Electrical Panel Grounding Diagram

Any electrical repair in your home involves turning off the power to the circuit you ll be working on and you do this at the main electrical service panel you may know the service panel as the breaker box while in the trade it s officially called a load center the main service panel is like the switchboard for all the electricity in the home.

Electrical panel grounding diagram.

Or more of metal water pipe is in contact with the earth. In the maze of wires that inhabits your breaker box there s one more to be aware of. Although the piping system is bonded to the ground through your main electrical service panel the panel grounding and the piping bonding are unrelated when it comes to function. Here is a typical connection wiring diagram for a light outlet box and fixture connection.

Installing a ground wire to your electrical service panel can be done easily with a few hand tools. National electrical codes nec 250 5 grounding and bonding grounding and bonding electrodes include a metal underground water pipe in direct contact with earth for 10 feet or more a metal frame of a building or structure a concrete encased electrode or a ground ring nec 250 28 grounding and bonding grounding and bonding a main bonding jumper or the green bonding screw provided by the panel. Grounding bonding 2 in our example the service equipment for the home is the 200 amp main breaker panel. Sub panels are grounded through the cable that provides the sub feed circuit power.

Always reference the wiring diagrams listed here to see how the grounding connections should be made both to the outlet box and to the devices. Typically a bare copper wire it connects the neutral bus to a metal water. Second the main electrical panel must be grounded to a grounding electrode such as a ground rod or rods driven into the earth near the foundation of your house. By shunting excess line voltage back to the panel s neutral pole the ground current forces the circuit breaker to trip.

The ground bar is bonded internally when an external bond to earth is installed as described at the link for electrical grounding below. When grounding an electrical panel the following applies grounding a main panel. The tripped breaker shuts off the circuit s current preventing a potentially dangerous situation. Grounding a sub panel.

Typical connection methods for an electrical outlet or receptacle.