sdetweil wrote:
while not on topic, this incident has made me take a close look at both my subpanels, and both are a mess. ground and neutrals mixed, one enclosure not even grounded.. fun things to fix!
only thing I don't understand, sub panel using plastic conduit,
master has ground/neutral bonded. sub not bonded.
if the conduit had been metal, the sub panel would have inherited the bonding.
what can/am I supposed to do about this?
bond at the sub (no/no)
leave unbonded (maybe?)
With a safety ground unavailable you should not bond the cabinet to the neutral. Because if something interrupts the neutral between the sub pannel and the earth ground this would energize the cabinet making "taking a look" a dangerous endeavor.
Most codes would require running a separate wire back to earth ground. Then you have to hope whatever interrupted the earth ground didn't also take out the safety ground. Which would probably be the case.
Ideally you should install an earth ground at the sub pannel And have it Megger tested.
Megger equipmentI didn't want to drill a hole in the middle of my garage floor and install 12' of ground rod so my sub pannel box is not grounded.
My other sub pannel for my camper is grounded to an earth ground at the box.
