Ungrounded outlets & Control Panel Question

17 years ago

My house was built in 1962 and has 14/2 wire to all outlets. All the white wires are connected to a copper buss in the control panel which is also connected to a water pipe.

The third wire of the input cable is also connected there.

I wanted to run a new 12/3 cable for my computers, but I thought that if I connected the white wire and the ground wire to that buss it would put the white and ground wires at the same potential which would drive computers crazy. Am I right that this would screw up my computers and is there any why around this?

Thanks

Tom

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Comments (5)

joed
17 years ago
The white(neutral) and the bare(ground) are supposed to be connected together in the main panel. This is normal and corrrect. It will not drive your computers crazy.
geovann
17 years ago
If the receptacles in your house are "ungrounded" what are the third wire of the "input cable"in your panel. you mentioned.
The grounded conductor (white) and the grounding conductor (bare) both go on the neutral bar.
All you need for your 120 volt computer is a 12/2 with ground nm cable.
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azscorp
Original Author
17 years ago
My terminolgy isn't correct, I' m sorry. The breaker panel has 3 large wires coming into it from the electric meter. Two go to the main bus's and the third one goes to the neutral bar. The neutral bar has a wire that goes to a water pipe, and all the white wires.
When I added a new wire that is 12/2 with ground and a 3 prong receptacle at the end of this new wire I noticed that measuring the voltage from the black wire to the white is 120 volts, normal, from the black wire to the ground wire is also 120 volts, that's what worries me, but being the white and ground are connected together in the control panel doesn't surprise me. I just wonder if I should have connected the ground wire to the neutral bar. I'm scared of burning up my computers. I also have an APC battery backup unit connected between the wall outlet and the computers.
pharkus
17 years ago
Okay, forget your terminology for a bit. Visit NEC wording.

You don't have a neutral and a ground. You have a "grounded conductor" and a "grounding conductor".

Notice. Grounded, and grounding. One is an actual current-carrying conductor, which happens to be "grounded" (this is neutral). The other is used solely for grounding (this is ground).

Once again, NEUTRAL AND GROUND ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CONNECTED TOGETHER AT THE MAIN PANEL. The ONLY difference between neutral and ground is that neutral actually has current flowing through it in normal use, where ground only has current flowing through it if something is seriously wrong.

"current flowing through" and "voltage on" are different phrases. You SHOULD ALWAYS be able to see 120V between hot/neutral and also between hot/ground. Your measurements are normal and correct. There would be a problem if you DID NOT have 120V from hot to ground.
azscorp
Original Author
17 years ago
Sorry for the delayed response, I was out of town. THANKS for all your comments and I'll quit worrying about it.
Thanks again
azscorp