What is the Difference Between Grounding, Bonding and Neutral?

have you ever wondered what all these terms  means grounded and grounding neutral bonding   all of that sometimes a neutral is a grounded  conductor but not always let's get into it [Music]   all right so to start out there's a few terms that  I think are really important to understand once we   get into code we start talking about a grounded  conductor and a lot of times there's confusion   once somebody starts trying to size a neutral  conductor figure out what size it is because they   call it a grounded conductor and they don't really  realize you're not just sizing it using a table   there's a lot more to neutral reduction sizes and  they're completely different parts of code so I'm   not going to get into whole like neutral sizing  video but somebody asked me a question recently   and they were talking about 250.102 C1 which is  a table specifically talking about like using   these grounded conductors but they're looking  in article 250.102 C1 under bonding conductors   and it's specific to bonding so it's not actually  talking about grounded conductors which is 250.24   um but there's this whole 220.61 neutral reduction  size so like there's a lot of confusion because   sometimes code will call it a neutral and then  sometimes they'll call it a grounded conductor   but are actually talking about two different  things so a grounded conductor within itself   is a type of conductor it is a conductor  that is intentionally brought to Earth   a neutral is that but not every grounded  conductor is a neutral conductor so   just had to preface all of that so let's get into  it first thing that we need to understand is what   a grounding electrode is when we're talking  about a gec if you're like in forums or talking   and you keep seeing people throw the word gec out  there they're talking about a grounding electrode   conductor specifically that is the portion of  the grounding electrode system that we run a   conductor to so like right here we run a conductor  from a ground bus down to a ground rod the ground   rod is a grounding electrode so that conductor in  between is called a grounding electrode conductor   over at a utility pole same thing they'll drive  ground rods down at the bottom of them and then   they'll have a conductor that goes down there  intentionally grounding this system so that's   a grounding electrode conductor it's just the  conductor that goes to the electrode electrodes   can be a lot of different things so if you start  looking at article 250 in code they're going to   talk about Metal underground piping systems or  large metal underground structures or they might   talk about ground rods there might be ground  plates that you can bury there's all kinds of   different things that you can use as a grounding  electrode sometimes we use the rebar in slab so   like grounding electrodes there's a whole bunch of  them but the conductor that you run to said huge   piece of metal to like establish continuity with  Earth that's the grounding electrode conductor and   its purpose is entirely different than equipment  grounding conductors or EG sees which we will get   here in into in a minute grounding electrodes were  not always installed so a lot of times like old   school wiring systems it was just a hot neutral  and that was it there was no ground as reference   to Earth and the systems worked just fine it has  nothing to do with the functioning of a system or   clearing faults you know any of that stuff it's  a completely different thing equipment grounding   conductors and bonding conduct conductors are  what are used to actually trip Breakers so just   keep those things in separation in your mind  now we have bonding jumpers bonding jumpers   are a whole different thing bonding is not  grounding bonding is not grounded bonding just   means taking one thing that's metal and another  thing that's metal and jumping them together   connecting them together so that they are one  continuous bigger piece of metal now that's a   bonding jumper and there's a couple of different  bonding jumpers and code that it talks about we   talk about a main bonding jumper and that is  the bonding jumper that takes our ground bus   and attaches it to our neutral bus a lot of like  Schneider panels they just have a green screw   and you tap the back of that screw it goes from  the neutral bus through the can the actual metal   can which is down below making contact with the  ground bus so it's by putting that screw in that   is a main bonding jumper it's a it's a screw type  of main bonding jumper you could instead of using   that just run an actual conductor from the neutral  bus all the way over to the ground you could do   like this like that's a conductor but sometimes  there's just going to be a screw that like well   so the screw be on this side sometimes there's  just a screw that Taps that neutral in so that   it's making continuity with the can all the way  over to the the ground bus and that's how it's   making that that Bond it's making those pieces  of metal one piece of metal so the main bonding   jumper is always the bonding jumper that connects  all of our grounds to our neutral in our panel   specifically at the panel next we've got a supply  side bonding jumper so sometimes when we're   talking about like any grounds that are leaving  the panel and going out into the field into   like equipment that's one like location within a  circuit that we're thinking about bonding things   anything before the breaker the main first main  disconnect at the service that goes back into say   like a utility meter goes up to the pole all of  this stuff from like this point backwards is all   considered the supply side there's no ground  established yet we're not bringing in a green   ground this way and tapping grounds and stuff like  that we never do that we just bring our unground   conductors which are our black and our red and  we bring our neutral or our grounded conductor   in with it and then once we get in here then we  start establishing our grounds because now we're   going to have a grounding electrode that goes out  to the Earth again has nothing to do with anything   I'm just mentioning it because it's helpful to  think that all of these grounds come together   from that point from the ground where we've got  our main bonding jumper we can run a separate   jumper because this can over here is metal  and it's not actually bonded to anything and   it needs to be everything that is metal that's  touching anything around wires needs to be bonded   together and it has to have a way for you to be  able to clear fault current so we have to bond   this can with a jumper right here to the ground  so that way there's a way for it to get through   neutral and go back and actually complete  a circuit and clear a fault open a breaker   so this little section right here this little  jumper this is called the supply side bonding   jumper it's coming from the supply side and it's  bonding everything that's on the supply side but   it's not going anywhere else out in the field so  we're saying that it's a bond that's happening   before a breaker it's just on the supply side  going to supply side equipment is a better way   that you can think about that so that is a supply  side bonding jumper next is the system bonding   jumper so you could have a separately derived  system which might be a Transformer that's out in   the field somewhere where you're establishing an  entirely new circuit there's a primary side of a   circuit and then there's the secondary side of the  circuit the secondary starts a brand new circuit   so they consider that separately derived it's  not the primary circuit coming from the utility   company to the secondary power system it's the  primary that's coming into the Transformer that   is being separated and deriving a new source  of power through that secondary so we consider   that a separately derived system so it was the  system bonding jumper can go in a separately   derived system that's how I always remember it all  that is is like say in our Transformer we've got   like a y uh secondary in our Transformer meaning  that all of one side of each one of the windings   are touching each other at the XO terminal well we  take our XO terminal and we run a jumper a bonding   jumper a system bonding jumper from there to the  actual casing of the Transformer because it's a   big old metal Transformer plus we might have any  of our equipment grounds that are like going in   coming out all of that are going to bond together  at XO so that bonding that we do to establish   neutral to ground bonding in a separately  derived system is called a system bonding jumper   all right so that's all the bonding that was the  grounding electrodes let's talk about this whole   idea of intentionally grounding something which  is where they get the whole neutral is a grounded   conductor I know I just said grounding it is  intentionally grounding but like essentially   it's intentionally grounded that's going  to make more sense because they're calling   the neutral a grounded conductor not a grounding  conductor grounding is specifically for equipment   so we can think of a neutral as intentionally  grounded intentionally brought to Earth it   doesn't have to be the circuit's still  going to work just fine if it's not   but it is intentionally grounded therefore we are  calling it a grounded conductor in addition to   it being a neutral so we call neutral a grounded  conductor but not every grounded conductor in code   is a neutral and that's where this whole sizing  neutrals thing gets really weird because in part   two of article 250 in the National electrical code  we have this grounded systems terminology and it   just means how we're grounding how we're earthing  the system not talking about how are we neutraling   the system how are we sizing and neutral has  nothing to do with that it's just talking about   any kind of conductor that is a grounded conductor  that's intentionally grounded this is how we deal   with it then in article 250.102 C1 we have this  term it's grounded conductors and bonding jumpers   supply side bonding jumpers all of that because we  use table 250.102 C1 to figure out what the sizes   of those are but it's like wait didn't we just imp  part 2 say grounded conductors are over here well   yes but no that's system grounding it's grounded  systems it's a different thing than having just   a bonding jumper so this whole 250.102 the thing  is in part four of article 250 and that all deals   with bonding but they have to use that same table  because bonding and a grounded conductor a lot of   times the same thing so since there's a table  250.102 C1 and then there's article 250.102 C1   even though it's only really talking about bonding  they have to put the word grounded with it because   the grounded conductors in part 250.24 actually  deal with the same table so that's the only   reason grounded is in there if you look around  through 250.102 C1 there's no other mention to   neutral or grounded conductors it's just in the  title everything in there is all bonding jumpers   bonding conductors anyways moving on they are  intentionally grounding A system that means of   doing that is a grounded conductor so the neutral  is now grounded because there's something touching   ground with it and then lastly we have equipment  grounding conductors so equipment grounding   conductors or egcs you're going to see all the  time in code anytime you run a circuit out to a   motor or like a piece of equipment or something  receptacle you're running a ground with it that   ground is actually called an equipment ground or  an equipment grounded conductor so it's actually   to ground that piece of equipment now it's not  saying that it's bringing it to Earth for some   reason it's actually there so that it can trip and  clear a fault it's actually connected to neutral   it's bonded to neutral and that's the reason  that we run equipment grounding conductors it   just so happens that they go out to the panel  outside where we have the ground rod where we   are intentionally grounding the entire system so  technically the equipment grounding conductor is a   conductor that is intentionally grounded you know  it is brought to Earth but it's not the function   of it it's not the reason for it it does help to  like displace energy down down into Earth during   a fault yes but the intention of the equipment  grounding conductor is to clear a fault that's   the biggest importance reason why we do all of  that um I guess it's a little arguably that the   reason that we do it is the earth too but my  point is if we took the grounding electrode   out of the situation and threw it away and just  ran an equipment ground and bonded at the service   panel everything would still work just fine so  that's why I'm saying that's the purpose of it   so equipment grounding conductor we've got a  panel right we've got our Transformer up here   we're feeding down a black and a red we have a  breaker and two pole 30 whatever we run that out   and say there's like a break in the circuit  and then it just keeps going at this break   we have say we had like two different conduits  or something like that or we had like uh two   junction boxes where we ran from the motor side  to the first junction box and then from this   junction box goes to the panel so there's an air  gap in between that we need to jump that equipment   ground and conductor together so when you're  jumping two different pieces of an equipment   grounding system together the jumper in between  there is called an equipment bonding conductor   because you're just continuing the equipment  grounding system but you're bonding two pieces   of it together to make them one so it's still  a bonding jumper you may think all these things   are completely unnecessary and I'm a little on  the side of agreeing with you everything just   used to be called a bonding jumper and then  they were like well there's lots of bonding   jumpers so like let's let's at least see like  this is the main bonding jumper that we're   talking about every other bonding jumper is just  a bonding jumper and then as the years have gone   on they're like well there's the equipment  bonding jumper or there's the supply side   you know so they just want to be able to talk  about where we're at in a system to know which   conductor we're talking about but all bonding  jumpers are sizes the same way so like it it   doesn't really matter but it kind of does matter  the more technical you want to be with things   um the more speaking about it correctly actually  matters so uh equipment grounding conductor that   is coming from a panel to a piece of equipment it  yes is intentionally grounded that doesn't matter   it'll still work it's bonded to neutral so  it's almost like calling it an equipment   grounding conductor just confuses it but I  understand why they do that because it is   intentionally grounded and then if there's two  different parts to the system J box here jbox   here you got to get them connected you run an  equipment bonding conductor to them so that is   all it's way longer than I wanted to be and it  was way more convoluted and code article please   leave some comments below if you have any comments  questions concerns whatever I'm happy to do more   videos I will probably do I don't know I might  not actually do like a sizing neutral conductor   thing for YouTube I might do that for a members  thing and make you pay for it that's a really long   convoluted process with a lot of different answers  to it so anyways leave some comments below if you   guys want to hear more about anything specifically  love you crazy people and I'll see in the next one

Channel: Electrician U

Views: 83,003

Keywords: electrician, electrical, electricity, dustin stelzer, electrician vlog, construction, commercial, residential, electrical vlog, electrical courses, electrician courses, electrical class, electrician class, electrician school, grounding vs bonding, grounding vs earthing, neutral vs ground wire, bonding electrical panel, intentional grounding, neutral bonding, 360 electrician, electrical apprentice, terms of trade, skilled trades, become a journeyman, power issues, ibew, sparky

Id: KO-Ff28M6CE

Length: 15min 14sec (914 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 08 2023