Gec's to neutral bar in main...

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buckofdurham said:
It's not an equipment ground. You are grounding the utilities grounded conducor. You must take the quickest and direct path to ground.
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Buck, that's not the official reason for the conductor. See 250.4(A)(1).

We are doing this work to protect the structure from lightning, not to do the utility a favor. ;)
 
George Stolz said:
Buck, that's not the official reason for the conductor. See 250.4(A)(1).

We are doing this work to protect the structure from lightning, not to do the utility a favor. ;)
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George we may disagree here - but IMO they are not in any general order of priority as I believe 250.4(A)2 is more important, and the most common reason as some places experiance very little of any lightning.

(2) Grounding of Electrical Equipment. Non?current-carrying conductive materials enclosing electrical conductors or equipment, or forming part of such equipment, shall be connected to earth so as to limit the voltage to ground on these materials.
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Still not doing the utility any favor there either - just making it safe to touch an electrical panel without getting shocked in the first place or have a neutral floating at a voltage much higher than the ground you are standing on.
 
chevyx92 said:
Have an 800A Fused main switch that feeds sectional meter stacks. Inspector today quoted 250.24 and said that all my GEC's need to land on the neutral bar. My #6 from my ground rods wasn't landed on the neutral bar beacuse there was no way to land a #6 with the factory lugs provided and you couldn't add one.
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IMO 250.24(A)(1) does not allow the 6 AWG from the rod to land on the case.

However 250.24(A)(4) does allow the 6 AWG to land on the case if the main bonding jumper is a wire or busbar.


And if so, like I asked her, where was I suppose to land it if there is no provision for this small wire. All the extra lugs were way to big.
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You could use a split bolt and attach the 6 AWG to the service conductor neutral or the other GEC
 
iwire said:
However 250.24(A)(4) does allow the 6 AWG to land on the case if the main bonding jumper is a wire or busbar.
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So in my case since there was a busbar for a main bonding jumper then I should be ok with my install.


iwire said:
You could use a split bolt and attach the 6 AWG to the service conductor neutral or the other GEC
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What article allows this?
 
chevyx92 said:
So in my case since there was a busbar for a main bonding jumper then I should be ok with my install.
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IMO yes.

What article allows this?
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250.24(A)(1) allows the GEC to attach to the grounded conductor anywhere from the weather head to the grounded conductor bus at the service disconnect.

250.53(C) allows an electrode bonding jumper to be connected as directed by 250.70
 
infinity said:
Look at 250.64(D)(1).
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Thanks but I don't believe that would work in my case or would it. Just an 800A main switch. Just a single enclosure so I don't believe I could apply or argue that article to her.
 
This NEC Handbook image lays out the differences between GECs and bonding jumpers.

All the connections in the image are NEC compliant.

Bonding_Jumpers.JPG
 
iwire said:
I started typing that as well, but it does not apply in this case.
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You're correct that wasn't the article I wanted to quote. It is as Bob mentioned 250.53(C) which pertains to bonding jumpers which is what the conductor to the ground rod would be if it were split bolt connected to the GEC. 250.64(D)(1) is just another place where it would be permitted to use split bolts.
 
The OP sent me a PM asking me to chime in. This is not an area I understand well. But let me observe that I haven't seen anybody yet bring up the following words from 250.24(A)(1):
. . . any accessible point. . . .
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The range of acceptable locations for landing a GEC appears to start at the service drop/lateral, and end at the neutral bar. How can this be interpreted as saying that the only acceptable place to land the GEC is the neutral bar itself?

I are cornfuzed! :-? :-?
 
The way I understand it 250.24(A) requires the grounding electrode conductor to connect to the grounded conductor. There is a condition that allows this connection to be made to the equipment grounding bar or terminal if the main bonding jumper between the grounded conductor and the equipment grounding terminal is a wire or busbar. I thought the whole purpose of this wording was to eliminate the use of the equipment enclosure as the main bonding jumper. If you connect the GEC to the equipment enclosure aren't you relying on the sheet metal to serve as the main bonding jumper?
 
RB1 said:
I thought the whole purpose of this wording was to eliminate the use of the equipment enclosure as the main bonding jumper.
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I don't see it that way (and I could be wrong) I see that section preventing us from using a cheesy factory bonding screw as found in 'load centers' as a path for GEC current.

I see nothing preventing us from using the enclosure as a grounding bus.
 
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