Grounding Electrical Panel

Grounding and bonding happen simultaneously during the installation of an electrical system and branch circuits.

Grounding electrical panel.

Distance from the electrical panel nec article 250 does not specify a minimum or maximum distance between the main electrical panel and the ground rod. When this happens you must bring an appropriately sized equipment grounding conductor over with the circuit to the subpanel you must not have a neutral to ground bond in the panel and the grounding electrodes are optional although highly recommended. Which scenario is recommended. Two problems make the safety of these approaches questionable.

Your service panel s ground wire prevents a line fault from becoming a shocking experience. If your electrical cables have metal sheathing that runs all the way to the panel the sheathing can serve as a ground path. The grounding wire that runs from your electrical panel to grounding electrode helps even out voltage increases that often occur because of lightning and other causes. By shunting excess line voltage back to the panel s neutral pole the ground current forces the circuit breaker to trip.

They work hand in hand in order to make it safe. The tripped breaker shuts off the circuit s current preventing a potentially dangerous situation. The wires that bond your metal piping are preventative and they only become important in the unlikely event that an electrical conductor energizes the pipe. The connection is often unreliable.

The grounding pathway is generally formed by a system of bare copper wires that connect to every device and every metal electrical box in your home. Grounding a main panel the ground bar is bonded internally when an external bond to earth is installed as described at the link for electrical grounding below. In standard sheathed nm cable this bare copper wire is included along with the insulated conducting wires inside the cable.