Electrical – Ground wire arcing in breaker box

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While inspecting the breaker box in my shop area I noticed inside the breaker box was a ground wire that was loose inside the box.

The other circuits had grounds connected to the neutral bar.

Upon further inspection I noticed the loose ground wire had touched the inside edge of the breaker box and at some point had arced against the breaker box itself.

Upon even further inspection it appears the ground wire itself was presently hot.. although nothing was plugged into the single outlet for this circuit (30 amp 125v travel trailer hookup)

I turned off the circuit breaker and traced the circuit to an outdoor outlet that looks very old.

My question:

was the problem likely with the outlet? (many dead bugs and webs inside the outlet)

Can I just order a new outlet and hook it up ? Should I go ahead and reconnect the ground to the neutral bar?

The shop was built long ago by the person I bought the house from.. the breaker box doesn't appear to have a grounding bar at all which makes sense because there is no grounding electrode outside. The shop has independent electricity with it's own drop not connected to the house main box.

I'm a certified home inspector (took a class for my own benefit not for a profession) but I was trained to simply notice when it isn't correct and tell them to get an electrician to inspect it further.

What do you think about a new outlet and hooking the ground back up to the box?

Best Answer

The starting point here is that your building does not have a Grounding Electrode System.

  1. Every outbuilding is required to have one.

  2. Your wiring has been done in the style of a separate service, even though it's more of a split service with the house. Not only does a service need a GES, it also needs a Neutral-Ground equipotential bond to peg neutral to earth potential. Yours has none of that.

So you need to drive 2 ground rods 8' long, at least 6' apart and preferably on opposite corners of the building. Then run some, let's say #6 bare copper wire from the ground rods to the panel. Must be continuous, no splicing. At that point I would obtain an accessory ground bar for your panel and land them on that accessory bar, then also add a #6 strap from the accessory ground bar to the neutral bar. This assures you have a neutral-ground equipotential bond. There's no harm in having more than one as long as it's in the main panel, however, having only one allows a neat diagnostic trick.

That will bring your "main panel" up to Code.

I would also move all my grounds to the new ground bar (or to a ground bar tied to chassis). This is not a Code requirement for a main panel (it is for a subpanel), but it allows a neat diagnostic trick. Now that all grounds are on the ground bar, look for any neutral-ground screws (green) or straps that are on the neutral bar. You want to isolate neutral from chassis/ground (except for that #6 strap you installed). Now, you can put a clamp ammeter around that strap. It better say 0 amps. If it does not, you have a ground fault. Chase that by shutting off breakers until it goes away, then divide the faulty circuit until you find the particular problem.