OT ELECTRICAL QUESTION

[John T]

Ground rods and ground/neutral bonds are two different things. One can have as many ground rods as one wishes.

I do hope the OP, even with all the gerrymandering here, got his original question answered. zuhnc

Exactly X2 ditto. Grounding and Bonding are two separate things. You got it !!!!!
John T

 

[olddavid]

I agree you can touch a bare neutral and not get shocked if its NOT carrying any current HOWEVER if its carrying current,,,,,,,,,,,,you touch it,,,,,,,,,your feet or any body part is in contact with say mother earth or any other return current path,,,,,,,,,YOU ARE PLACING YOUR BODY IN PARALELL WITH A CURRENT PATH AND CURRENT CAN FLOW IN THE AREA OF YOUR HEART AND AS LITTLE AS 0.030 AMPS CAN CAUSE FIBRILLATION

Sooooooooooooo I agree you can strip off the insulation and touch neutral and NOT get shocked,,,,,,,,,,,, but if its carrying current and you put your body in parallel depending on what other body part is in contact with earth or another path, your body can conduct current and YOU CAN GET SHOCKED.

Thanks John T. I was speaking theoretically, and I certainly wasn't advocating touching a bare neutral but if it is properly grounded and not overloaded it should still be at or very near ground potential. There would be some voltage drop if the neutral is carrying current but it will (should be) small. The human body has resistance and unless the voltage drop is enough to overcome that resistance and flow the fatal current one is ok. I suppose someone very sensitive to electrical current or one was standing in water might feel a tingle but there shouldn't (in theory) be enough voltage to deliver a fatal shock. As you said it's not a good idea to touch a bare neutral. If you are working on a hot circuit and you unhook the circuit neutral from the proper grounded neutral that circuit neutral will become hot if anything is plugged in or connected downstream. The same is true if the neutral should come loose at the panel and the circuit breaker is not turned off so I agree it's not a good idea to touch bare neutrals unless the proper breaker or disconnect is thrown.

 

[John T]

Thanks John T. I was speaking theoretically, and I certainly wasn't advocating touching a bare neutral but if it is properly grounded and not overloaded it should still be at or very near ground potential. There would be some voltage drop if the neutral is carrying current but it will (should be) small. The human body has resistance and unless the voltage drop is enough to overcome that resistance and flow the fatal current one is ok. I suppose someone very sensitive to electrical current or one was standing in water might feel a tingle but there shouldn't (in theory) be enough voltage to deliver a fatal shock. As you said it's not a good idea to touch a bare neutral. If you are working on a hot circuit and you unhook the circuit neutral from the proper grounded neutral that circuit neutral will become hot if anything is plugged in or connected downstream. The same is true if the neutral should come loose at the panel and the circuit breaker is not turned off so I agree it's not a good idea to touch bare neutrals unless the proper breaker or disconnect is thrown.

Thanks fun chat and for sure we agree Not to touch a bare neutral yikes lol. I still think it’s possible to get shocked if your body becomes a parallel path with a current carrying neutral and you and I aren’t going to risk it for sure !!!! It only takes 0.030 amps to fibrillate the old ticker. If the neutral we’re carrying 20 amps and your body is in parallel only carrying 0.030 amps, that small amount and current share can be fatal !!!! And for sure you get shocked grrrrr ouch ya

Take care fun sparky chatting

John T

 

[Dusty MI]

My memory is not good, I've lost part of it. I'm going to add another stick to the fire.
On the farm I grew up on had the service/meter on a power pole in the yard with 3 over head wires going to every building, and had it's own power panel and it's own grounding, with 3 wires going to it.
This was in the 50's & 60's.
Dusty

 

[JMOR]

OK. House I grew up in had two wire service. That was OK, too.

My memory is not good, I've lost part of it. I'm going to add another stick to the fire.
On the farm I grew up on had the service/meter on a power pole in the yard with 3 over head wires going to every building, and had it's own power panel and it's own grounding, with 3 wires going to it.
This was in the 50's & 60's.
Dusty

..

 

[buickanddeere]

It is a neutral that is supposed to be held to earth potential by the ground rod/plate .

 

[John T]

It is a neutral that is supposed to be held to earth potential by the ground rod/plate .

Exactly X2 Ditto............FWIW We earth grounded the HV aerial Neutral at every 4th utility pole,,,,,,,The Transformers LV Secondary Neutral,,,,,,,,,,,The Main Service Entrance Panels Neutral was earth grounded to ALL READILY AVAILABLE GROUNDING ELECTRODES such as Ufer Grounds, Building Steel and Rod(s) driven into mother earth NOW THATS SOME SERIOUS EARTH GROUNDING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John T

 

[Janicholson]

Thanks John. I take one little exception to your explanation. You CAN touch a bare neutral and not get shocked. Since the neutral is at ground potential there is no voltage on it. The same is true for the ground wire even if it is conducting current from a faulty unit to ground. A neutral WILL be hot however if it gets disconnected somehow from the power line ground since voltage will feed through whatever is connected to it to the neutral wire. Please don't ask me how I found that out.

A person can be grounded/connected to conducting material that is grounded far enough away from the One (and only) N G bond to be shocked rather well if not fatally. other equipment may also be on different supplysources and interoperationally "hot' you are correct exceptt for the exception. Jim

 

[DoubleO7]

Five pager coming up guys!

WooHoo!

 

[JMOR]

Five pager coming up guys!

WooHoo!

only post #70, so far.. there is one over 200!