ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Stripped neutrals

Doing remodel work at a residence.

This is one one houses that have additions slapped on and on....

Anyway, original service was an 200A all-in-one behind garage. An addition was built on back of garage so the meter/disconnect was relocated to back deck.

Now the original panel is a sub (with 2 subs of of it), I know that the neutrals / grounds need to be seperated but find that all of the neutrals have been stripped back to the knockout. So this panel is full of bare conductors. Should be loads of fun trying to seperate / tail these as all of the brach circuits come in through a 2-1/2" ko in back of panel.

Anyone seen this before?

I'm not an electrician,

I've never seen this,

But I probably wouldn't want to do it. If somebody's working (testing) in that panel live, touching the bare neutral could make you the new return path, equating a touch to the LINE lugs on the main breaker.

Ian A.

First are you sure that they didn,t use se to feed the subs. If it is a stripped back nuet then shut off the sub and tape the wire with good slipe tape . This will make itsafe to work on.

thanks for the replies.

Yes, 4 wire feeder was used. There are 2 se in the panel feeding the a/c and the range. The romex branch circuits coming in the back of the panel all but 2 have the neutrals stripped. Believe me, I had to look twice.

Oh, forgot this:

Welcome to ECN!

Ian A.