Grounding House Electrical Panel

In most houses the wiring system is permanently grounded to a metal rod driven into the ground or a metal pipe extending into the house from an underground water supply system.

Grounding house electrical panel. By shunting excess line voltage back to the panel s neutral pole the ground current forces the circuit breaker to trip. To counter this the nec began requiring all electrical panels to include a ground bus connected physically to earth by means of a ground rod. Three wires come from the electric meter and go into the main panel. Guide to grounding requirements for electric panels electrical question.

How far should a ground rod be from the house. National electrical codes nec 250 5 grounding and bonding grounding and bonding electrodes include a metal underground water pipe in direct contact with earth for 10 feet or more a metal frame of a building or structure a concrete encased electrode or a ground ring nec 250 28 grounding and bonding grounding and bonding a main bonding jumper or the green bonding screw provided by the panel. Hector a handyman from st. There are several different ways main panels are configured in homes here it is in a nutshell.

Two live hot wires and one neutral. The panel that s located directly after the electric meter is the main service panel. In standard sheathed nm cable this bare copper wire is included along with the insulated conducting wires inside the cable. The tripped breaker shuts off the circuit s current preventing a potentially dangerous situation.

Second the main electrical panel must be grounded to a grounding electrode such as a ground rod or rods driven into the earth near the foundation of your house. The electrical path main panel. Installation of at least one ground rod is among the grounding methods now suggested by the national electrical code nec article 250 to ensure a. A copper conductor connects the pipe or rod to a set of terminals for ground connections in the service panel.

Although the piping system is bonded to the ground through your main electrical service panel the panel grounding and the piping bonding are unrelated when it comes to function. How do i ground a breaker panel to the ground bar. Your service panel s ground wire prevents a line fault from becoming a shocking experience. The bare copper grounding wires terminate in a grounding bar in your main service panel and that grounding bar is in turn connected to a grounding rod driven deep into the earth outside your home.

Today all circuits controlled by the panel must connect to the ground bus by means of a third conducting wire and all devices on the circuit must have terminals for this ground wire. Main panels and sub panels.