latitud_rt

I am making progress on my new garage and run into a snag. I asked a couple of friends and got different answers, so I turn to the experts on here....

I have run my new electrical service from the mast pole to the meter/disconnect box. My snag is where to attach the grounding wire? I ran a 3 wire drop down the mast pole and connected it to the meter (2 hots and 1 neutral). The meter and disconnect are in one box and I wired my service panel using the same type of wire (2 hot and one neutral). I drove two grounding rods 10 feet apart and attached the bare grounding wire to both rods and this is where I am stuck. Do I attach the bar grounding wire to the main disconnect (in the meter/disconnect box), which is where the neutral is attached?

I have the service panel and meter/disconnect attached back to back and connected with plastic conduit. I attached a picture of the service panel as it is currently wire.

Do I need to run a grounding wire; covered or bare, form the service panel into the disconnect and attach it to the same location as the grounding wire from the rod and neutral? The service panel I bought has a green screw in a plastic bag that says use to bond neutral with ground inside the box, since this screw is not attached I assume the service panel the way it is has seperated the neutral and ground.

Any help is appreciated.

Greguw

Usually the right side of the panel is the Nuetral side and left is the ground , some panels are different , commercial in my are requires you to seperate the 2 sides of the panel in my area .
You shlould have a bonding tab to go from one of the ground terminals to the box and thats usually where the green screw gose .
I usually use a # 6 or 8 solid to my ground rod .
Every township is different .

greg

latitud_rt

I am still waiting in the inspector to call but I have located more information which matches what one contractor told me.

The ground wire from the rod bonds to the neutral inside the meter/disconnect panel. Then a wire travels from this bonded point inside to the main panel and connects to the ground lug. The main panel is considered a sub panel and therefore the neutral and ground are seperated and the green grounding screw is NOT installed.

I think this would only be correct if no outside disconnect were installed. Thanks for the help.

I am sure others have completed this sort of work and will chime in as time allows.

latitud_rt

Got a call from the inspector...either way is acceptable. If you ground outside then the jumper wire running inside must in insulated #4 copper.

If you ground inside, the neutral and ground are bonded in the main panel.

Fronty Owner

the pictures, I see a ground bar on the left side of the box under the yellow striped wire.

connect that ground bar to either the junction box ground that you pulled your wires from or to an earth bar outside.

latitud_rt

Used a #4 copper to connect the main panel ground to the meter/disconnect ground that is also connected to the neutral and this connection runs to the grounding rods. This makes the main panel a sub panel and seperates the neutral and ground so that they are not interchangable. Inspection for rough electrical is Friday hopefully will have power by Tuesday of next week. I plan on finishing the vinyl this weekend and all that will be left is trim work.