I did some work today in a 35 yr old commercial building. The service was a 208Y/120 3-phase. Some of the runs from the main panel were in 3/4 inch emt with #12 thhn. Each conduit had 6 ungrounded conductors, 2 neutrals and 1 ground. I was wondering how they were keeping track of the neutrals so they wouldn't be overloaded. Starting in the first j-box of each run the two neutrals were wired together. I haven't seen this before. Is this an acceptable practice?
neutrals
- Thread starter sparky59
- Start date
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- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
It's not acceptable in my eyes. I believe this will create EMF's and will also be a parallel neutral.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
For starters parallel conductors must be minimum of #1/0 in size so splicing the #12 neutrals together is a violation. The guy who wired these circuits didn't have a clue as to what he was doing.
LawnGuyLandSparky
Senior Member
sparky59 said:
It sounds like they weren't keeping track of the neutrals, and this is why they were spliced together.
Yes, my suspicion is the same as LawnGuyLandSparky's. Could you provide us with anymore information. I not specifically trying to refute anyones opinion or good practice; just deciper the situation more technically.
When you mean 6 (ungrounded) conductors, were there two A 's, two B's and two C's? Were the pairs wired as parallel feeds, just like the neutral? Or if these are two circuits, what are the OCPDs? What is the load(s)?
When you mean 6 (ungrounded) conductors, were there two A 's, two B's and two C's? Were the pairs wired as parallel feeds, just like the neutral? Or if these are two circuits, what are the OCPDs? What is the load(s)?
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