Electrical – The subpanels ground is not bonded to main panels neutral busbar

electrical distributiongrounding-and-bonding

The main panel has a neutral and three ungrounded conductors entering it from the utility provider is also has a grounding rod the neutral and three conductors get transmitted from one location to the other location into a sub panel in the sub panel it has a neutral bus and a grounding bus the grounding bus is isolated and every possible way from the neutral bus is this bad.

I know a little bit about electricity and I didn't do this project I'm just wondering because I know and a main panel all the grounds and neutrals come together in the main bus, and when it goes to a sub panel the grounds and neutrals are isolated from the main panel out, and go to separate buses.

I'm just wondering if the main grounding bus in the side panel has to be bonded to the main neutral bus in the main panel with a wire or a grounding rod is sufficient.

I know if the ground is not probability bonded to a neutral it could probably store electricity in if someone touches it could deliver a fatal electrocution.

Note: I know electricity is not stored it just flow along it.
But if it's a capacitor it will store electricity

Best Answer

Short answer, you do want a ground conductor between the main panel and subpanel (not just a ground rod at the subpanel) and you only want the neutral bonded to the ground at the main panel.

The ground rod alone is not sufficient - although there would be a path through ground back to the main building's ground, that is not a low impedance path, it wouldn't be low enough to clear a fault, not safe, etc.

The ground conductor could be a metal conduit from panel to panel provided it's installed properly so that it creates a continuous path back to the main panel.