Please Help! Sec. 200.2 & 200.3

[Mike R Johnson]

Look at Sec. 200.2 and 200.3

Neutral has to be taken to motor disconnect and terminated on the neutral bar. The ECG will terminate on the accessory grounding bar. The green bonding screw can only be used when the equipment is used as service equipment.

The disconnecting means have provisions to terminate the grounded and grounding conductors when the accessory grounding bar is purchased and installed. The grounded conductors is terminated at the disconnecting means and stops at that point when the equipment being supplied does not require a grounded conductor. If the grounded conductor is not required for the feeder or branch circuit, the grounded conductors taken to the disconnecting means is not required to be larger than the equipment grounding conductor. In the case or a step down transformer, the adjacent panelboard where the primary conductors originate should have a grounded conductor and the panelboard would serve as the disconnecting means..


This was an email i recieved from an inspector. I understand what the code says but did they realy mean for us to take a grounded conductor to 3 phase equipment and cap it off because it does not use it? I dont believe the code intended this.

Please help because this is going to cost some $ if i have to add a Neutral to all the 3 phase equipment just to cap it off and it never get used.

Mike

 

[crossman gary]

I understand what the code says but did they realy mean for us to take a grounded conductor to 3 phase equipment and cap it off because it does not use it? I dont believe the code intended this.

Please help because this is going to cost some $ if i have to add a Neutral to all the 3 phase equipment just to cap it off and it never get used.

If that is what your inspector is requiring, he is entirely incorrect.

200.2 - when they say "premises wiring systems shall have a grounded conductor" they are not talking about each and every circuit and feeder in the whole building. They are talking about the overall system. Essentially this means that the service must have a grounded conductor (unless relieved of the requirements in the noted sections). It does not mean that we have to take a neutral to every piece of equipment even when the neutral is not used by the equipment.

200.3 - all this says is that if the premises wiring system has a grounded conductor, then the utility supply (or generator or whatever is the source) must have a corresponding grounded conductor. For example, you could not build a service and wire the premises as if it were a 480Y/277 and then use a 480 ungrounded delta to feed it.

 

[iwire]

Please reply here.

Article 200.2