Ground and neutral tied together

[iwire]

There's nothing in the code that fixes that.

I agree.

Of course the 'code' we talk about here can do very little about a problem caused by systems that it has no jurisdiction over.

 

[Cold Fusion]

Gee I don't know, never thought of that. :roll::grin:

But if I was to think of it I might think that they are not going to redesign the entire country's distribution system as easily as changing the range and dryer requirements.

I think you are right. We in America are going to live with a second rate distribution system for a long time. I really don't mind that nearly as much as people thinking we are going to fix this by being careful to not have any N/G bonds on the load side of the service.

However, as you said, being careful about load side N/G connections does fix somethings - and I am in favor of that.

cf

 

[hardworkingstiff]

Lets try another one:

You are climbing out of your swimming pool and step on the grass while holding on to the metal railing. The metal railing is tied right to the house earthing system exactly per code. And you get a tingle.

Is the tingle because your neutral/ground are inadvertantly bonded at the pool subpanel? Nope. It is because the utility is delivering you with a 5V drop on the utility distribution neutral and that utility neutral is tied right to your neutral/ground and that puts 5V on your grounding system. There's nothing in the code that fixes that.

cf

They are trying with the equipotential grid. But that really just addresses the symptom and not the problem.

 

[GG]

All good info.

 

[LarryFine]

I never understood why a 10/2 (Cu.) romex was insufficient and an 8/3 (AL.) SE cable was adequate (yes I know the Code said it was OK). Anyone know? (was it all political?)

I believe it has to do, at least in part, with the construction of SE cable, and why it's okay to be bare ahead of the main disco in the service itself.

The bare's being wrapped around the line conductors assures that anything conductive that severs the cable will contact the grounded conductor first.

By the way, the grounding pin on a grounding-type plug is longer than the blades for the same reason; so it will make contact first.

Plus, SE being usable only when the circuit originated in the main panel suggests wanting the neutral voltage to be close as possible to zero volts.