ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion NEC & other Code issues Slightly Confused

I'm working on an estate with a main house and two outbuildings. The meter is on one of the outbuildings, with lugs for the runs to the house and both outbuildings. There are no disconnects at the meter. The main house has a 200-amp panel with a main disconnect and driven rods. There are 4 wires between the meter and the 200-amp service (3) 200-amp, and (1) 3 or 4 ga., which is labelled white, but is likely the ground wire.

Anyway, I hope this is clear enough. The grounds and neutrals are all terminated in this 200-amp panel. My question is...should they be divided at this point or bonded?

Thanks,
Dave

Is this a 3ø or a 1ø service?

It's single phase, George.

Dave

It appears to me that you have a code violation no matter how you terminate the smaller wire. Until you go through a service disconnect, the grounded conductor (neutral) and the grounding conductor are the same wire. Since you appear to have a large enough neutral, the smaller conductor should not have been run. You would not need it and it would be in parallel with the neutral.

Question- How is the smaller conductor terminated at the meter? and How is the other building being fed?

[This message has been edited by George Little (edited 07-19-2005).]

Although I'm not certain, I believe the two (ground and neutral) are terminated together at the meter, and are in parallel (terminated together also at the 200-amp distribution panel). The other outbuilding seems to be wired in a similar manner. I specifically recall multiple wires in the meter socket. One was approx. 3/0, and two under another lug approx. 3 ga. I'm guessing there were more 3/0 on the same bar for the other sevices. The two under the same lug is a violation.

I should complete the problem by adding that this is the place with 5VAC at the pool (water to ladder and rim) which the POCO is attributing to a neutral problem between a sub-panel and the pool. With all the power disconnected (but meter not pulled) there is still voltage at the pool (3V?). My meter is a newly calibrated Fluke. The only way I got the voltage to drop to zero was to pull the neutral feeding the pool house.

Dave