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Electrical Wiring

Power panel ground conections

12 years ago

I was looking in my power panel as I contemplated adding a circuit or two in the 13-yr old home I bought 6 moths ago.

What I noticed right away is that the ground wire for 6 circuits (ie. all the circuits in the basement) are NOT connected the ground bus bar. ALL of the other circuit are. See photo.

When I had the home inspected, the inspector (not electrician) said all the outlets were properly grounded, but from what I can see, the basement outlets only happen to be grounded because the ground wires are touching the power panel case.

Am I correct in this assessment? If so, after disconnecting power to panel, should I connect those 6 loose ground wires?

Thanks.

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Comments (2)

petey_racer
12 years ago
I'd say yes. Looks like an oversight on the installer's part. No reason I can think of to do this intentionally.

You mean the HI didn't catch this? What a surprise. (please note sarcasm)
Jimboha
Original Author
12 years ago
Petey,
Home inspector did not catch this - and I thought he was being so thorough.

I only recently came across the suggestion, that you sarcastically allude to, that in addition to the HI one should have a licensed electrician checkout the electrical system before buying a house. I wholeheartedly second that opinion!

Now I'm thinking it is still not too late to have it looked at. I've found several minor issues, but this one borders on serious (unsafe).
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