Isolating netral bus from ground bus

The NEC requires the neutral be bonded to "ground" (the enclosure) at the service (and earthing electrode(s) be connected to the N-G).

(This is a critical connection that insures there is a high fault current for a H-G fault, with the fault current returning to the transformer on the service neutral. The high current trips the breaker.)

As I noted, virtually all services come with a neutral.

All the SquareD panels I have seen come with a neutral bar. A neutral bar is isolated from the enclosure and has a lug to connect to the source neutral.

Because almost all service panels have the service neutral bar bonded to "ground" (the enclosure) there is a means (a "main bonding jumper") supplied that can be installed to make that connection. Sometimes it is a strap that is screwed to the enclosure that connects to the neutral bar. Often it is a screw that goes through a hole in the neutral bar to the enclosure (it can look a lot like a mounting screw - probably the green screws for the "solid neutral assembly" in Michael's post).

Ground bars (as in Michael's post) are normally screwed directly to the enclosure - "ground".

(Occasionally an "isolated ground" is used and the ground bar is isolated and fed by a ground wire from the source. This could connect to "isolated ground" receptacles.)

(And it is possible that the N-G bond is not located in the service circuit breaker panel (it is elsewhere), so the neutral bar is not bonded to the enclosure.)

The only configuration I have seen is where a neutral bar is supplied and the source neutral, which is included in almost all panels, is connected to the bar. A panel could also be supplied with an installed ground bar, but it often isn't and it is added as a "kit" as in Michael's post.

If used as a service panel, a bond is added from the neutral to the enclosure ("ground"). The neutral bar can then also be used as a ground bar. Since that often happens I assume most panels do not come with a ground bar.

If a subpanel has ground wires it needs a ground bar.

Regarding the 2008NEC, you can't connect a neutral wire to a separate ground bar. The neutral current path would be through the enclosure and "main bonding jumper" to the neutral bar. The path using the enclosure is now explicitly prohibited.

============== I am astounded to read you are another sock-puppet for dimbulb.

If you believe anything that Proteus writes, you are an even bigger idiot than he is himself.

I suppose I should have used an emoticon.

krw is one of the main people that harass dimbulb.

You are talking to a dimbulb sockpupet.

How embarrassing. It is even in your approved list. How's a person to keep up?

Maybe you could create a Thunderbird add-on that would flag sockpuppets from a constantly updated list?

Sure, I got all that. I just misremembered incorrectly what I put in the panels. Every box needs a ground, not all need a separate neutral so I was misremembering that I added the neutral bar, when I did indeed add a ground bar (just looked) and removed the screws from the neutral bar*S* (one on each side). I'd remembered adding the two bars down the side of the bus, but they were indeed ground bars. In another box I fixed (my MIL's house failed inspection when we sold it) the ground bar was along the bottom.

Not as much as am *I*!

Hell, I *named* DimBulb, "DimBulb", after his insane insistence (for weeks) that a 100W light bulb didn't put out as much heat as a 100W heating element. John Larkin gave the ditz the "AlwaysWrong" moniker, and I don't remember who named him "Nymbecile". All fit perfectly.

Check the header record "NNTP-Posting-Host:" for something in the

If you can filter on any header record (most newsreaders don't) it's easy. Jim Thompson has a really good Nybecile filter, evidently.

You worded that 100% correctly. He is all about harassment.

Shame that his retarded ISP does not agree.

Although I have never lodged a complaint against the dopey f*ck.

You are a little, and I mean *little*, boy, Dimmie. Mommy's hamper is calling again!