Kevin Slankard
03-24-2008, 2:28 AM
I just wanted to run this buy you guys before I head to Lowes tomorrow.
I have an external panel at my house that is fed directly from my meter can. The neutral and grounds all run to the Neutral Bus bar. This seems to be normal for a main panel, as I've read up on tonight. This panel is grounded with a grounding rod.
I'm installing a 40amp double pole breaker in this box and gonna run power to my shop. I'm plan on running 2 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground. The hots will be 8awg stranded wire and the neutral and ground will be 10awg stranded wire.
I apparently bought a main box instead of a sub panel box because there is no ground bus bar in the box, only a neutral bus bar. Reading on the net tonight, seems like I'm going to have to install a ground bus bar since this is a sub panel.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel confident to this point. Now, here is where I think I'm right, but could be wrong:
Since the main box only has a neutral/ground common bus bar, I shouldn't run a ground from that bar to the ground to my new sub panel. I should only run a neutral from the neutal/ground bus bar and then install a ground rod and connect it to my new sub panel grounding bar. Clear as mud right? My new shop is not attached to my house. Its about 30ft away and as of now, ungrounded in any way.
Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't realize there were so many codes and what not. When I started this I was going to just run a ground and neutral from my main box to my new box and connect both wires to the neutral bus bar as I saw on my main panel. But, this doesn't seem to Kosher now. If anyone can find a pretty good write up on this I'd love to read it. I'm not quiet following why this is good practice for the main box and not a sub panel.
Thanks for listening. I'll have some pics up of the new shop soon. I have a few circuits ran inside for some outlets and lights and a few pieces of OSB up to see how the finished product is going to look. I'm now double and triple checking my main connecting before proceding.
Kevin
I have an external panel at my house that is fed directly from my meter can. The neutral and grounds all run to the Neutral Bus bar. This seems to be normal for a main panel, as I've read up on tonight. This panel is grounded with a grounding rod.
I'm installing a 40amp double pole breaker in this box and gonna run power to my shop. I'm plan on running 2 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground. The hots will be 8awg stranded wire and the neutral and ground will be 10awg stranded wire.
I apparently bought a main box instead of a sub panel box because there is no ground bus bar in the box, only a neutral bus bar. Reading on the net tonight, seems like I'm going to have to install a ground bus bar since this is a sub panel.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel confident to this point. Now, here is where I think I'm right, but could be wrong:
Since the main box only has a neutral/ground common bus bar, I shouldn't run a ground from that bar to the ground to my new sub panel. I should only run a neutral from the neutal/ground bus bar and then install a ground rod and connect it to my new sub panel grounding bar. Clear as mud right? My new shop is not attached to my house. Its about 30ft away and as of now, ungrounded in any way.
Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't realize there were so many codes and what not. When I started this I was going to just run a ground and neutral from my main box to my new box and connect both wires to the neutral bus bar as I saw on my main panel. But, this doesn't seem to Kosher now. If anyone can find a pretty good write up on this I'd love to read it. I'm not quiet following why this is good practice for the main box and not a sub panel.
Thanks for listening. I'll have some pics up of the new shop soon. I have a few circuits ran inside for some outlets and lights and a few pieces of OSB up to see how the finished product is going to look. I'm now double and triple checking my main connecting before proceding.
Kevin