Case of the missing grounds...

[Frank P. Newman]

Yesterday I inspected the panel below, that was neatly and correctly done for the most part. However, the bundle of ground conductors just didn't look right. Finally, I counted the circuits in the panel (24) and the number of ground conductors actually terminated (15). So where are the other ground wires ? Just wrapped up in the bundle. I guess the assumption was that 'touching' is all that is required !

[David P. Valley]

Frank,

I defer all twisted grounds to a licensed Electrician. That's a lazy way of establishing a proper ground.

Ground wires should be placed onto a terminal bar with 2-3 grounds per screw.

[rmaday]

Originally Posted by dvalley

Frank,

I defer all twisted grounds to a licensed Electrician. That's a lazy way of establishing a proper ground.

Ground wires should be placed onto a terminal bar with 2-3 grounds per screw.

Wouldn't 1 wire per screw be less lazy?

[tdietrich1]

I was wiring branches in a panel, and routed all conductors with drip loops and terminated them nicely. I was happy, it was in the budget to use a grounding bar. I was in a race with another electrician who was doing the other side of a duplex home. He beat me, I found that he grabbed all the grounds, twisted them, and tossed them under a larger neutral lug.

I thought the inspector would flag it, it wasn't even noticed.

tom

[James F. McKee]

Originally Posted by tdietrich1

I was wiring branches in a panel, and routed all conductors with drip loops and terminated them nicely. I was happy, it was in the budget to use a grounding bar. I was in a race with another electrician who was doing the other side of a duplex home. He beat me, I found that he grabbed all the grounds, twisted them, and tossed them under a larger neutral lug.

I thought the inspector would flag it, it wasn't even noticed.


tom

I guess that has a lot to do with what pride You wish to take in Your work Tom...sure you might get by cutting corners..but really isn't it sad more guys don't feel bad about that ???....jmo...jim

[tdietrich1]

Originally Posted by jmckee

I guess that has a lot to do with what pride You wish to take in Your work Tom

Truth is, I was doing the work for free. A local charity org needed electrical work, and I'm licensed. If I was being paid by an employer I would have been fired, for taking too long.

tom

[Frank P. Newman]

Originally Posted by dvalley

Frank,

I defer all twisted grounds to a licensed Electrician. That's a lazy way of establishing a proper ground.

Ground wires should be placed onto a terminal bar with 2-3 grounds per screw.

You can be sure I deferred it for further investigation by a qualified.....
Too bad - the rest of his work was pretty decent (except for one case of 2 neutrals under the same screw).