When and Why to separate Grounds and Neutrals. 

A year and a half into an electrician classroom , no teacher has ever explained it this way, please keep doing it!! 👏🏻

I spent a day studying this concept for a course. You explained it far better in 10 mins. Well done!

This is hands down one of the best explanations I've seen on this. Usually when this is discussed they only of what you do and not why you are doing it. Good work.

As an electrician for many years now, I do understand the reasoning behind it, but I just wanted to compliment you on a very easy to understand explanation.

This is by far the best explanation for GND vs N

This guy is a very good instructor. I didn't have to restart the video. It was completely understood at every point.

This is a perfect explanation but it’s also important to recognize how dangerous it is to disconnect a ground wire or what happens if a conduit is broken because there would be a potential difference across the disconnected path. In other words never assume that a ground wire is dead because it can get you when you disconnect it.

I have asked licensed electricians plenty of times about the ground / neutral thing and not one could explain it. Now I can tell THEM! Great video.

This is the best tutorial i have ever seen. You have done an outstanding job explaining this..

Wow much respect coach!! First video I've seen of yours and I immediately subscribed, you're great!!

Why is your channel not booming?? You should have more subscribers with the value you offer in each and every video.

Excellent video. Clear and straight to the point.

GREAT VIDEO!!! I love the way you used the diagram of current flow. That made it very clear what could happen. You were also using correct electrical units describing current flow for what it is and no words like "power flowing". Nice job all around. Thanks!! Wish you would do video on generator transfer switching.

I learned so much from your videos today, this one in particular. To show my appreciation I'm even watching the ads til the end, well most of them anyways. Thank you very much.

Thank you Electrical Code Coach! I subbed to your channel and appreciate the knowledge and wisdom you share sir. May GOD bless you! You have inspired me to raise my skill level and go into being am electrician apprentice and praying more in time.

Thank you i look for days for these

Wow....the pictorial of this video makes it so easy to understand one of the most, if not the absolute, hardest concept of wiring & safety to grasp!

I have a vivid memory from about 1974, when I jumped on a section of chain link outside a neighbors house. My friend pulled me off as I was “stuck” to it. The father had grounded the dryer to the fence (as I recall)

very clear explanation !!!!

Already watched before signing in. Thank you so much for the information. I have wondered for years about this.

Great explanation, thanks!

Here’s one that baffles me - you have a range or dryer with 3 terminals and ground. The instructions tell you in a 2 wire install (older homes) to connect the neutral and ground on the device together. I was thinking this through, and became real to me when I tried to use a 40-amp gfci breaker and it kept tripping. Often the logic boards or a motor are 120v, so they are technically flowing neutral current through ground (and the shell of the device), and if at some point a fault occurs, or the grounding conductor comes loose, that shell now becomes live. I was taking some lineman courses and they were talking about the requirements for parallel grounding of disconnected lines due the possibility of picking up on emf current simply from being next to an energized wire or the wind blowing. This stuff is serious and we take so much for granted. Sorry for the rant, but there is a lot behind how we ground. God bless and thanks for all your work.

Thanks. Learned important grounding rules.

Best explanation on RU-vid.

Thank you! This is an excellent explanation.

I've watched lots of RU-vid videos trying to understand this concept. I'm a visual person and I also want to know why something works. If I just memorize rules I don't remember it near as well. I can rethink the process you described and refresh my memory. You did a great job! Thank you!

Great explination great info

Clear concise information. Scary.

Great graphics. Thank you.

Other than you being 100% correct, this is the best and most through explanation I have ever seen. Great job. Don

This was fantastic!

Thanks for the info, cleared up some things for me.

I Think you are intelligent and making good fruits with this channel .

Wow. This explanation is the best I’ve seen.

Thanks Coach.

Thanks! This video really helped to clear out the confusion in my head on this subject.

Thank you, that was well said.

Brilliant clarification 💎

Very good and explained video, as I’m sturdy for home inspector 👍

Very enlightening, Thank you

As a EE from long ago, I loved this explanation. I'm not a full-time sparky, but do a fair amount of work on 100+ year old homes and buildings and the amount of knowledge that I've forgotten is high. Never too proud to got back and review the basics. Also, have to check out the NEC and updates even though so much existing stuff is sooooo old. Where I live, NM is verboten so gnd wires don't exist as in the NM world.

Excellent explanation. I've been an electrician for 37 years. What surprises me is when I see a sub panel fed with 4 wires and they still didn't separate the grounds and neutrals. What did they think the purpose of the separate ground and neutral was?

Good stuff .very good info

Great explanation! Subbed!

Good video. I understand now!

Best Coach Ever!!!

Right on bro

Thank you for sharing and I'm learning a lot as I like to Tinker with solder as I live off-grid and I have wired my own home I appreciate you and thank you again so much for sharing your knowledge

perfect great video

I had solar installed several years ago and shortly after I needed to replace my main panel due to main breaker buss issues and to expand the number of circuits. In the process of removing the old panel I found that the neutrals and grounds were still bonded together, which at that point the main panel would have been a sub-panel due to the solar having a main disconnect after the meter head. I was surprised to see that seeing as the solar installation had to be inspected by the NEC/Underwriters inspector before being energized. I separated the grounds and neutrals in the main panel. Thanks for the great video.

The ground wire should be installed as basically an "extra neutral" wire that is connected to the chassis of an appliance instead of the neutral connection on it. It's a safety wire that will safely carry the current back to the breaker box if there is somehow a leak of current from the hot wire, through a component inside the appliance, to it's chassis. That way, if your grounded body touches an exterior metal part of the appliance, YOU don't become the path for the stray current to return to the breaker box, it rides on the ground wire instead. Electricity ALWAYS follows the path of least resistance, and a properly installed ground wire has much less resistance to the breaker box than the path between your body, the earth, to the breaker box. Therefore, no shock from a leaky appliance if you touch it with a proper ground.

Agree with the others. Best explanation I’ve seen. Now I fully understand the why. Thank you.

Perfectly explained

i love dogs. they are the best pets. good info. i was a maintenance electrician my entire career. its a pretty decent job for a young man

Best explanation I've heard Thanks.

Awesome explanation. Reminds me of some electrical faults I saw on boats, where the (12v, thank goodness) current was getting drawn the wrong way through the circuit because there was a better ground in an unanticipated place. The ground from one circuit was functioning as the hot for a second circuit. Hard for an amateur like me to wrap my head around sometimes.

fantastic description, THANK YOU!

I personally think NEC should mandate separate ground bus bars for all installations. Neutral bud bar and ground bud bar, then bond them together in main panel only. This makes moving to solar or Generator easier and safer when it isn’t done unknowingly to home owner

great video

Excellent explanations, thank you for making this so clear! I just learned some very important information, nice job, subscribing.

Been jake leg wiring my whole life....thank you and new sub.

Great job! Thanks.

Cudos to the creator of this video for a job well done from a seasoned electrician and code inspector. Mike Holt would be proud of you.

AWESOME video! Quick question. I'm looking to do two subpanels in series (garage subpanel connects to shed subpanel for multiple local branch circuits for shed lighting, 240v air compressor circuit, and outlets). Given what you've stated in this video and your out building series, I'm guessing BOTH subpanels need their own ground circuits (separate grounding rods and equipment ground in series from the originating structure) and BOTH subpanels need to have their bonding screws removed?

Love your detailed reply, but curious: what would ARC breaker do in this scenario ? would it trip or still function (where the ground and neutral were not separated?)

Great explanation!!

Great presentation thank you for explaining it. Todd

Excellent job. Something to remember is that all conductors are also resistors. The human body is also a conductor/resistor and all the metal components in our electrical systems are also conductor/resistors. When you put resistors in parallel in a circuit the total resistance will be less than the lowest resistance value in the circuit.

OOOOOOHHHHHHHH! Great explanation! Thank you for sharing. Great job sir....

Thank you my friend, good info!

Just, wow! That was excellent.

Not sure about the NEC, but in the CEC(Canadian) the white wire in a 2 wire system is the ‘identified’ conductor. The green is the bonding conductor, not ground wire. The neutral by definition is the white wire of a 3 wire system. Neutral and identified are not interchangeable nor is ground and bonding interchangeable. Terminology is important when teaching. So if you are in Canada, the terminology used in this video is incorrect but the theory seems accurate.

i love your videos, learning so much! What about the GEC and ground rods. Is there only supposed to be one single GEC going from the first point of disconnect to the Ground rod and on to a second ground rod 8 ft apart? Would it hurt if there are additional GECs connected from subpanel A and subpanel B's grounding bar to the same 2 ground rods outside? (that is what I think I see in my home right now)

excellent explanation. under normal operating conditions, neutral may have current flowing through it (when unbalanced load), while ground wire will never have current under normal conditions.

Great video !!!, well explained keep the good work .

Great job explaining it, thank you.

In workers camp.....a hot/cold shower mixer has a 10 volts AC from those copper plumbings with the concrete in the bathroom. When the earth cable in the water heater was disconnected. Now it's fine. Didn't bother to troubleshoot specially those were old facility.

Great info. Do have a video explaining the connection to ground rods and grounding to gas and hot/cold water pipes? As I understand, I'm suppose to connect my first point of disconnect (meter base) to the rod rods. Do I connect the gas and hot/cold water pipes to the first point of disconnect, the load center, or either? Also, can you explain bonding between meter base to load center when using PVC vs EMT? Thanks.

Awesome video, definitely subscribing!! So what would I do if I’m off grid with solar going to inverters (240v inverters with midpoint auto transformer to make two 120v legs) connected to a sub panel that then was wired to a main panel in the home?

Like to THANK the video for clarifying very important topic around everything electric in the house, ground surfaces need only ground connections, so there is NEVER a remote chance for white neutral wire returning any hot AC current to a ground somewhere much further to be connected with metal surfaces of devices because they are/were not separated like they should be at 1st point of disconnect in the local house circuit ... only like to say I wish I knew ... this as teenager hooking up stuff for self and other people free but no reports of injury thus far ... but perfection is everything ... so with new information in mind everything will be checked, corrected and perfected when building NEW ...

Thanks!

Thank ypu for explaining the reasoning behind this. It was always a bit of a mystery to me.

Great explanation

If I could Give more than one thumbs up you would get a crap load from me. Best explanation I have ever seen by far. Almost 40 years in the trades. You nailed it.

Awesome job.

How about an off grid all in one inverter like a growatt 3000tl lvm-es, is the inverter the first point or is the panel?

This is exactly what I need to talk about: If I have a 120v furnace and its "connected to a generator only during outages" generator manual says its bonded that should work and be fine....but if the furnace is still grounded to the house via the casing so that in a sense is connected to the house ground and neutral what happens when power is restored ? any help is much appreciated.

Wow, didn't know what i didn't know. Thank you!

Dang. GREAT peace of mind Now. I watched 3hrs. of videos [ other peoples] But this made it Crystal clear to give me peace of mind .about My ....

@7:00 side note, the panel and rigid will only be energized if you bonded the neutral bar to the panel which like youve been saying they should be seperated at every other means of discconect but also unbonded.

What if you only have 3 wires, (2 hots, 1 neutral) coming from the Meter to the house which is about 85 feet apart. my question is do we still bond the ground and neutral at the house service panel? And does there need to be a ground rod at the house? Thanks

How does the ground system work if the main panel did not have metallic conduit attached to a downstream sub panel? As in running power to a sub panel in a detached garage using uf direct burial wire.

How about off grid inverter. It have ground on metal case/, i connect the case to ground the first panel also connect to ground. I do not connect my first breaker box to neutral, if i do connect neutral to ground of first panel it created spark short. The off grid eg4-6500 Ex sold by signature solar. The inverter to first 16 breaker box is 5-6 feet... thanks for your answer.

This is soo true. I came off of a outside panel bow to hook up my camper and i would get a light shock, almost like a 12vlt shock and couldnt figure it out. I called in an electrician and it was this very thing.

I cant find answer to my question. I have a 4 pole breaker as my first disconnect, which obviously disconnects the neutral. So should i bond Earth Neutral before or after the 4 Pole breaker?

Our first point of disconnect is equipped with ground fault sensor. Should we connect the ground and neutral is this situation? I became doubtful as one electrician told me not to connect ground and neutral if the 1st. point of disconnect has ground fault sensor.

So if there isn't a ground from the meter box, just the two hots and neutral, to a load center 75 feet away with a main breaker and two grounding rods are supplying the ground connection for it, are the neutral and grounds still separated?

I Get it!!!! This makes me wonder about my Old welding connector. off panel 2 in the garage. (no neutral) Off my sub panel. 2 BTW my panel 2 has the neutral; disconnected from the case. I worked on 5000 amp DC plants in a Telephone exchange building. We had a PHG (Personal Hazard Ground) and would measure to make sure this PHG had no current on it. Thanks. I had AC electricians tell me "Oh it is just DC" LOL Just subbed.

Hello Maestro, thank you for educating us, I have a question, my house was built in 1936 before you even born, the electrical installation is not grounded at all, all my electrical out lets only have the hot and the neutral, the main ( first point of disconnect ) box includes the meter, the neutral from the main entrance box ( first point of disconnect ) feeds the neutrals and also goes to ground thru a solid copper wire connected to the under ground water pipes in the property, I would like to ground what I can inside the house with new out lets installs, and ground those out lets with a 7 ft bar into the ground if that's the right way to do it, my question is, can I get away with just one bar in to the ground?? I see other videos using two bars in to the ground, 10 ft apart, connected together thru a wire, and also I would like to install the grounds bus strip in the same main box ( first point of disconnect ) now would I tap my new grounds bus strip in to the neutral strip in the main box ( first point of disconnect ) Appreciate your help, thanks in advance!!

I've noticed alot of electrical workers do know when and where to bond and separate grounds and neutrals. What I've seen time after time of not bonding a transformer. I've seen lots of licensed electricians think that because of first disconnect being bonded that they didn't have to bond the transformer . I maybe wrong I my explanation ,but I try to explain that it is now a separately derived system and you start all over again.