Grounding via conduit and garage subpanel 3-wire feed

[carmodyody]

I'm looking to replace the subpanel in my barn workshop (200' from house/service). I'm looking at the old panel, I don't know when it was installed, but it's wired via 3 insulated conductors (2 hot 1 neutral) from the service panel (bonded ground/neutral bars in svc panel). As far as I can tell, there is no ground rod at the barn, but the neutral/ground bar (only one bar in panel) is bonded to a conduit hub and on to metal conduit into the ground. The metal conduit does not connect all the way to the house (pvc conduit on the other end coming out of the ground) and while there is a water line from the house to the barn, it is pvc, not metal. My questions are:

(1) Can that metal conduit be used as the ground rod for the barn? If I have to bury an electrode I have to put this off until spring thaws the ground.

(2) When installing the new panel, is it better to continue to use a single ground/neutral bar, or better to separate them out while I'm at it?

Here's a picture of the sub panel, I'm sure it will draw the ire of the forum...I'm replacing it, okay?

 

[augie47]

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