One of the Most Frequently Seen Electrical Defects
Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009
by Joe Farsetta
Inspection Arbitration Services
DID YOU KNOW...
... that one of the most frequently seen electrical defect has to do with the wiring of electrical sub-panels? It's true. A majority of sub-panels, which are secondary electrical panels wired to the main electrical panel, require four-conductor feeder cables. Once these conductors reach the sub-panel, the grounded (neutral) conductor and grounding (bare-ground) conductor must be SEPARATED. In fact, the neutral conductor must be on its own termination bus bar, which is not in any way connected to the panel case, or housing. The ground conductor must be connected to the case. In addition to this, each individual branch circuit cable's neutral and ground conductors must also be separated, and correctly terminated onto the corresponding terminal bus bar. Often, inspectors see these wired co-mingled and terminated on a single terminal bus bar. This is a common electrical defect, which related directly to safety, and which must be corrected via re-termination. Sometimes, the feeder cable has an insufficient number of conductors (four are needed) which makes correcting this defect more costly and complicated.
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