Can the neutral conductor be isolated on CPT

Isaiah

Senior Member
Location
Baton Rouge
Occupation
Electrical Inspector
Does a CPT mounted within a combination starter 460-120VAC need to have the neutral
conductor grounded?


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jim dungar

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
You have a 2 wire CPT, technically it does not have a neutral.

Generally the NEC requires a system to be grounded when possible to keep the Line to Ground voltage <150V.

This will mean you will have a grounded conductor which needs to be white, so our industry slang is to call it a neutral.
 

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
When I had a panel shop, I hired a wireman who had been in the Navy, he never grounded the CPT secondaries because he said they never did on ships. Drove me crazy because I couldn’t break him of that habit, so I had to make sure he didn’t leave it that way on every panel. I missed one once and it got out in the field that way. Kept getting trouble calls on it and people kept assuming it was grounded when troubleshooting. It was a mess until we figured that out.
 

Isaiah

Senior Member
Location
Baton Rouge
Occupation
Electrical Inspector
You have a 2 wire CPT, technically it does not have a neutral.

Generally the NEC requires a system to be grounded when possible to keep the Line to Ground voltage
This will mean you will have a grounded conductor which needs to be white, so our industry slang is to call it a neutral.

So basically, would run the white wire to the neural bus within the starter and to the devices, such as HOA and Red “Run” Pilot LED on the control circuit.


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don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
250.21(A)(3) will permit the control power transformer to be an ungrounded system if you comply with all three requirements.
I prefer grounded control systems for the purposes of troubleshooting, and have only seen a couple of facilities where they used ungrounded control power transformers.

If you make it a grounded system, you apply Exception #3 to 250.30(A)(5) so you won't need a grounding electrode system and grounding electrode conductor.
 

Isaiah

Senior Member
Location
Baton Rouge
Occupation
Electrical Inspector
250.21(A)(3) will permit the control power transformer to be an ungrounded system if you comply with all three requirements.
I prefer grounded control systems for the purposes of troubleshooting, and have only seen a couple of facilities where they used ungrounded control power transformers.

If you make it a grounded system, you apply Exception #3 to 250.30(A)(5) so you won't need a grounding electrode system and grounding electrode conductor.

Many thanks Don.


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