[bergs4]

I just had the inspector by to review a 200A combo service entrance panel. He had one comment with respect to the equipment grounding conductor for my 240 volt circuits (3 total). He said each had to home run back to the service entrance and I could not pigtail in a junction box and then run one conductor back as a home run. I thought the code allowed the sharing of an equipment grounding conductor. Could someone point to the code section which confirms or disproves my belief? Thanks in advance.

[stanfortyman]

I'm not really following you. Are you looking to run the three home runs to a box and then conduit from there with one ground?

[bergs4]

To clarify --

Existing Panel --
1 Dryer Circuit (3 Wires -- Red, Black, Bare)
1 Heater/AC Circuit (3 Wires -- Red, Black, Bare)
1 Garage Subpanel Feeder (4 Wires -- Red, Black, White, Bare)

Junction Box I installed under existing panel:
Brought all of the above circuits / feeders in using the existing wiring

Leaving JBox to new service entrance/panel in 1.25" EMT:

Dryer: 1 Red, 1 Black
Heater / AC: 1 Red, 1 Black
Garage: 1 Red, 1 Black, 1 White
And 1 bare conductor for a total of 8 conductors in the conduit. So, the issue the inspector was having was that I used only 1 bare/EGC conductor (that acted as the ground for the dryer, heater and garage) from the jbox to the new service as opposed to 3 bare/ECG conductors.

[stanfortyman]

You definitely do not need three separate grounds for that. That is no different than using conduit for the whole thing, which would only require one ground.
Ask him for a code reference of what the violation is. He'll probably either come up with something bogus or simply tell you it's just what he wants, which is not acceptable.


BTW, the dryer must have a white neutral. A dryer is 120/240V, not straight 240v.

[bergs4]

That's exactly what I had thought, but wanted to make sure that I hadn't completely spaced on something. As far as the dryer, I actually did put in a neutral, I omitted it from the above description.

Also, in your experience, is challenging the inspector on something like this more hassle than it's worth? We're talking about 20 feet of wire to add grounds, which I have as scrap. I'm pretty happy with how the installation went and believe everything I have done is in compliance with the NEC, but am wondering if the inspector is going to start nit picking me for things that he says aren't code compliant (like the ground wire thing).

[tkrussell]

You don't mention any branch circuit wire sizes or amp ratings, The one equipment grounding conductor needs to be sized to the largest circuit breaker rating, which I will assume to be the panel feeder, and assuming it is a 100 amp feeder, it would need to be #8.

[bergs4]

As I was up on my roof today on an unrelated issue, I decided to take a closer look at PG&E's connection to my service drop conductors. I noticed on one of the hots, there was exposed conductor where the splice was made (see photo). Is this normal or should I have PG&E wrap more tape on the connection? Thanks.

[stanfortyman]

That's not anything I would worry about.

[bergs4]

I am adding a subpanel in my garage fed off the service I recently installed. I plan to use #1 Aluminum feeder conductors (2 hots, neutral and ground) in 2" pvc conduit. However, as the garage is a detached building, I would also like to add a lighting circuit that powers the exterior garage lights that originates at the service (main house) and is fed in the same conduit as my subpanel feeders. It is my understanding that the NEC allows this since the feeders aren't service conductors. My questions is, then, do I have to homerun the ground wire for the branch circuit all the way back to my service entrance or can I terminate it at the subpanel ground bus? Thanks.

[tkrussell]

A feeder conduit can contain wiring from other branch circuits, conduit just needs to be large enough. The 2" PVC Sch 40 conduit you propose is large enough for the 3 - #1 AL XHHW, 1 - #6 Al XHHW ground, and several # 10 ( I would use #10 wire for the lighting circuit, either in feeder or separate conduit.)

Honestly I would use a separate smaller conduit for the lighting, but you may do as you plan.

The panel in detached structure will need at least one ground rod, some states require two, to ground the separate ground bus in this panel. The ground for the switching needs to connect to this ground bus also.

[bergs4]

Thanks.

[bergs4]

I have another question -- is there anything preventing me from upsizing the ground wire from the subpanel to its ground rod from what I used for the feeder (in this case I used 8awg copper for the feeder and would like to use 6 awg to the subpanel ground rod). The reason I ask, is I have a lot of extra 6awg and very little excess 8awg. Thanks!