Tieing all equipment grounds together

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CONDUIT

Senior Member
When you have more than one circuit in a box and using metal clad cable or romex do you tie all the equipment grounds together... or do you tie all the number 12's together and all the 14's together. If you tie both circuits together and bond the box you can have a lot of equipment grounding conductors to fit into a wirenut. I have seen where electricians have tied all the 12's together and separately tie all the 14's together. I can't seem to find a code article that say's that they should all be tied together or can be done separately.
 
Most people think the code article means to tie them all together.

250.148 I believe it is.
 
ActionDave said:
I think that is the intent although I will confess to doing it like the OP with all the 14s under one wire nut and all the 12s under another.

I also think it is a very stupid rule.
Click to expand...

The 2017 NEC clarifies that all EGC's from all circuits in a box have to be connected connected together. I don't disagree with your opinion.

250.148 Continuity and Attachment of Equipment Grounding
Conductors to Boxes. If circuit conductors are spliced within
a box or terminated on equipment within or supported by a
box, all equipment grounding conductor(s) associated with any
of those circuit conductors shall be connected within the box
or to the box with devices suitable for the use in accordance
with 250.8 and 250.148(A) through (E).
 
I have tied each circuit EGCs together separately before too.

I don't have a strong conviction one way or the other. I guess it depends on how I feel at that moment.
 
In gutters and j boxes I may use a ground bar to keep it simple. Seems like a bad idea having a lot of joints on such an important wire. I learned to accept that it has to be done.
Then came along the Grounding Magician. “ ISOLATED GROUND” and with smoke and mirrors showed me I just can’t know some things correctly.
 
packersparky said:
The 2017 NEC clarifies that all EGC's from all circuits in a box have to be connected connected together. I don't disagree with your opinion.

250.148 Continuity and Attachment of Equipment Grounding
Conductors to Boxes. If circuit conductors are spliced within
a box or terminated on equipment within or supported by a
box, all equipment grounding conductor(s) associated with any
of those circuit conductors shall be connected within the box
or to the box with devices suitable for the use in accordance
with 250.8 and 250.148(A) through (E).
Click to expand...
I don't see how this section clarifies the situation. It doesn't state that all wires of different sizes have to be spliced together.

Let's say you're using 3 metal gem boxes connected together in a residential kitchen. If you have a (20A) GFCI in position 1 and (15A) switches in position 2-3, the # 12's are bonded to the JB via a green screw and then crimped as are the # 14's under a separate screw and crimped thereafter. In addition, once you screw the devices onto the JB it's redundantly bonded to the box. Now, if you're using a plastic JB what point would it serve to splice ALL the ground wires together ?

I don't believe you can use the IF argument. (i.e. "IF the # 14 EGC's become disconnected you'll still have the # 12 EGC to clear a fault"). What IF the # 12's become disconnected ? I'm not suggesting that it's wrong to make these connections - I just don't see where it's mandatory.
 
packersparky said:
The 2017 NEC clarifies that all EGC's from all circuits in a box have to be connected connected together. I don't disagree with your opinion.

250.148 Continuity and Attachment of Equipment Grounding
Conductors to Boxes. If circuit conductors are spliced within
a box or terminated on equipment within or supported by a
box, all equipment grounding conductor(s) associated with any
of those circuit conductors shall be connected within the box
or to the box with devices suitable for the use in accordance
with 250.8 and 250.148(A) through (E).
Click to expand...

??? I'm seeing ALL egc associated with any of those spliced or terminated circuits in that box... which would probably be all the time.... unless a circuit and its egc was in a conduit system and just went through a box (no splice or termination in that box of that circuit???)
 
ritelec said:
??? I'm seeing ALL egc associated with any of those spliced or terminated circuits in that box... which would probably be all the time.... unless a circuit and its egc was in a conduit system and just went through a box (no splice or termination in that box of that circuit???)
Click to expand...

That's the way I see it also.
 
I see no logical reason to keep them separate. I've always twisted all of them together, leaving properly-size tails for the devices.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top