Jack served as a leading home inspector serving the Delaware and Lehigh Valleys, as well as Central and Southern New Jersey. He has inspected nearly 100,000 properties during the past 40 years. His goal has always been to provide his clients with the most thorough inspection and dictated narrative report in the profession. Jack is a Certified ASHI® Member and maintains this status by exceeding the required continuing educational credits. He is also a past president of a local ASHI® chapter. Jack is committed to providing his viewers with an education on the conditions, system operations, and required maintenance of their homes. He believes that informed homeowners make happier homes!
The removal of the bonding screw or bond bar is a need to know for us DIYers. Very valuable information that you do not hear anywhere else on the net. Excellent video.
I hate it when people have double hung windows with full screens and they only open the bottom. You could've saved your money and bought a single hung. We have 32 year old Andersen Narroline Double Hungs and I think I'm the only person that has lived in the duplex that opens the tops. On one of them, I can only open the top 2 inches and if I open it more than that, then it will be stuck open.
I'm just a farmer doing my own electrical. But IIRC, NEC 2014? and back allowed bonding the ground and neutral in the subpanel. Does it work? Sure, my old farrowing house is done that way because they didn't run a ground wire to the building, but I installed a grounding wire to devices in the building, and grounded the metal conduit to it as well. If a hot wire touches a metal outlet box or conduit, I need a low resistance path to the transformer to trip the breaker. So, the power would go from the metal outlet box, to a grounding screw to a ground wire, or through the metal conduit to another grounding screw, through the ground wires, to the bonding of the neutral/ground bars in the subpanel into the neutral, back to the main panel neutral, and trip the breaker. Not ideal, but it works. Can a ground rod installed at a subpanel not bonded to neutral do the same thing? DO NOT count on it at all, but if your circuit is close to rated load, it can. Example, I have 4 livestock waterers elecric heating elements connected to the same 20 amp breaker. Each element pulls 250 watts, 2 elements per waterer, 8 elements total, 2000 watts. That's IF all the thermostats are on at the same time, again, do not count on it. I had an element break on one of the waterers, sending power to the metal waterer body. I didn't bond the waterer to neutral, since you don't want anything more than about 1/2 volt measured from the waterer to a point on the ground a couple ft or so away, or the animals will feel it. And I didn't run a ground wire to service each waterer because I was young and stupid. So, each waterer has a ground rod, installed within the tile riser underneath each waterer, and the waterers connect to the ground rod. So, the little amount that can flow through the soil itself via a ground rod back to the main panel ground rod, in turn back to the transformer (can't remember what a shorted 120 volt circuit can feed through a ground rod, I think its a few amps) tripped the breaker. Again, DO NOT trust a ground rod to do this! Even though it worked, it probably took a while to trip if the soil could only take a few amps, making the waterer unsafe for a longer period of time than if a grounding wire was run with the hot and neutral and could be used. If the soil is dry, or the distance is too far, or the circuit isn't close to the rated load, it won't work! DO NOT ATTEMPT!
IDK why ..the neutrals and grounds ALL go to ground. In the older panels it didn't matter to run grounds and neutrals in the same ground bars. As matter of fact, in the panel boxes the ground and neutral bar were physically connected across to each other by a bar in the panel anyway. You couldn't separate them. I think it's a matter of the code just trying to rearrange things around to come up with a new rule. I do see newer panels now forcing you to separate the grounds and neutrals with the neutral white being connected to a neutral bar attached via the breaker now. Both black and white wires screw to the new breakers.
Yes, very confusing when you are dealing with older panels…. Before all the code changes. Younger generations automatically say….. it’s WRONG…. BUT BACK IN THE DAY it was OK!
Nobody wants to answer my question about bonding the neutral and ground in a subpanel: We have a house in California built in 1956 with no grounds. A 40 amp house subpanel connects to a subpanel at our shed with two #8 hots and a #8 neutral. The shed subpanel feeds a 30 amp and a 15 amp circuit off different hots. The shed subpanel has grounding to a ground rod with #8. Would it be a good idea to bond the shed subpanel neutral and ground?
Question? What about if you use a 13,000 watt generator to power a tiny shed? If i put a panel in a shed to be run only by a generator and not a main source of power, Do i bond the panel neutral to ground or is it ok to have them separated.. I would like to put a 50 amp panel but to be powered by generator only when im working in shed.. My question would be if the panel would be bonded since its my source of power to shed. Let me know if possible and thank you.
I had a pre-inspection and the inspector called out the main panel which was in a sliding-door closet. He recommend it be relocated, which would be a huge job. NJ house built in 1970. Will I get called out when getting C of O, and when a buyer's inspector comes?
Grounds and neutrals have to be separated in both panels. You never stated why a sub panel is not bonded! I would not want you to inspect a home for me. Cant imagine your view on 10 amp breakers
I’m not an electrician. I have consistently read that the neutral and ground busses are to be bonded in the main panel but separated in a sub. I’ve seen nothing that says they aren’t to be bonded in the main panel.
Actually he did mention why starting at about 2:55 when he said that the ground wires would become "energized". What this means is that the ground and neutral must only be bonded at the main panel or in this case, the first means of disconnect, in order to prevent parallel paths of current on the neutral and ground. Being energized means there is current on ground wire when there should never be current there except for the brief moment before the breaker trips due to high current if a ground fault occurs. When current travels on ground when there is no ground fault it's also known as "objectionable current" which is a shock hazard.
Thanks for the great info. I think there is one issue that is seldom addressed with water activated pumps and that is city water psi. Mine stays around 80, which is good but those people who experience spikes in water pressure might want to rethink it. One thing you don't want is this pump imploding at 160 psi and flooding your basement. In a perfect storm, the power has gone out and your primary pump is out and the imploding pump has joined the other side and is feeding the flood. Then you have to consider some kind of a regulator. Flood anxiety has no end.
There was no answer. That's because nobody can scientifically explain why. The only answer is it's best to ground all neutrals and all grounds and equipment grounds...TO GROUND. Together or separate. Ground rod each box location if you want.
@@tommywatterson5276Actually he sorta did at about 2:55 when he said that the ground would be "energized" meaning current on the ground and causing parallel paths aka objectionable current. Google "objectionable current" for details.
@tommywatterson5276 No. It's called objectionable current. The reason is that there should only be one path back to the service grounded conductor, or it will energize all metal parts in the system. There should only be one path, not multiple paths.
Im an electrician in Maryland,and Im pretty sure ,your not allowed to have a panel,or sub panel in a closet.It has to be in a accessible area,am I right Jack?
just wondering what area allows services feeders to be installed without conduit? yours looks like SER cable. Cal. has to have feeders in rigid. just curious.
Some counties dont require SER to be in conduit. And SER cables jacket is beefy enough to be fine without conduit. Its more of an extra form of protection
I went with the Generator as my back up power source. If I went with the water back up pump during heavy downpours, my water bill would be $1000. My sump pump runs for about 6 hours when I get heavy rains and hydraulic pressure builds around foundation.
Excellent video. You said if you had to choose, you'd choose a home generator as your first solution, and the water activated sump pump second. What is the best home generator? I'd like to get something that is a permanent fixture, like a gas powered generator. Do you have a preferred brand of home generator? Thank you for making the video. Just subscribed.
You're going spend alot $$ for a gas powered generator that can hold power for 12 hours. The ones for $1,000 barely do 4-5 hours of power. I went for the water powered driven backup pump save alot $$.
I'm not much of a public speaker but I suspect our current normal practice of sub slab negative pressure remediation of radon, sometime in the future will be seen as a sort of blood letting procedure. We have technology for Heat Recover Ventilation HVR/EVR and will eventually realize that fresh air in our living spaces is what we actually need. I also suspect that most lung cancers are likely caused by radon not just smoking. Smoking is just the mechanism to deliver radon daughters into the lungs getting trapped there by the tobaccos smoke/tar. Lung cancers not attributed to smoking and radon alone are more likely in environments where people like to use incense or just live in dusty places that need better air cleaners/filters and fresh air without radon daughters.
I bought a carbon dioxide measuring device and I have a whole new respect for ventilation and its absence. Some minimum level of ventilation seems essential to me now. Thanks for your note, a house I'm planning to buy has an average level of radon of 3.6 and I'd like to get that to a much lower number, less than 1 if possible. I agree with your speculation about cancer. From what I've read, it takes multiple mutations to cause cancer so it probably never has a single cause.
I think it's the furnace companies obligation to let the homeowner know that they're chimneys are no longer suitable for a standard vented hot water and take care of the problem
Happy I found your channel. If I may make a suggestion? Videos are very visual, so a demonstration or samples or something we can all see. Wishing you the best!
Aluminum was actually used past 1972. My house in St. Louis County in Missouri was built in 1976. I suspect the builder of this subdivision was allowed to use up his supply of aluminum. Problem was, he used receptacles and switches designed for copper only. I had a number of melted connections, but no fires. I went through the entire house and put co/alr switches and receptacles. Also put NOox on any wire nutted connections that were aluminum connected to copper. I am now in the process of pigtailing with Alumiconn connectors. My breaker box is designed for aluminum or copper, as are the breakers. It's also important to torque the connections in the breaker box. My heavier circuits, like kitchen, bath, laundry are wired with copper clad aluminum. I understand that some builders are starting to use copper clad aluminum in many new homes.
O k if you let the fan run constantly, your humidity will never leave the house. The only way to remove the humidity is for the fan to stop and the moisture to drip off of the condenser and out of the house. So you are wrong wrong
Does fan on makes high humidity in the home I leave in a high humidity area near to the gulf of Mexico, may be if I someone live in a dry area like desert will be ok to leave the fan on, what's your thoughts ?
I'm really confused here I'm talking about a window unit can somebody tell me what you're supposed to have it set on especially when you first turn it on and haven't used it since last year ? I have not once heard the engine on it I don't even know if it's called an engine but you know it makes a sound and it hasn't done that while I have it set on fan but I know nothing about this stuff
I got a home inspection one time and the inspector said it was copper wired. I had to change an outlet a few month es later, found out the whole house was aluminum wired. Now I just download my own home inspection checklist and do it myself. Biggest waste of $300 bucks. Also found out most states don’t require home inspectors to be certified in any field.
Just saw your video today. I just installed this type of gas line in my basement for my Rinnai hot water heater, I will be driving a ground rod in and grounding this pipe in the near future. Thanks you for making ths video.
thanks for confirming my suspicions about this issue Most information I read said #6 bonding wire should go all the way back to the main electric panel Your video confirms that I could drive a separate bonding rod near the gas main on the other side of my home thanks Dave
It means a lot that you took the time to connect with me. If you have any topics you would love to see, please leave a comment here and I'll see what I can do! Don't forget to subscribe, like and share! Jack
