Neutral on a ground bar

[James L]

1. Enclosure is not allowed to carry the neutral current. If you land the neutral on the cabinet ground bus the neutral current would have to travel on the enclosure to get back to the service neutral. No different than trying to use the grounding conductor as the neutral.

It would be like connecting the neutral to a metal conduit

 

[mtnelect]

Everything cancels out ... That's why they call it a "Neutral". You have power going out and the return power coming back. Unless you have a wiring problem downstream ... Like a ground wire connected to a neutral wire, or vice versa. The main panel is the "Clearing House" or the zero point where everything gets cleared. That is why anything beyond the main panel ... Like a sub panel, the neutral (Grounded) and the equipment ground (Grounding) must be separated.

 

[acrwc10]

1. Enclosure is not allowed to carry the neutral current. If you land the neutral on the cabinet ground bus the neutral current would have to travel on the enclosure to get back to the service neutral. No different than trying to use the grounding conductor as the neutral.

I saw this on a job yesterday, to make things worse, the ground buss was attached with self tapping sheet metal screws and there was no conduit or ground wire run between the main service panel and the distribution panel, just the 3 wire feeder. If the distribution panel neutral had not been incorrectly bonded to the cabinet, there would have been no return path for a fault to ground inside the house. (service was approved in 1984)

 

[Emtziii]

It has been educational to say the least but my understanding is all the more clearer. Thank you all for posting!!!

 

[hillbilly1]

Many, many years ago, I was ripping out a conduit system for industrial sewing machines. Changing over to overhead feed rail. Three phase, 240 volt. Got to noticing a lot of burnt marks on the connectors and boxes. Turns out, the light on the sewing machines were 120 volt, maintenance guy just used the conduit for the neutral! It’s a wonder some of the women didn’t get electrocuted!

 

[LadyDi]

That's an amazing story!

No doubt, if not repaired, time would have rewritten the outcome. Thank you for your unseen work.

Who knows, that could have been my mother or grandmother! My Hat is off to you, Hillbilly!

 

[norcal]

Many, many years ago, I was ripping out a conduit system for industrial sewing machines. Changing over to overhead feed rail. Three phase, 240 volt. Got to noticing a lot of burnt marks on the connectors and boxes. Turns out, the light on the sewing machines were 120 volt, maintenance guy just used the conduit for the neutral! It’sthe a wonder some of the women didn’t get electrocuted!

In a large house with improperly sized ducts, a HVAC contractor added a booster fan in a unsuccessful attempt in help performance, only problem was 5 ton package unit was 240V, & fan required 120V, so he used grounding conductor as a bootleg neutral, it was disconnected when the duct work was replaced to fix the problem.

 

[LadyDi]

Unbelievable!

 

[Fred B]

In a large house with improperly sized ducts, a HVAC contractor added a booster fan in a unsuccessful attempt in help performance, only problem was 5 ton package unit was 240V, & fan required 120V, so he used grounding conductor as a bootleg neutral, it was disconnected when the duct work was replaced to fix the problem.

Got one far more dangerous, went into home that HO reported light not working after handiman replaced switch. Found he tried to bootleg the neutral as a ground, (old rag wire where ground wire was twisted up under NM connector) big problem was the neutral (white wire) was not a neutral but a traveler on a 3way. It basically energized the entire strap of the switch with 120V. I think that counts as objectionable current. Never tripped breaker as no ground continuity back to panel.