As an electrician for many years now, I do understand the reasoning behind it, but I just wanted to compliment you on a very easy to understand explanation.
This is hands down one of the best explanations I've seen on this. Usually when this is discussed they only of what you do and not why you are doing it. Good work.
This is a perfect explanation but it’s also important to recognize how dangerous it is to disconnect a ground wire or what happens if a conduit is broken because there would be a potential difference across the disconnected path. In other words never assume that a ground wire is dead because it can get you when you disconnect it.
I've watched lots of TH-cam videos trying to understand this concept. I'm a visual person and I also want to know why something works. If I just memorize rules I don't remember it near as well. I can rethink the process you described and refresh my memory. You did a great job! Thank you!
Here’s one that baffles me - you have a range or dryer with 3 terminals and ground. The instructions tell you in a 2 wire install (older homes) to connect the neutral and ground on the device together. I was thinking this through, and became real to me when I tried to use a 40-amp gfci breaker and it kept tripping. Often the logic boards or a motor are 120v, so they are technically flowing neutral current through ground (and the shell of the device), and if at some point a fault occurs, or the grounding conductor comes loose, that shell now becomes live. I was taking some lineman courses and they were talking about the requirements for parallel grounding of disconnected lines due the possibility of picking up on emf current simply from being next to an energized wire or the wind blowing. This stuff is serious and we take so much for granted. Sorry for the rant, but there is a lot behind how we ground. God bless and thanks for all your work.
I have a vivid memory from about 1974, when I jumped on a section of chain link outside a neighbors house. My friend pulled me off as I was “stuck” to it. The father had grounded the dryer to the fence (as I recall)
I learned so much from your videos today, this one in particular. To show my appreciation I'm even watching the ads til the end, well most of them anyways. Thank you very much.
As a EE from long ago, I loved this explanation. I'm not a full-time sparky, but do a fair amount of work on 100+ year old homes and buildings and the amount of knowledge that I've forgotten is high. Never too proud to got back and review the basics. Also, have to check out the NEC and updates even though so much existing stuff is sooooo old. Where I live, NM is verboten so gnd wires don't exist as in the NM world.
If I could Give more than one thumbs up you would get a crap load from me. Best explanation I have ever seen by far. Almost 40 years in the trades. You nailed it.
GREAT VIDEO!!! I love the way you used the diagram of current flow. That made it very clear what could happen. You were also using correct electrical units describing current flow for what it is and no words like "power flowing". Nice job all around. Thanks!! Wish you would do video on generator transfer switching.
Like to THANK the video for clarifying very important topic around everything electric in the house, ground surfaces need only ground connections, so there is NEVER a remote chance for white neutral wire returning any hot AC current to a ground somewhere much further to be connected with metal surfaces of devices because they are/were not separated like they should be at 1st point of disconnect in the local house circuit ... only like to say I wish I knew ... this as teenager hooking up stuff for self and other people free but no reports of injury thus far ... but perfection is everything ... so with new information in mind everything will be checked, corrected and perfected when building NEW ...
Thank you Electrical Code Coach! I subbed to your channel and appreciate the knowledge and wisdom you share sir. May GOD bless you! You have inspired me to raise my skill level and go into being am electrician apprentice and praying more in time.
Excellent job. Something to remember is that all conductors are also resistors. The human body is also a conductor/resistor and all the metal components in our electrical systems are also conductor/resistors. When you put resistors in parallel in a circuit the total resistance will be less than the lowest resistance value in the circuit.
I had solar installed several years ago and shortly after I needed to replace my main panel due to main breaker buss issues and to expand the number of circuits. In the process of removing the old panel I found that the neutrals and grounds were still bonded together, which at that point the main panel would have been a sub-panel due to the solar having a main disconnect after the meter head. I was surprised to see that seeing as the solar installation had to be inspected by the NEC/Underwriters inspector before being energized. I separated the grounds and neutrals in the main panel. Thanks for the great video.
I personally think NEC should mandate separate ground bus bars for all installations. Neutral bud bar and ground bud bar, then bond them together in main panel only. This makes moving to solar or Generator easier and safer when it isn’t done unknowingly to home owner
excellent explanation. under normal operating conditions, neutral may have current flowing through it (when unbalanced load), while ground wire will never have current under normal conditions.
The ground wire should be installed as basically an "extra neutral" wire that is connected to the chassis of an appliance instead of the neutral connection on it. It's a safety wire that will safely carry the current back to the breaker box if there is somehow a leak of current from the hot wire, through a component inside the appliance, to it's chassis. That way, if your grounded body touches an exterior metal part of the appliance, YOU don't become the path for the stray current to return to the breaker box, it rides on the ground wire instead. Electricity ALWAYS follows the path of least resistance, and a properly installed ground wire has much less resistance to the breaker box than the path between your body, the earth, to the breaker box. Therefore, no shock from a leaky appliance if you touch it with a proper ground.
Awesome explanation. Reminds me of some electrical faults I saw on boats, where the (12v, thank goodness) current was getting drawn the wrong way through the circuit because there was a better ground in an unanticipated place. The ground from one circuit was functioning as the hot for a second circuit. Hard for an amateur like me to wrap my head around sometimes.
@7:00 side note, the panel and rigid will only be energized if you bonded the neutral bar to the panel which like youve been saying they should be seperated at every other means of discconect but also unbonded.
Not sure about the NEC, but in the CEC(Canadian) the white wire in a 2 wire system is the ‘identified’ conductor. The green is the bonding conductor, not ground wire. The neutral by definition is the white wire of a 3 wire system. Neutral and identified are not interchangeable nor is ground and bonding interchangeable. Terminology is important when teaching. So if you are in Canada, the terminology used in this video is incorrect but the theory seems accurate.
I Get it!!!! This makes me wonder about my Old welding connector. off panel 2 in the garage. (no neutral) Off my sub panel. 2 BTW my panel 2 has the neutral; disconnected from the case. I worked on 5000 amp DC plants in a Telephone exchange building. We had a PHG (Personal Hazard Ground) and would measure to make sure this PHG had no current on it. Thanks. I had AC electricians tell me "Oh it is just DC" LOL Just subbed.
In workers camp.....a hot/cold shower mixer has a 10 volts AC from those copper plumbings with the concrete in the bathroom. When the earth cable in the water heater was disconnected. Now it's fine. Didn't bother to troubleshoot specially those were old facility.
I've noticed alot of electrical workers do know when and where to bond and separate grounds and neutrals. What I've seen time after time of not bonding a transformer. I've seen lots of licensed electricians think that because of first disconnect being bonded that they didn't have to bond the transformer . I maybe wrong I my explanation ,but I try to explain that it is now a separately derived system and you start all over again.
This is soo true. I came off of a outside panel bow to hook up my camper and i would get a light shock, almost like a 12vlt shock and couldnt figure it out. I called in an electrician and it was this very thing.
Thank you for sharing and I'm learning a lot as I like to Tinker with solder as I live off-grid and I have wired my own home I appreciate you and thank you again so much for sharing your knowledge
Excellent explanation. I've been an electrician for 37 years. What surprises me is when I see a sub panel fed with 4 wires and they still didn't separate the grounds and neutrals. What did they think the purpose of the separate ground and neutral was?
My problem with this is that I installed a 30 amp sub-panel for my RV and there was only one bar in the panel for attaching ground wires and neutral wires. That 's way the panel was manufactured. By what you're saying here I assume the neutral bar should be insulated from the panel body?
No, there are many panels where they are all bonded together, definitely work with a qualified license electrician in your local electrical inspector on this one
What if you only have 3 wires, (2 hots, 1 neutral) coming from the Meter to the house which is about 85 feet apart. my question is do we still bond the ground and neutral at the house service panel? And does there need to be a ground rod at the house? Thanks
i wish someone would cover rural underground triplex install where there is no 4th wire and many outbuildings in series. not every body lives in a modern subdivision.
AWESOME video! Quick question. I'm looking to do two subpanels in series (garage subpanel connects to shed subpanel for multiple local branch circuits for shed lighting, 240v air compressor circuit, and outlets). Given what you've stated in this video and your out building series, I'm guessing BOTH subpanels need their own ground circuits (separate grounding rods and equipment ground in series from the originating structure) and BOTH subpanels need to have their bonding screws removed?
I cant find answer to my question. I have a 4 pole breaker as my first disconnect, which obviously disconnects the neutral. So should i bond Earth Neutral before or after the 4 Pole breaker?
I've always separated the ground from neutral at the breaker panel. The ground goes to the grounding rod, the neutral goes to the neutral side of the breaker panel and then the return side of the powerline. Anything else courts disaster.
Keep in mind that older sub-panels installed before the mid-60’s typically did not have a ground going to the main and combined the neutrals and ground in the sub-panel. These of course can be upgraded by either replacing with a new sub-panel and appropriately sized ground or installing a separate ground bar and ground back to the main.
A year and a half into an electrician classroom , no teacher has ever explained it this way, please keep doing it!! 👏🏻
Let's go! Thanks for the feedback!
As an electrician for many years now, I do understand the reasoning behind it, but I just wanted to compliment you on a very easy to understand explanation.
Thank you!
This is hands down one of the best explanations I've seen on this. Usually when this is discussed they only of what you do and not why you are doing it. Good work.
Let's Go!!!
This guy is a very good instructor. I didn't have to restart the video. It was completely understood at every point.
Thank you for the kind words and support!
I spent a day studying this concept for a course. You explained it far better in 10 mins. Well done!
This is by far the best explanation for GND vs N
Let's go! Thank you.
I have asked licensed electricians plenty of times about the ground / neutral thing and not one could explain it. Now I can tell THEM! Great video.
Right on!
This is a perfect explanation but it’s also important to recognize how dangerous it is to disconnect a ground wire or what happens if a conduit is broken because there would be a potential difference across the disconnected path. In other words never assume that a ground wire is dead because it can get you when you disconnect it.
I've watched lots of TH-cam videos trying to understand this concept. I'm a visual person and I also want to know why something works. If I just memorize rules I don't remember it near as well. I can rethink the process you described and refresh my memory. You did a great job! Thank you!
Thank You! I'm glad this helped.
Here’s one that baffles me - you have a range or dryer with 3 terminals and ground. The instructions tell you in a 2 wire install (older homes) to connect the neutral and ground on the device together. I was thinking this through, and became real to me when I tried to use a 40-amp gfci breaker and it kept tripping. Often the logic boards or a motor are 120v, so they are technically flowing neutral current through ground (and the shell of the device), and if at some point a fault occurs, or the grounding conductor comes loose, that shell now becomes live. I was taking some lineman courses and they were talking about the requirements for parallel grounding of disconnected lines due the possibility of picking up on emf current simply from being next to an energized wire or the wind blowing. This stuff is serious and we take so much for granted. Sorry for the rant, but there is a lot behind how we ground. God bless and thanks for all your work.
Why is your channel not booming?? You should have more subscribers with the value you offer in each and every video.
Thank you for your kind words, I'm all about slow steady growth, it tends to stick around longer.
I have a vivid memory from about 1974, when I jumped on a section of chain link outside a neighbors house. My friend pulled me off as I was “stuck” to it. The father had grounded the dryer to the fence (as I recall)
Thank you I appreciate you
You're welcome, and I appreciate that!
Wow....the pictorial of this video makes it so easy to understand one of the most, if not the absolute, hardest concept of wiring & safety to grasp!
Let's Go!!
This is the best tutorial i have ever seen. You have done an outstanding job explaining this..
I learned so much from your videos today, this one in particular. To show my appreciation I'm even watching the ads til the end, well most of them anyways. Thank you very much.
I appreciate that bro! Lets get to it!!
Thanks!
You are very welcome!
I Think you are intelligent and making good fruits with this channel .
Cudos to the creator of this video for a job well done from a seasoned electrician and code inspector. Mike Holt would be proud of you.
Let's go!!
This is so much clearer than Mike Holt tho
Other than you being 100% correct, this is the best and most through explanation I have ever seen. Great job.
Don
i love dogs. they are the best pets. good info. i was a maintenance electrician my entire career. its a pretty decent job for a young man
As a EE from long ago, I loved this explanation. I'm not a full-time sparky, but do a fair amount of work on 100+ year old homes and buildings and the amount of knowledge that I've forgotten is high. Never too proud to got back and review the basics. Also, have to check out the NEC and updates even though so much existing stuff is sooooo old. Where I live, NM is verboten so gnd wires don't exist as in the NM world.
It's always good to keep go over stuff again to keep the old mind sharp!
If I could Give more than one thumbs up you would get a crap load from me. Best explanation I have ever seen by far. Almost 40 years in the trades. You nailed it.
Thanks for the thumbs up it means a lot! Let's get to it!
GREAT VIDEO!!! I love the way you used the diagram of current flow. That made it very clear what could happen. You were also using correct electrical units describing current flow for what it is and no words like "power flowing". Nice job all around. Thanks!! Wish you would do video on generator transfer switching.
This is a wonderful video that will save someone’s life probably
Thank you 🙏
Like to THANK the video for clarifying very important topic around everything electric in the house, ground surfaces need only ground connections, so there is NEVER a remote chance for white neutral wire returning any hot AC current to a ground somewhere much further to be connected with metal surfaces of devices because they are/were not separated like they should be at 1st point of disconnect in the local house circuit ...
only like to say I wish I knew ... this as teenager hooking up stuff for self and other people free but no reports of injury thus far ... but perfection is everything ... so with new information in mind everything will be checked, corrected and perfected when building NEW ...
Lets Go! Thank you for your comment, safety is always number one.
I’ve watched 10 videos and you explained this perfectly.
Thank you! I am so glad I could help!
Great graphics. Thank you.
You are very welcome
Wow much respect coach!! First video I've seen of yours and I immediately subscribed, you're great!!
Thanks. Learned important grounding rules.
Thank you Electrical Code Coach! I subbed to your channel and appreciate the knowledge and wisdom you share sir. May GOD bless you!
You have inspired me to raise my skill level and go into being am electrician apprentice and praying more in time.
Excellent job. Something to remember is that all conductors are also resistors. The human body is also a conductor/resistor and all the metal components in our electrical systems are also conductor/resistors. When you put resistors in parallel in a circuit the total resistance will be less than the lowest resistance value in the circuit.
Agree with the others. Best explanation I’ve seen. Now I fully understand the why. Thank you.
Thank you!
Wow. This explanation is the best I’ve seen.
Thank you, brother!
Been jake leg wiring my whole life....thank you and new sub.
Let's go! Awesome to have you!
Already watched before signing in. Thank you so much for the information. I have wondered for years about this.
Very enlightening, Thank you
You're very welcome
I had solar installed several years ago and shortly after I needed to replace my main panel due to main breaker buss issues and to expand the number of circuits. In the process of removing the old panel I found that the neutrals and grounds were still bonded together, which at that point the main panel would have been a sub-panel due to the solar having a main disconnect after the meter head. I was surprised to see that seeing as the solar installation had to be inspected by the NEC/Underwriters inspector before being energized. I separated the grounds and neutrals in the main panel. Thanks for the great video.
Passed my JW test last Friday! 1st attempt
Congratulations!!!!!
That's great bud... im hoping to take my nccer for electrical soon, Hopefully God willing pass it the first time.
Thank you i look for days for these
I personally think NEC should mandate separate ground bus bars for all installations. Neutral bud bar and ground bud bar, then bond them together in main panel only. This makes moving to solar or Generator easier and safer when it isn’t done unknowingly to home owner
Best explanation on TH-cam.
excellent explanation. under normal operating conditions, neutral may have current flowing through it (when unbalanced load), while ground wire will never have current under normal conditions.
The ground wire should be installed as basically an "extra neutral" wire that is connected to the chassis of an appliance instead of the neutral connection on it. It's a safety wire that will safely carry the current back to the breaker box if there is somehow a leak of current from the hot wire, through a component inside the appliance, to it's chassis.
That way, if your grounded body touches an exterior metal part of the appliance, YOU don't become the path for the stray current to return to the breaker box, it rides on the ground wire instead. Electricity ALWAYS follows the path of least resistance, and a properly installed ground wire has much less resistance to the breaker box than the path between your body, the earth, to the breaker box. Therefore, no shock from a leaky appliance if you touch it with a proper ground.
Excellent explanations, thank you for making this so clear! I just learned some very important information, nice job, subscribing.
I'm glad this helps. Thank you for the feed back and the sub.
Great explanation! Subbed!
Let's go!
Thanks!
This video really helped to clear out the confusion in my head on this subject.
Awesome explanation. Reminds me of some electrical faults I saw on boats, where the (12v, thank goodness) current was getting drawn the wrong way through the circuit because there was a better ground in an unanticipated place. The ground from one circuit was functioning as the hot for a second circuit. Hard for an amateur like me to wrap my head around sometimes.
Heck, I'm a "pro" and it's hard for me sometimes!
@7:00 side note, the panel and rigid will only be energized if you bonded the neutral bar to the panel which like youve been saying they should be seperated at every other means of discconect but also unbonded.
Dang. GREAT peace of mind Now. I watched 3hrs. of videos [ other peoples] But this made it Crystal clear to give me peace of mind .about My ....
I'm so glad I could help!
very clear explanation !!!!
OOOOOOHHHHHHHH! Great explanation! Thank you for sharing. Great job sir....
I'm glad this is helpful! Thanks for the feedback.
is this a correct statement? The neutral bar is connected to the metal frame? like we supposed to? 5:42
Thanks for the info, cleared up some things for me.
Great explination great info
Clear concise information. Scary.
Please go over necessary grounding requirements. Code numbers on grounding.
fantastic description, THANK YOU!
You're very welcome!
Also not to forget the breaker will not trip, no? Excellent video
Very good and explained video, as I’m sturdy for home inspector 👍
Good job 👍
Thank you! Cheers!
Thank ypu for explaining the reasoning behind this. It was always a bit of a mystery to me.
Glad it was helpful!
Great video !!!, well explained keep the good work .
Let's go! Glad you enjoyed it.
Not sure about the NEC, but in the CEC(Canadian) the white wire in a 2 wire system is the ‘identified’ conductor. The green is the bonding conductor, not ground wire. The neutral by definition is the white wire of a 3 wire system. Neutral and identified are not interchangeable nor is ground and bonding interchangeable. Terminology is important when teaching. So if you are in Canada, the terminology used in this video is incorrect but the theory seems accurate.
Thanks Coach.
I Get it!!!! This makes me wonder about my Old welding connector. off panel 2 in the garage. (no neutral) Off my sub panel. 2 BTW my panel 2 has the neutral; disconnected from the case. I worked on 5000 amp DC plants in a Telephone exchange building. We had a PHG (Personal Hazard Ground) and would measure to make sure this PHG had no current on it. Thanks. I had AC electricians tell me "Oh it is just DC" LOL Just subbed.
In workers camp.....a hot/cold shower mixer has a 10 volts AC from those copper plumbings with the concrete in the bathroom. When the earth cable in the water heater was disconnected. Now it's fine. Didn't bother to troubleshoot specially those were old facility.
Good stuff .very good info
I've noticed alot of electrical workers do know when and where to bond and separate grounds and neutrals. What I've seen time after time of not bonding a transformer. I've seen lots of licensed electricians think that because of first disconnect being bonded that they didn't have to bond the transformer . I maybe wrong I my explanation ,but I try to explain that it is now a separately derived system and you start all over again.
Good video. I understand now!
Thank you! This is an excellent explanation.
Great job explaining it, thank you.
Thank you!
Great explanation, thanks!
Best Coach Ever!!!
Thank you! 🙏 You rock!
This is soo true. I came off of a outside panel bow to hook up my camper and i would get a light shock, almost like a 12vlt shock and couldnt figure it out. I called in an electrician and it was this very thing.
Right on bro
Thank you for sharing and I'm learning a lot as I like to Tinker with solder as I live off-grid and I have wired my own home I appreciate you and thank you again so much for sharing your knowledge
Thank you, that was well said.
Excellent explanation. I've been an electrician for 37 years. What surprises me is when I see a sub panel fed with 4 wires and they still didn't separate the grounds and neutrals. What did they think the purpose of the separate ground and neutral was?
Thank you!
My problem with this is that I installed a 30 amp sub-panel for my RV and there was only one bar in the panel for attaching ground wires and neutral wires. That 's way the panel was manufactured. By what you're saying here I assume the neutral bar should be insulated from the panel body?
No, there are many panels where they are all bonded together, definitely work with a qualified license electrician in your local electrical inspector on this one
This was fantastic!
Great job! Thanks.
Thank you!
Just, wow! That was excellent.
Thank you for your feedback! Let's go!
Great presentation thank you for explaining it.
Todd
You're welcome, brother.
What if you only have 3 wires, (2 hots, 1 neutral) coming from the Meter to the house which is about 85 feet apart. my question is do we still bond the ground and neutral at the house service panel? And does there need to be a ground rod at the house? Thanks
Best explanation I've heard Thanks.
👍🏻👍🏻
i wish someone would cover rural underground triplex install where there is no 4th wire and many outbuildings in series. not every body lives in a modern subdivision.
At 9:04 why wouldn't the meter box/ first point of disconnect be live as well. Is the metal box not earthed??
Wow, didn't know what i didn't know. Thank you!
You're welcome. Lets get to it!
I just liked your dog waiting to eat his hamburger.
Thats really good.
Oh and i learned about grounding and stuff
AWESOME video! Quick question. I'm looking to do two subpanels in series (garage subpanel connects to shed subpanel for multiple local branch circuits for shed lighting, 240v air compressor circuit, and outlets). Given what you've stated in this video and your out building series, I'm guessing BOTH subpanels need their own ground circuits (separate grounding rods and equipment ground in series from the originating structure) and BOTH subpanels need to have their bonding screws removed?
Why not have RCBOs on all circuits?
I cant find answer to my question. I have a 4 pole breaker as my first disconnect, which obviously disconnects the neutral. So should i bond Earth Neutral before or after the 4 Pole breaker?
Brilliant clarification 💎
Phew I finally understand. Thank you!
Great! Keep grinding!!
great video
I've always separated the ground from neutral at the breaker panel. The ground goes to the grounding rod, the neutral goes to the neutral side of the breaker panel and then the return side of the powerline. Anything else courts disaster.
Awesome video. No fluff. Subscribing
Thanks for the support l!! 👍🏻👍🏻
Keep in mind that older sub-panels installed before the mid-60’s typically did not have a ground going to the main and combined the neutrals and ground in the sub-panel. These of course can be upgraded by either replacing with a new sub-panel and appropriately sized ground or installing a separate ground bar and ground back to the main.
HOWdy E-C-C, ...
Thank YOU - this is the BEST Explanation that I have heard to Date
COOP
the WiSeNhEiMeR from Richmond, INDIANA
,,,