[kramwallace]

Wiring comes in at meter then goes to 200 amp disconnect switch. Wiring goes from disconnect switch to panel in home. Would my panel in the house be a main panel or sub panel. I am asking because I want to add a sub panel to the home panel for a workshop. My panel in the house has the nuetral and ground together, is this right? The ground rod is at the meter, would the ground and neutral be together there and should the ground and nuetral at my panel in the house be separated with the neutral isolated? From reading this forum I think my house panel may need to have the neutral isolated, and I would isolate my panel for the workshop? If so I would run 4 conductor to the workshop and separate the ground and neutral and would I need a ground wire at the workshop since it is detached and is 50 feed away?

Why not always separated the ground and neutral?

[stanfortyman]

This can be confusing because of terms.

You panel is your "main" panel, but it is not the service disconnect. That is the switch outside.

With very few exceptions, EVERYTHING downstream of the service disconnect must have the neutrals and grounds isolated.

This being said, the panel is wired wrong. It SHOULD be wired as a "sub-panel", meaning the grounds and neutrals should be kept isolated.

Also, any other panels fed from it should also be wired as sub-panels.

You detached structure sub-panel also requires at least one ground rod using #6cu to the sub-panel.