Square D sub panel

This Square D sub panel appears to have the neutral and ground on the same buss bar. If not mistaken, this is not allowed. However, I do not see a separate neutral and a separate ground buss bar in the panel. Comments please?

First of all, that thick white wire has to be marked as “hot” with a red or black tape.
That 4-space bar is for neutrals only (or at least must be used as such in this situation). The ground bar is an option that gets mounted probably on that protrusion with the hole toward the upper right of pic. 2.

It also appears to be using the ground as a neutral on the feeders coming from the main panel. This panel looks like it is intended to also be a 240 disconnect if needed and has been wired as such and then it has been used as a 120 circuit instead. Even if they separate the grounds and neutrals, it will still be incorrect, in fact, I believe it will then be void of any neutral and will cause surging.

There is no neutral conductor since the feeder is only a 2-wire + EGC cable. As mentioned the 120 volt component of this setup is running off of the EGC and not a neutral. Also the neutral bar is not bonded to the enclosure so there is no connection between the feeder EGC and the enclosure therefore it is not properly grounded.

Would the correct fix for this require a new 3-wire + EGC cable be installed?

There is no breaker on L1.

Seeing it is not used for 240VAC the wires can be moved around.
What is this panel for? Way too much wire size for the branch circuits…
Something is way off in the planning stage.

Depends, if you never need 240 volts the current 2 wire + G cable can be reconfigured for only 120 volt loads. That means that you need to alter the current installation on both ends.

WHAT…you mean I can’t use Purple…Red and/or Black only…how about any color other than green, white, gray and so on. Black and Red are not the only colors of the acceptable rainbow;)…sorry I could not resist.

Thanks for setting me straight there, Paul :slight_smile: