2

I am in the process of building a new home and of course I'm saving some money by doing all the wiring myself. I do have a decent bit of experience with electrical work, but the main panel is a little above my skill set.

My specific question involves the 200a service panel, which has one main 200a disconnect switch to cut off everything, as well as slots for 6 breakers in addition to the main power feed going onward to my one and only distribution box inside the house. I am currently not planning on using any of the 6 breaker slots to power anything, so there is no technical "breaker" feeding the inside box aside from that main disconnect.

In the main panel there is only the one bus bar serving both the ground and neutral. The panel inside the house has the neutral and ground bonded. Do I need to remove this bond? I'm having trouble finding information since technically the indoor panel is a "sub" panel, but it is directly connected to the main feed.

I know any sub panels fed by a breaker cannot be neutral bonded, but since this one is actually directly fed by the main and not a breaker is that the case? Since the main is already bonded by having the ground and neutral on the same bus bar is having that second box also bonded a safety hazard?

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    The short answer is that there should be a bond in just one place. I'll let our resident sparkies elaborate in an answer, but I'll mention that "buss" is a misnomer stemming from a brand name. A bus conveys one thing to many places, regardless of whether they're children or electrons. :) You might take the tour to get to know us better.
    – isherwood
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 17:35
  • 3
    Possible duplicate of why is a service neutral grounded but not the subpanel-neutral?
    – Machavity
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 18:23

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Yes bonding in sub panel should be removed irrespective of the having / not having breaker, you can only bond in main panel(service entry) and i assume you run 4 wire (2 line , 1 ground and 1 neutral) from main panel to your sub panel. Bonding in subpanel is an electrical hazard can possibly make your ground and bonded metal enclosure hot conductor.

Improve this answer
1

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.