Service Entrance

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jimbro

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I just inspected a home that had a 4 wire entrance. The electrician cut the bare alum. ground and combined all the neutrals and equipment grounds together on the ground/ neut bars. The bars are not bonded.
Q.1. Is this a violation of the NEC? (I could into find anything specific about the 4 wire ground being cut)

Q.2. Does the combination of both equipment grounds and neutrals bars have to be bonded to the panel?
 
jimbro said:
The service was in the garage, the Panel was a main disconnect. Had the main in it.
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As long as it contains the service disconnect all that is needed is a 3 wire cable.

It sounds like either the person used the wrong cable by mistake or used what they had.

There is no code volition in cutting off an unused conductor and in the service panel the grounding and grounded conductors can share the same terminal bar but not the same terminal.

The bars are not bonded.
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As far as the bonding I can't comment on that from here, if you had a picture or could describe it better maybe someone can help.
 
Thanks Bob, I sort of thought the electrician used what he had. However there was no bonding jumper on the ground/neutral bars. Unless I'm reading this wrong according to NEC250.28 it is required. Is it required if the equip.gnd/neut bar is shared?
Jim
 
Could the 4th wire been used due to the fact that grounding was not re-established at the garage, therefore this panel becomes a load side panel. If a load side panel is the case, then the 4th wire, isolated grounds and neut. would be in order and the panel board would be bonded on the grounding side only. Just a thought.
 
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