SHORTS - WHY WE BOND (Neutral & Ground) Explained in 3 Minutes
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- čas přidán 18. 05. 2021
- Here's a short version of the video I did a while back on why we bond neutral and ground together at the service panel of a premises wiring system.
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These 3 minute videos are shockingly effective 👌🏽
I see what you did there
They amp me up
It's his energetic enthusiasm! They are educational and energizing
Absolutely. 3rd month apprentice here, and they are indispensable. These videos (and the shorts) have single-handedly given me an edge over any of the other apprentices in our shop.
His animations are really spot on. Very easy to understand.
Bringing GFCI into the conversation gets tricky; one of the big dangers in older circuits is that breakers are normally tripped only in short situations, where an abnormally large current suddenly flows, because the resistance of the device (bulb, motor, heater) is bypassed. The surge heats up the breaker, and it trips - eventually, before setting a place on fire. If a body comes between the load and the return neutral, resistance is added and you die, without the breaker heating to trip. GFCI breakers detect a difference in the two lines, and trip very fast if current in the neutral run is less than the hot wire, which would be a normal situation when a person becomes a path for current to go to ground.
Yup. I often work on homes that are 100+ yrs old. I'm not an 'electrician' , but have a EE degree. This stuff is SO hard to explain to homeowners, etc.
Many/most of the older homes/buildings only have 2 prong outlets, etc. Ironically, with all the non-metalic things we use today have almost zero chance of having hot side shorting to anything conductive. (N.B. I didn't say never or always, rather, things are trending that way)
To clarify a bit....short circuits create a swift rise in current that increases the magnetic field around the circuit. Overloads gradually increase the current correlating to a rise in temperature.
Hence the modern Thermal-Magnetic Breaker: Thermal for overload trip; Magnetic for fault/short circuit trips.
GFCI breakers are one way to add additional protection to older wiring systems without a ground wire as you described. Unfortunately, since the GFCI is designed to detect low level imbalance currents in the 5mA range, this can create nuisance tripping for some loads. In these cases, a ground wire must installed in conjunction with a thermal-magnetic breaker for proper operation of the load while providing adequate circuit protection.
thanks you save me lot of typing. The reason why you want the ground is so that lose wire touching that metal housing current goes somewhere and that trips the breaker(or fuse) instead of laying there like snake waiting to bite you.
This is shocking im really jolted reading this
@@mduraliawell said. A GFCI will detect the "missing" ~5mA that is not flowing from hot to neutral; the likely leak is a fault is a hot fault to ground, thus unmetered by the GFCI and explaining that acronym. However, a ground must be attached to a GFCI outlet to provide a fault path to attached grounded devices. And it must be backed by a traditional over-current breaker (or arc-fault breaker if code dictates).
The animation is fantastic. These types of quick videos w/animation are perfect for teaching the greenies/newbies some of the basics. Can you do one for 3/4-way sitches? Relays & contactors? Timers? Timing relays, etc?
The graphic animation is great. Much better than your usual 'draw over the screen' presentations.
One of the more difficult thing for me to understand as a Drafter has been the difference between Neutral and Ground. I've never had it explained really well. Thanks that helps alot.
neutral is meant to have current under normal conditions, ground would only have current under abnormal conditions (safety).
@alanbumbai thank you sir!!!!
To fully understand the nature of a NEUTRAL RETURN as distinguished from a GROUND to EARTH you need to examine the difference between the TRANSMISSION & DISTRIBUTION of POWER. If you look at the THREE PHASE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM in Wave Form then you will notice that at any given moment t(x) the SUM of the current in the three phases always = ZERO... that is a balanced system... arising from stepping up V to max & dropping Amps down to min for transmission with as close to zero magnitude of resistance as possible in order to travel a great distance without any loss of power thru impedance in the conductor [&/or environmental conditions affecting the capacity of the conductor viz developing impedance]... power of course once generated always remains the same [P = V x A]... once you get to the house(s) and the power needs to do work then you TRANSFORM the power from High V Low A to HIGH A Lower V so devices can do work & hence LOADING OCCURS... and since LOADING can never in a practical sense be balanced at ANY GIVEN MOMENT t(x) you have an imbalanced system & there MUST be somewhere for that imbalanced current to go in order for the circuit to be completed back to source... so in order to save needless expense over LONG DISTANCES in TRANSMISSION where you have HIGH V & LOW A in a totally BALANCED SYSTEM there is NO NEED for the NEUTRAL CONDUCTOR to exist... think about the cost of each conductor over say 10 miles from generation to distribution... that is a lot of conductor you are NOT installing! THAT is the necessity of the NEUTRAL RETURN... to carry the imbalanced current BACK TO THE SOURCE... so to keep it simple:
1. The GROUND EXISTS to divert any unanticipated current in a device/shroud etc away from the hazard as much as possible so that the GROUND SYSTEM will be the BEST path to ground rather than a person standing there touching something that has the unanticipated current AND the NEUTRAL EXISTS to ensure that there is a PATHWAY BACK TO THE SOURCE for the current to travel completing the circuit & allowing the hazard to be defected in the overload/short device so it can function & trip...
The REASON for BONDING the two NEUTRAL & GROUND at the 1st point of disconnect as the vid addresses is to ensure that the above is satisfied... however that is NOT the sole reason for the BONDING bcuz there is also the scenario where PRIOR to service entry the NEUTRAL or GROUND is disconnected... in which case you may have the dangerous result of a floating NEUTRAL... by BONDING the NEUTRAL RETURN & GROUND at the 1st point of disconnect it ensures that such a disconnect PRIOR to service entry will allow again the circuit to function with all safety measure in place & able to detect the hazard... so this comment with the yt channel creator's video should be the full explanation of the necessity of BOTH a NEUTRAL RETURN & GROUND SYSTEM in any unbalanced system > ANY SYSTEM that has LOADING at any given moment t(x) practically speaking will NEVER have the current sum = zero & MUST therefore have the presence of a NEUTRAL RETURN to source for that less than but still van be significant current.
Next you should study the PRACTICAL aspects of OPEN NEUTRAL/ "Floating" Neutrals and see the scenarios where the NEUTRAL RETURN is turned into a full on CONDUCTOR... hence carrying sometimes twice or more current than any one circuit was designed to carry via the installation, this happens when a COMMON NEUTRAL RETURN is utilized on different circuits & when the pigtails are removed the NEUTRAL AND THE PERSON can act like a part of a DBL or greater CIRCUIT... a very dangerous situ that home owners are almost 100% unaware of since they never do diagnostics & simply look at the color of the insulation as the sole evidentiary basis for their "circuit analysis" when they decide they want to DIY... this may be how the game "operation" was invented... you touch the metal & BOZO's NOSE LIGHTS UP & a BUZZER sounds! I hope this comment helped you on your journey to fully understanding the difference between & necessity of the NEUTRAL RETURN vs the GROUDING SYSTEM in distribution networks.
This is an extremely effective presentation. I appreciate your effort in putting this together.
Literally thank you, easily simplified for in my opinion almost everyone!
Thank you all these years nobody's ever explained it so easily and simply like you just did I really appreciate it now I completely understand it and I can explain it to someone else thank you
Awesome video. So nice when someone can explain something clearly and concisely in such a short time. Good work
One of the best explanation. Believe or not I been many months try to understand the bonding. Thank you so much
For once, someone made this make perfect sense. You are a saint of the electrical world
These shorts are educational and energizing!
extremely helpful video. Thank you, keep pushing great materials! Appreciate it!
Just found your channel. Keep it up bro these videos are quick but very informative. Love it!
I agree with most of what you said. The reason there are grounds at all is to ensure that a fault, as your animation showed very clearly, causes a high current to flow in the circuit, tripping the breaker and de-energizing the circuit. If there were no grounding, it would be possible for the light fixture to remain energized at 120 Volts due to a fault, waiting for someone to touch it, make a connection to ground through their body, and be electrocuted. Adding a grounding conductor to the metal parts of the fixture (green or uninsulated wire, and with the other end connected to the earth) ensures that there is no possibility that the fixture is at any voltage other than zero, compared to earth. However, using a stake in the ground to ensure an earth connection relies upon the earth's conductivity, how wet the earth is, how far the ground point is from the utility earth conductor, etc. and so there are too many ways for this not to work. As you note, connecting the grounding conductor to the grounded neutral wire from the utility ensures that this path has almost zero resistance back to the utility. The effect is that when a fault occurs, a very large current flows momentarily through the fixture, then the grounding wire, and back to the neutral. This ensures that the breaker trips immediately, clearing the fault in a few milliseconds.
If you didn't reference your electrical system to ground/earth , so had no connection between physical ground and neutral, then you would not get a shock touching a faulty light energized to 120V, as you will not be completing the circuit as the electrical system is not referenced to the physical ground anywhere (including not being tied to ground at the transformer). This is a typical setup for small generators, the trouble with this setup is, although a lot of people might say why don't we do that as we eliminate the shock risk from touching a hot wire while in contact with the ground, this is correct and for the first fault there will be no shock risk, but you would also be unaware of it and this fault would be fortuitously referencing the electrical system to ground, therefore any additional faults will present a shock risk despite the fact you thought you were protected by them, referencing the neutral to ground ensures electrical faults act in a predictable way.
Yep couldn't have put it better
If bonding to neutral is done solely to provide a path back to utility why wouldn't we just bond it to black in this scenario?
Yes. I don't understand how these videos that have only partially correct information get all these amazing comments from people. I can only give one like to your comment but I hope it somehow gets more prominence.
@@marcuswareham1 is this also why a system supplied by a delta-wound transformer is tolerant of a single ground fault, but not two?
You have a talent for being able to convey methods and principles in a concise and simple way for people to understand at a beginning level. You said it right at the end referencing "current" and "flowing"; at the beginning you had said power and current "coming from" the transformer and "going to" a load, please stick the words "current" and "flow" together when describing a circuit, like you did at the end here. Great video bro! 👊
But remember that AC current doesn't flow like water in a hose, from the transformer, into the house, and all the way back again. AC current moves electrons back and forth a short distance in the wire, typically a small fraction of the diameter of a human blood cell, 60 times per second.
As always Mr Dustin I've been following your channel for a little while now and man I got to tell you I have learned so much from your videos than the 4 year apprenticeship. you do a great job amazing explanation and obviously I love your animation thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and investing your time in US
Been preaching the same message to my continuing education students for years. It's surprising how many electricians have trouble with the concept.
Mostly because this is DANGEROUS practice and should not be followed (if you did it in the UK you would be prosected under Regulation 8(4) of the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002). What you should do, in cases where the earth loop impedance is insufficient to reliably operate a circuit breaker, is provide an RCD/GFCI for fault protection (in addition to any RCDs/GFCIs provided for additional protection).
The danger, particularly on an overhead supply, is that the neutral (which is also therefore your earth) breaks and the line conductors do not. This is a particular issue for things like electric vehicle charging where an equipotential zone cannot be maintained (as you are in contact with the real earth).
It is true that distribution network operators, in the spirit of cheapness, do typically provide such a bond in the cutout rather than maintaining a solid link all the way to the transformer/origin. This still risks the same dangers but is at least a controlled environment.
He makes these explanations seem effortless. Thanks bro!! 👊🏼 😊
That was an excellent animation. Kudos to your animator
Brilliant! Terrific explanation and excellent graphics!
Awesome quick videos- I like it right to the point!
Excellent short video it says a lot. Thank you!
Damn! I've never, ever understood this. Now I do. It was so clear. THANK YOU. BTW, the graphics are clever. I'm coming back for more if your content is this good.
This grounding n bonding video might be one of the best explanations with animation ... I feel like anyone who doesn't understand grounding and bonding would understand after this video
Absolutely great video and explanation. I've worked in the electronical trade on and off for years now. It would be cool to see the same sort of illustration but with a sub panel as well. Keep up the awesome work man.
I love the animation. And great info. Awesome video.
Awesome explanation man thanks.
Excellent explanation. Thank you for breaking it into simple terms
Beautiful explanation !!!
Best video I have seen on the topic
Thanks, it is such an easy way to understanding the principle behind.
the rule appears to be that you should never connect ground to neutral anywhere else than at the main panel. The reason for that (from countless individuals/websites online) is that once you do that, you would be a using a device's ground and neutral returns in parallel, and once the ground in a system is energized, this effectively energizes all other objects connected to ground in the system.
But given that ground and neutral are already connected together at the main panel, doesn't that do exactly what is meant to be prevented with this rule? Once you have conductors (ground/neutral wires) at equal potential somewhere in the system, how does connecting them elsewhere change their relative potential?
Hii want to discuss for the same
You ground it so that your computer case doesn't shock you when you touch it.
@@jash21222How? one of the "neutrals" (ground) is not connected to a load/hot wire unless there is a fault so it will not be carrying any current, you could argue that the capacitive effect could cause a small current to flow, but this would normally be negligible
When the current go's through the neutral and meet the ground at the sub panel it should not go to the ground because the circuit it's not closed between hot and neutral
Copper wire is not a superconductor, IE it has resistance, when a substantial amount of current flows thru even a resistance as low as a few ohms substantial voltage can develop, this is why sub panels have the neutral and grounds separated
Great info!
Hello Dustin, please excuse me if my Question sounds stupid. I am a beginner and cant understand one thing. If the Load ( Neutral) sends the current back to the main panel, where we bound it together with grounds on the side buses, Does not that mean that we have current on these buses too? Thank you for your service to humanity Dustin, i will be surely one of your Apprentices as soon as possible, Great work , high powered passion, God bless you.🙏
Excellent job of teaching this subject, T/Y!
thank you I've been learning a lot from your video's
Thanks for the awesome video.
Love the angry breaker box and sarcastic sign!!!
That was AMAZING
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the circuit is complete in case of the fault even without earthing the neutral, the image you used is for TT earthing scheme, and fault currents dissipated into the ground at the faulty load will correspond to currents being pulled up from the earthing point of the source, thus completing the circuit
I was thinking the same. This isn't a bad video but I don't think it explains anything.
No ground wire is needed to complete the circuit. Ground wire only provides another better path for the dangerous leak to get to ground, and hopefully trip the breaker through over current or gfci. Animation doesn't match the condition he is describing, "no ground".
Very well explained, Thanks
There are systems where the neutral is put to earth only into the distribution cabin. Therefore only the neutral of the transformer is put to earth. In case of faults, like the one you described in the video the GFCI comes into play.
Thanks I finally understand bonding. Well explained 👏
No, you don't, find my comment
Enjoyed your short video. :)
Excellent explanation
Very good !
Without the ground bonded to the neutral, we still have a path for the fault current to flow back to the transformer. It's through the ground rod, through the earth and over to the transformer's ground rod and ground rod wire. The problem is that path is a poor conductor and can not be relied on. That is why we bond the ground and neutral together at the main breaker panel.
Yep, the key phrase in all of this is "low impedance path" . Amperage is inverse of impedance per Ohms law and you want to jack up the amperage to trigger the overcurrent as quickly as possible
Do you never have an earth supplied to the property? In the UK, we can't take the earth off the nurtral ourselves, it has to be done by the distribution network (this is because of the unlikely buy very dangerous situation that could occur if the supply neutral is broken while being relied on for the earth, if the distribution network earth the supply neutral multiple times on its path then its ok)
So we either have the distribution network supplying an earth from the neutral, the distribution network supplying a separate earth, usually from the sheeving of the supply cable, or no earth.
Which is when we have to use a rod, we call this a TT system and we have to test it to ensure the impedence is low enough to meet disconnection times.
@@felixmoran1 - We have three wires coming in from the utility company. Two Hot wires and one Neutral/Ground wire. As for the house wiring, we only bond the Neutral and Ground together at the first breaker panel after the power meter. So the neutral wire only carries unbalanced 120 Volt loads. The only time we see current flowing in the ground wire is when we have a fault to ground and that normally trips the breaker of the circuit with the fault. As far as ground rods go, we have on or sometimes two at the home's breaker panel that has the neutral to ground bonded together and there is also a ground rod at the utility pole. I think all these ground rods are there for lightning protection.
@@felixmoran1PME does not make it safe, it just reduces risks. That is why EV chargers in the UK must to have PEN fault detection or be done as TT i.e. Just with a ground rod and no connection to the grounding of the house. (This is safe ss they are RCD protected and do not rely on high fault current)
@@felixmoran1 Older installations in the UK used TN-S where there was a separate earth and neutral all the way but modern ones are TN-C-S, also called PME where they are common. The difference to the US and some other countries is that the earthing is completely up to the provider so local earth rod is not mandatory.
Yes PEN-fault is a problem and in the UK it is worse as it is grounded at one end and not at the center like in the US. There are 400 reported cases of PEN-fault in the UK annually.
😄👍Good Stuff, Great Tips
Really good video.
Ah, Great Explanation, Sir... TY.
Does the aforementioned only apply to ROMEX in residential wiring or does it apply to conduit residential wiring also? Have yet to see a green (ground) wire anywhere in a main panel with conduit residential wiring here.
Thanks. I always wondered that.
Good job, thank you.
Cute animation very helpful.
Excellent video!
Question, if we bond N to G in the transformer, and not the main panel, doesn’t this bypass the breaker as well? Isn’t it better to bond in the main and not the transformer?
Thank You Sir 👍👍
A great explanation
In Norway, we are told that the reason we don’t mix earth with L or N is because we want to protect humans, pets or livestock from a potential current leakage, by connecting earth with the metal part of the component.
Very good explaination
This is very informative. What about sub panel? When do we bond and not bond?
i love these truth videos espeacially a cartoon electrical panel yanking the wire out of itself
QUICK QUESTION ....I am building a micro grid using Enphase micro inverters at the panels to an Enphase3 combiner box to a Eaton 240v disconnect then into a 200 Amp GE panel with breakers...Is the GE panel considered the second point of disconnect and therefore the neutral and ground should be kept separate???..the system does include a 12kw 48v inverter a BMP2 controller and four Tesla battery modules and 7.5 kw worth of panels
Peter In Hawaii p.s. as a 30 year plus General contractor I found your videos TOP SHELF!!!
I guess a way to look at it is that we often think of a breaker being there to handle the case where there is an overload condition such as having to many devices plugged into a circuit. This will protect the hot and neutral wires as well as the receptacles and switches. However, by bonding neutral and ground at the panel, the very same breaker can serve a second purpose which is to protect the hot wire and switches and receptacles and HUMANs in the case of a ground fault.
WOW. This vid finally got thru to me...so simple, why didn't others START off with this explanation and THEN get into expert level.
My generator came bonded and am connecting a 50 amp inlet box to the house breaker box. Is it fine to leave the generator bonded since I use it once or twice a year or should I make my generator a floating neutral.
Cool. Can you explain why sub-panels or anything after the first point of disconnected is not bonded (ground and neutrals separated)?
Simply put nothing can be gained by connecting it. The whole point is to have a separate ground wire.
Good one.
damn, I'm getting wicked smart! thanks
I think the proper spelling would be 'wicked smaaht'
Thanks bud I need to see this well said now I can wire my shed for a simple plug in
The face on the electrical panel had me rolling HAHAHAA!
Hi excellent and simple video. Can you tell me what would be the results for people who are grounding using that ground to earth wire in a fault case? Thanks
It is my understanding that new urban residential services have the grounds bonded to a ground connection comprised of either 1 or 2 ground rods. This does provide a ground path for ground fault current back to the utility transformer because the system neutral is grounded at every transformer. But by bonding the grounds to the neutral at the service panel a much lower resistance path to the transformer is established in addition to the ground path. So essentially you have dual pathways for fault current return via both the neutral conductor and the ground. Fault current will share both paths per the relative ratios of the resistance in each path so the vast majority of the fault current will return on the neutral. The nice thing about this is that it provides redundancy. If the incoming service neutral becomes damaged or severed, the service can still function and a ground fault can still clear via the ground path and the hot breakers should still operate so long as the ground connections are adequate. Unfortunately though, ground connections are higher resistance and they deteriorate over time. So it is best to rely primarily on the neutral conductor for fault return current and reserve the ground return to act only as a redundant backup additional path. The same philosophy applies in the distribution system but, the multi-grounded system neutral is even more important from a safety perspective because at higher distribution system voltages like 13.8kV and 25kV, hazardous step and touch potentials can develop on and around equipment when primary faults occur. The best way to minimize these hazardous potentials is to always ensure equipment and ground grids are bonded to the system neutral conductor and ensure that said neutral is sized adequately to conduct the entire maximum fault current possible at that location back to the substation.
Smart young man!
Thanks 👍
And I think, this also helps when the neutral path back to the service is broken, the neutal-earth bond will help in this situation by letting the ground act as the return path for the electricity back to the source hence prevent shocks that would arise in case there was no return path for the power trying to flow through connected loads in the system, remember in such cases most equipment cases/covers will be hot (high potential/voltages) all-over them creating dangerous situations in case a person touches them. So in such cases the ground will help do the job a neutral does.
Does it make a difference if you ground and bond at the meter or if has to be in the main panel ?? Thanks
If I don't bond a ground rod to my main panel do I still need to tighten my bonding screw? If the ground wire from the subpanel is connected to the neutral bus to carry current back to the transformer then what's the reason to bond the neutral bus to the panel. Where I live we mainly have a ground rod to our meter and it's not bonded to the main panel
Can you go over motor control?
Question: How is it useful when you use residual current device?
I’m installing a radiant heat concrete floor in my garage/workshop. Hole slab sits on 2” of foam insulation. The concrete walls are grounded but the floor will not touch the walls because of the foam. Do you think I should ground the floor? Just thinking that every time I shut the lights off I’m going to discharge static that built up and give me an annoying little zap.
When I say ground the floor I mean just add grounding rod before I pore the floor
I have some anecdotal experience and questions related to that, that are related to grounding and bonding. I once connected the neutral directly to a waterline that was under the sink out of curiosity to see if the circuit would work. And it did. But this video got me thinking, is it really true that it needs to go home through the neutral? Perhaps I thought it was going home through ground, but it might’ve just been going through the waterline back to the panel, and then completing the circuit that way. If I would have done the same experiment with just ground rods I think I will have a pain better results. But I am curious why the breaker doesn’t work in just reading the flow through the hot in either of the alternating current directions. It seems like the technology should be “smarter“ than that at this point. Lastly it sounds like the flow won’t go to ground like I thought it would, unless it’s bonded to the neutral and has somewhere “home“ to go. I always thought that earth was the ultimate home, but maybe I’m wrong.
There are a lot of different paths it can take. It's going to take the path of least resistance.
@@ElectricianU I’m confused. Did you make the video? The video says it has to go back through the neutral To create a “loop”.
@@ElectricianU why no bonding in SUB-panels
Great video, practical explanation. Thank you.
I have an outlet box which has 3 circuits total in it. 1 for the outlets and serving as a junction box for 2 other circuits. Can I tie the grounds from all 3 circuits together? I know not to do this for the neutrals.
I have a booster pump for an irrigation system. It is a 2 HP unit. I have 12/2 uf run from relay box to pump. I checked continuity all good. The dedicated circuit feeding the relay box was on a good functioning 20A standard breaker. When relay opened successfully after timer sent signal the panel breaker would trip within 3-5 seconds. I checked voltage at pump when relay opened it was 68 volts?
I did same check at pump with 12/2 removed from pump it was 122 volts. The shaft on pump wasn't seized and the start capacitor tested fine. I then swapped the dedicated single pole 20A breaker to a 15A standard double pole and turned the voltage switch on the pump from 115v to 230v the timer sent signal to relay and pump ran perfectly with no issues. Question is why was voltage drop on the sp breaker at 68 volts was there just too much resistance at pump and it needed more power? At the 150' from pump, the pump manual calls for a #14 wire when running 230v but a #6 wire if running 115v at same distance. I guess I'm confused at why the voltage drop to 68v when connected to pump but 122 volts when disconnected from pump. I first thought just the distance but when disconnected at same distance a proper range reading? Perhaps the load from motor just dropped the reading from 122 to 68 ? Your professional opinion would be greatly appreciated Thanks for a great video . Btw both standard breakers were Siemens brand
I just started studying electric theory. I remember a lot from high school but I’m sitting here scratching my head wondering why a neutral is necessary for AC. Isn’t it “going back to the source” in half of its oscillation? Just trying to grasp the concept.
Question. :It s correcto to have
A separate ground rod to Main panel diferent from the one that goles to neutral in the first point to connection ? Les Say dedicated ground .
At main panel, since Neutral and Ground are bonded, some electron currents do take the ground path back to the utility. What is max percentage of total return current flow allowable before utility needs to fix their neutral? 1, 2, 5%?
Wrong. Very high resistance with the ground path, electrons don't go through a highly resistant path such as Earth when they have a straight shot back to the utility. That, and they are going the long way around, which makes your theory only that, a theory.
@@Rico702Vegas Resistors in parallel . The electrons will flow through both resistances in proportion to the resistance .
@@Rico702VegasElectricity takes all paths. The share that goes through the ground is very tiny.
You should think it as a voltage loss. There is some voltage loss at the neutral. That is the voltage there is in the ground rod. I'm a well balanced system the current on the neutral is small so the voltage loss is also very small. In any case it can it ve many volts so the current on the ground is small. I'd guess 1% is the best of those.
Excellent video. I do have one question. If ground and neutral are bonded, why is there no current flow on ground when everything is working correctly?
I'm sure this is wrong, but it seems like everything should be live and dangerous to touch if you are grounded.
The resistance of the ground is much higher than the neutral. Sure there is tiny flow but it is irrelevant.
Can you ground at meter base and main panel? Yes? No? Does it matter?
Which working glove do you recommend for electrician?
One that is equal or greater then the cal value of circuits that you will be working on. OSHA mandates that once you take them out of the sealed plastic bag must be tested by a company that specialises in it every 6 months. We were taught to test rubber gloves before each use by rolling up open end several wraps and listen/ check for any air leaks. We use to send out 16 pair of glives to be tested and think it cost around $20 a pair. We had spare 600 & 15,000 volt gloves to use while 1 set was out being tested. Work Safe & wear proper PPE.
Thanks
What you failed to mention and most importantly is that bonding the neutral brings it down to earth level
(no potential) Old houses without grounds or bonds will shock the piss out of you when touching neutrals. Actual earth ground conductors are what we call equipment grounds and yes do supply a direct path to ground in the event of a short.
I had an electrician fix the drop wire from the power pole to my house - it had a lose connection and was arcing. Active/neutral are on the drop and we have an earth spike bonded to the neutral bus bar. The electrician asked me to power up the kettle for a load and then did a split test. I was suprised that several amps were flowing into the ground spike. That apparently is normal, so no, its not just during fault conditions that the earth spike is driving current through the physical earth around your house. Neutral is bonded to another earth spike at the local transformer. This is a typical overhead pole supply in Sydney, Aus.
Very cool video. I still don't understand why we're the only ones with a neutral. My suspicioun is that we have a neutral because we use two phase...
We have a neutral to get 120 volts. Without it you just have 240 volts coming into your service and you will destroy and 120 volt loads because you're feeding it with 240 volts
Nice
Curious. What if you “bond” at your equipment ie dryer. Would that negatively affect the breakers ability to detect a fault?
No, however it would cause problems if the neutral broke.
Thanks a lot!
We need the fault current to go back through the neutral wire to allow for the breaker to know there is a fault current and trip.
The question is, RCD does not need this process to know there is a fault current. Then if we are using RCDs, do we still need to bond earth and Neutral?
Thanks 🙏
Not necessarily. Many countries in Europe use TT and it is mandatory: Italy, Spain, France. In some countries like the UK it is optional. In the US it is not allowed. In TT the ground goes only to a ground rod but one then needs universal RCD protection. There typically are two levels, 100-500 mA for the grounding and 30 mA for additional protection. Before RCDs were used TT systems used different types of protection to cut the power.
@@okaro6595 much appreciated
We use TN-C-S and TNC in the UK.
Can I assume it is not needed (technically) if we are using RCDs?
If so, then I think it will be under one condition:
All the DBs connected to that transformer must have RCDs or RCBO.
What do you think?
@@babyprince84ukTN-C is not and has never been used in the UK. Older ones were typically TN-S and newer ones TN-C-S. Rural areas use often TT.
TN-C has been used in the past in German speaking countries and in Finland and possibly Sweden. It is now banned (though in Finland it is allowed in conversion, also of course replacing broken sockets is allowed). TN-C does not allows RCDs before the sockets.
Could you explain how it works in an RV or Boat?
I have an old 1982 truck camper. Is running a floating neutral generator a safety issue? Normally a pedestal is grounded when using shore power.
One thing I was wondering, if the neutral isn't bonded to the ground, would it even be considered a "neutral" anymore? Would you now just have two hot legs, similar to a 240v circuit?
@@okaro6595 Im not talking about equipment grounding, Im talking about system grounding. It's really a purely semantic question anyways. It's not really important to how the circuits work