why is a service neutral grounded but not the subpanel-neutral?

Question

I know it's code (refer to NEC 250.24(A)5 and 250.32), but I don't understand why you can't use a bonding jumper to connect the ground bus and neutral bus in the subpanel? I've been told it's because then you'd have current on the grounding conductor. In my attempt to understand this, I was thinking maybe it's a more of an issue of having parallel neutrals... but if they're grounded on both ends, how would that (not) work? Possible safety issue: if one of the grounds becomes disconnected, then you have a true parallel neutral... is that a viable or better explanation, or is current on the grounding conductor the real issue?

If so, then why isn't current on the grounding conductor(s) from the main panel a problem? I don't see the inherent difference between a subpanel and a main panel. Ultimately this question is, why bond neutral and ground in the main panel, but not the subpanel (besides NEC said so)? Why is the neutral from the main panel to the subpanel inherently different from the service neutral to the main?

edit- you may also refer to: How to properly ground a subpanel in detached building? for a relevant picture and because it is a related thread.

Answer 1

Ground and neutral are not parallel neutrals. I know it looks that way because they're bonded in the main panel. But shift into a different way of thinking about the purposes of the 2 wires. Think of the ground solely as a safety shield.

Let's try a few pairs of examples. The first is Code and the second bonds at the sub-panel also. The orange glow is on things which are "hot".

Seems awesome right? Poor old Code Man is in the dark. His power tried to return via neutral, and neutral is broke, so the power failed. Rogue Man is one happy guy and his life isn't disrupted. Ground is working great as a "backup neutral". He doesn't even know he has a problem!

Of course, ground is a thinner wire, so it might overheat, but so what? Or, what if both ground and neutral were cut?

Code Man is still in the dark and he's still gotta fix those wires. Rogue Man is dead.

In Code Man's installation, the hot went through the bulb, looking for neutral. It didn't find it, so it pulled the neutral up to 120V ( not enough power for useful work, but plenty to shock). It did the same for Rogue Man, but since he tied neutral to ground in the sub-panel, ground is now also 120V, including the service panel cover and the switch plate cover screws.

Suppose the sub-panel has its own ground rod. That doesn't help much. Earth tends to have high resistance, so the cover screws might be 103V instead of 120V.

I have the good fortune of working in EMT conduit in a steel building, which naturally forces the entire conduit system to ground. Ground is never part of the circuit in any way whatsoever. So I get to see it as intended, as a protective "shroud" around all things electrical.

Ground isn't quite yet a perfect envelope. It is in new work, but we still have a lot of old wiring out there that is not practical to outlaw entirely - such as NEMA 10 and switch-loop smart switches which poach ground as a neutral.

Why bond neutral at all?

That's a GREAT question. Not bonding ground would give you an isolated system. And that makes a lot of sense in some ways, like solving some of the problems you see above. But it has other disadvantages. I go into depth about that here.

Answer 2

I read through the postings, and I sort of understand why Neutral and Ground are bonded at the main service panel. But why is it a bad idea to bond them at the subpanel, seeing that the ground wire and the neutral wire from the subpanel are in fact connected through the bonding at the main panel anyway?

Harper really did provide the correct answers, but I think being a non-expert I may be able to explain it with some simple illustrations. (Disclaimer: I am just a beginner and I got interested in the neutral/ground wire question when trying to figure out how to wire some 50W LEDs to the electrical system.)

Everything is indeed Ok when nothing is broken in the circuit. If the subpanel is connected to the main panel then bonding at the subpanel seems harmless, but bad things happens when that connection is broken.

If ground wire and neutralwire are bonded at a subpanel, and somehow the neutral wires from the subpanel to the main panel is broken, then though this "bad bond" the ground wire now becomes the "backup neutral" and start to carry the current that is supposed to return to the transformer, and all the grounded cases etc becomes hot and can electrocute somebody. (See the code man vs rogue man illustrations by Harper May 26 '16 at 21:39)

Setup with no subpanel

                                  -----------
Main Panel         Hot wire      |           |
   --------------->--------------| Appliance |
   +------X-------<--------------|           |
   |      |        Neutral wire   -----+-----
   |      |                            | Ground wire
   +------|-----------------------------
   |      |
   |       ---- If the wire breaks there, all is well since
-------         the break occurs BEFORE the bonding 
 ----- Earth
  ---

Good wiring with no bonding at subpanel

                                     Subpanel        -----------
Main Panel         Hot wire             -           |           |
   --------------->--------------------| |---->-----| Appliance |
   +--------------<---------------X----| |----<-----|           |
   |               Neutral wire   |    | |           -----+-----
   |                              |    | |                | Ground wire
   +------------------------------|----| |----------------+
   |                              |     -         OK if there is a break
   |                              --------------  since there is no bonding
-------                                           at sub panel
 ----- Earth
  ---

Bad wiring with bonding at subpanel

                                     Subpanel        -----------
Main Panel         Hot wire             -           |           |
   --------------->--------------------| |-->-------| Appliance |
   +--------------<---------------X ---| +--<-------|           |
   |               Neutral wire        | |           -----+-----
   |                                   | V                | Ground wire
   +--------------------------------<----+----------------+
   |                               Alternative return path
   |                               via ground wire, which becomes deadly
-------                            when that path also breaks and the
 ----- Earth                       the appliance's case becomes hot
  ---

Alternatively, think why it is a bad idea to bond the neutral and ground receptacles at the outlet, and the same reason applies to the subpanel.

Answer 3

Before I answer your question let's cover a few basic properties :

• The main purpose of the neutral is to carry the unbalanced loads.
• The main purpose of the grounding system is to have a clean and reliable zero voltage reference.
• The main purpose of a ground rod, and/or other grounding electrodes is to help deter extrinsic indirect surges from natural sources from causing damage to the residential electrical system.
• The grounding system and grounding electrodes serve two totally different purposes.

Now to address the questions main concern

Why isn't current on the grounding conductor(s) from the main panel a problem?

Simple answer: Parallel and Series circuit behave differently.

For the most part, every branch circuit is ran in parallel in a home, yet the neutral carries all the unbalanced loads and is technically a grounded conductor in series. In a series path, voltage is inversely proportional, resistance is directly proportional, and current is constant.
This makes it very hard, if not impossible for potential voltage to go anywhere but down, but make no mistake about it, the neutral can shock and cause death because of current.

Answer 4

Hot wire is BLACK in A.C. and Ground in D.C, Neutral is White in A.C., and Red for positive, or "hot" in D.C..

The problem is trying to find an analogy with A.C. and D.C., which most are familiar with D.C. because they erroneously use the analogy of water flow for current in D.C..

Stick with A.C. and only A.C. unless you can think of A.C. as D.C. and the D.C. wires are changing places 60 times per second (60 Hz).

The ground wire to Earth ground from the appliance chassis ground has nothing to do with the electrical circuit, nothing.

Until after too many electrocutions did the electricians union demand for safety measures, which meant loss of profits, but savings in lives.

Look at the ground from chassis to Earth at sub-panels as if it did not exist and treat the circuit as it stands.

Next, DO NOT bond the neutral to ground past the main panel, PERIOD!

Those extra chassis grounds to Earth grounds are like a Faraday Cage for and only for safety and protection, and NOT to allow the circuit to keep functioning if the neutral is lost at the sub-panel(s).

The weakest link in any circuit should be the circuit breaker (fuse), and it should break (open) as soon as safety demands then to protect the circuit.

The circuit resistance is designed by the manufacturer. The circuit breaker (fuse) is designed to protect the wire from getting too hot and burning down the house, and not to protect humans and their animals from electrocution that's where GFCI come in and you can still fry if you touch both legs of hot and neutral at exactly the same time in under 10 milliseconds. The GFCI trips when there is a difference of potential, which most living organisms usually touch one of the two legs to trip the GFCI to cause a difference of potential.

In essence, the chassis ground to Earth ground is meant to cause a sudden drain of current above the circuit breaker, or the wire to break and flag for an electrician to fix the fault, and not to protect humans because 0.001 Amperes is the threshold of sensation, 0.010 Amperes is the threshold of pain, and 0.100 is the threshold of heart fibrillation, which equals death immediately following; so why would you tie or bond the neutral to the chassis ground to Earth at any sub-panel? It makes no sense because it's akin to using an electricians screwdriver without the insulated handle on a live circuit: although, the if you do, the circuit won't need a neutral if you have a good bonding. Just do not touch the, or any appliance on that sub-panel circuit. I rather deal with a booby-trap house than a house with a bonded sub-panel neutral with Earth ground, and not just "ground" because there is no "ground" in A.C., only in D.C. and that is the origin of the confusion. A word is what it does in the sentence and the word means what the pre and post context say. When in doubt, use a voltmeter.

Retired electrical inspector and engineer. The NEC helped pay my bills.