New House and only 3 service wires ?

[Sam Morris]

New house, electrical has been approved by the State inspector. Am I not understanding something?? I thought we needed 4 wires on a new construction ? I could not visually see a GEC, no ground rod, Ufer ground and no plumbing ground because we had a Pex water service line. The service wire came in from underground and there was a big green box in the side yard, I'm assuming that's where the power came in from. I just need to understand, is this like a secondary distribution panel because all the grounds in the panel were separated from the neutrals ? Thank You In Advance


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[david shapiro]

Sam. I'm a little confused by your question, and I can't make out the pictures wonderfully well. If the meter is back-to-back with the electrical panel, and there is no outside disconnect associate with the meter, what you show is the service panel. I can't make out a main CB, but it has to have one if the AHJ inspector had their marbles. Now I could easily have misunderstood the meter location vis a vis the indoor panel. One thing that is real certain is that the service disconnect must be readily accessible, per 230.70(A)(1). (This rule goes back at least to the early 1930s; in 1940, it was section 2351.) 230.70(B) says it needs to be marked clearly as being the service disconnect.

If the service disconnect is outside, it can serve as the firefighter's disconnect
(NEC 230.85 from 2020). With the service point outside, ground and neutral entering the distribution panel need to be separate, the neutral bar not bonded but floating, and the distribution panel is a subpanel. The ground could be a continuous metal raceway, mind. It does not need to be a wire conductor.

If the service disconnect is in that inside distribution panel, then it's the main, and only three conductors are required. Separating ground and neutral conductors on different bars still is okay in a service panel, but they both have to be bonded to the box.

I think you're saying you didn't see a GEC, but if this is not the service panel, that would be further upstream. I hope this helps.

[Sam Morris]

Sorry for the confusion, I can usually see near the service panel the grounding electrode conductor wire connecting to a rod, water pipe or a ufer grounding electrode. Just because it?s underground service wiring doesn?t change that correct ? Yes the panel is directly behind the meter base in the basement. This is the main service panel and the disconnect is rated for 200 AMPS, The neutrals, and the grounds are separated in the panel, and the bonding screw is bonded to the metal enclosure, I?ve looked high and low for grounding, with no luck.

[Jerry Peck]

I can usually see near the service panel the grounding electrode conductor wire connecting to a rod, water pipe or a ufer grounding electrode. Just because it?s underground service wiring doesn?t change that correct ?

Correct, underground or overhead service is the same regarding grounding electrodes.

All structures (which have concrete encased electrodes accessible at the time of construction and which will have, or eventually will have electric) will have a grounding electrode conductor (GEC) which connects to the concrete encased electrode and connects to either the service equipment or the meter*.

This is the main service panel and the disconnect is rated for 200 AMPS, The neutrals, and the grounds are separated in the panel, and the bonding screw is bonded to the metal enclosure,

The green bonding screw bonds the panel to the neutral, and with service entrance conductors, the neutral conductor is also the grounding conductor as the neutral permanently grounded at the meter (in most cases) and is used as the grounding conductor from the service equipment to the meter.

The answer to your question is that the GEC may go the meter outside.in that smaller raceway which goes from the meter can to into the ground. The service entrance conductors would be in the larger raceway going down from the meter can.

* (If you want to be bothered by reading this drift explanation, here it is. )
Which one of those is used depends on the utility and the AHJ. The GEC termination is required to be accessible. Many utilities want it terminated in the meter. Some AHJ say 'no problemo ... just leave the seal off the meter so it is accessible' ... to which the utilities have (in my experience doing electrical code inspections) acknowledge that for the electrical inspector to be able to access the connection and verify that it is connected, that the GEC is allowed to be terminated in the service equipment. Some will argue that it only needs to be inspected at the time the meter can is originally installed, while I point out that meter cans get replaced many times when the service equipment is replaced, and the electrical inspector needs to be able to verify the termination of the GEC at each inspection of work done on the service equipment.