel met code until 2002 or somewhere around then.

>A long distance makes it expensive to replace the 6-2.
You could try a 240 to 120/240 transformer, but it might cost more then the new cable.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Do you need 240v? If not just jump the hot conductor to the other phase and make the white a neutral. The bare would be equipment grounding conductor. You can use the same breaker just disconnect the one side where the white wire was made hot and connect it to the neutral bar
Click to expand...
That is exactly what I decided to ask the new owner of this home. He says he doesn't need 240 like the previous owner did. Pretty easy fix. Thanks.
 
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