bonding

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ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
so the bonding of the nuetral and gounding at service discoonect allows a path for the load on the nuetral to come back to the panel..
Well, also it clamps the voltage of the neutral at zero volts potential, which keeps both legs of a 240V split phase at 120V to neutral. If the neutral were to float, the voltage on the neutral would be determined by the loads, and if the loads were unbalanced (which it nearly always is), the sum of the leg voltages to neutral would still be 240V, but they could be something crazy like 200V and 40V. At least that's how I understand it, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.
 
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tryinghard

Senior Member
Location
California
so the bonding of the nuetral and gounding at service discoonect allows a path for the load on the nuetral to come back to the panel..

Well, also it clamps the voltage of the neutral at zero volts potential, which keeps both legs of a 240V split phase at 120V to neutral?

ggunn, he?s questioning the bonding at the service disconnect not the source. In reply to his quote above its bonded to enable an effective fault current path to source ? by using the services neutral to get there not to alow load on the neutral to route.
 

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
ggunn, he?s questioning the bonding at the service disconnect not the source. In reply to his quote above its bonded to enable an effective fault current path to source ? by using the services neutral to get there not to alow load on the neutral to route.
Ah, so his question was about where it's bonded, not if it's bonded. Sorry I missed that. Carry on.
 

mivey

Senior Member
Well, also it clamps the voltage of the neutral at zero volts potential, which keeps both legs of a 240V split phase at 120V to neutral.
Clamping it to ground has nothing to do with it. As long as the neutral is tied to the midpoint of the transformer, you will get 120 & 120 (except for some minor imbalance). If unclamped, the midpoint of the transformer may or may not have a voltage to ground.

If the neutral were to float, the voltage on the neutral would be determined by the loads, and if the loads were unbalanced (which it nearly always is), the sum of the leg voltages to neutral would still be 240V, but they could be something crazy like 200V and 40V.
That is what happens when the connection to the transformer midpoint is lost.
At least that's how I understand it, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.
You must be psychic ;)
 
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