ground in a circuit

Status
Not open for further replies.
W

WBgreen

Member
On a 240 volt circuit two wire plus ground,ex.(electric baseboard heating)will the circuit still work if the ground is disconnected. My understanding is that the ground wire is used only for a failure condition such as a short circuit. Thanks for your help,
 
WBgreen said:
On a 240 volt circuit two wire plus ground,ex.(electric baseboard heating)will the circuit still work if the ground is disconnected. My understanding is that the ground wire is used only for a failure condition such as a short circuit. Thanks for your help,
Click to expand...

You understanding is correct.

Roger
 
WBgreen said:
On a 240 volt circuit two wire plus ground,ex.(electric baseboard heating)will the circuit still work if the ground is disconnected. My understanding is that the ground wire is used only for a failure condition such as a short circuit. Thanks for your help,
Click to expand...

In your example of a 240 volt nominal electric heating circuit, a line-to-line fault would be a short circuit and a line-to-equipment grounding conductor fault would be a ground-fault. Yes the heating circuit would work just fine without the equipment grounding conductor, but removing it from the circuit would negate any way to clear a line-to ground fault.
 
WBgreen said:
On a 240 volt circuit two wire plus ground,ex.(electric baseboard heating)will the circuit still work if the ground is disconnected. My understanding is that the ground wire is used only for a failure condition such as a short circuit. Thanks for your help,
Click to expand...

I'm curious to know how that question would come up..:confused: What would make you ponder that?
 
Am bit scared here because of your profile.Not connecting a ground is a very serious issue.Is this because one is not available or because it trips breaker with one.For whatever reason please do not opperate it like this.This is shock hazard as well as fire hazard.
 
Jim W in Tampa said:
I say no its not working,producing heat alone is not working.If that frame is live it is not working its just running.This could easily lead to a fire.
Click to expand...


OK, 'Operating' and 'operating safely' are two different animals.

If your truck has no turn signals, brake lights, horn and a missing rear-view mirror, will it still not get you to the job site?
 
480sparky said:
OK, 'Operating' and 'operating safely' are two different animals.

If your truck has no turn signals, brake lights, horn and a missing rear-view mirror, will it still not get you to the job site?
Click to expand...

Not with me driving it LOL
 
OK, 'Operating' and 'operating safely' are two different animals.
Click to expand...

Kind of like the irrigation pump I worked on the other day that had the neutral switched? It was not possible to adjust the pressure switch with a metal wrench without shorting the hot to ground.

I have to go back to fix the mess but once the pressure switch was adjusted it worked fine, switched neutral and all.

It also worked before I put a plug end on. HO was using stripped ends of Romex to plug into the receptacle. Backwards. Which I guess made sense because if it was wired backwards at the receptacle then the neutral wouldn't have been switched, just the white wire.
 
ground

ground

thanks to all for your input, I was having a dicussion with another individual in my office, You all came through with flying colors!! I completely agree with each of you. Thanks Again
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top