inplainview
DIY
TLDR: In a 3 wire service are the ground and the neutral always bonded, in all subpanels?
House made in 1970 has the meter and a 150 amps breaker outside the house, on the east wall. There are two hot wires and one neutral, which is clearly bonded/grounded with the enclosure.
Through the attic this feeds a main lug (sub)panel inside the garage (same structure on the west side of the house). The neutral and the ground in this (sub)panel are also clearly bonded. All services in this house connect to this main lug (sub)panel. As far as I can tell, some are only 2 wire service, hot and neutral, no ground.
I am supposed to replace this main lug panel with a bigger panel to create space for an instant electric water heater (3 x 40 amp double poles) and an electric car charger (1 x 50 amp double poles), plus a couple small 20 amp single pole services.
I bought a 200 amp 40 circuit main breaker plug-on neutral and a 125 amp 16 circuit load center, both from Siemens. I will be using the main breaker to replace the older main lug panel. I will be using the load center to connect the instant water heater.
After doing a lot of reading on this forum and others, I am still not sure if I am supposed to separate the ground and the neutral in all of these new panels that I will be installing, in none, or maybe only the one for the instant hot water heater.
Most of the comments I read say that any panel after the 1st point of disconnect has to separate the ground and the neutral.
Some comments, few, said that it depends if there is a 3-wire service or a 4-wire service. Apparently, if it’s a 3-wire service then all (sub)panels in the system have to bound the neutral and the ground.
This reflects the reality in this house as far as I can tell, although I am still confused why some of the services (outlets) that I found have only two wires, hot and neutral.
I would truly appreciate your feedback on all these.
House made in 1970 has the meter and a 150 amps breaker outside the house, on the east wall. There are two hot wires and one neutral, which is clearly bonded/grounded with the enclosure.
Through the attic this feeds a main lug (sub)panel inside the garage (same structure on the west side of the house). The neutral and the ground in this (sub)panel are also clearly bonded. All services in this house connect to this main lug (sub)panel. As far as I can tell, some are only 2 wire service, hot and neutral, no ground.
I am supposed to replace this main lug panel with a bigger panel to create space for an instant electric water heater (3 x 40 amp double poles) and an electric car charger (1 x 50 amp double poles), plus a couple small 20 amp single pole services.
I bought a 200 amp 40 circuit main breaker plug-on neutral and a 125 amp 16 circuit load center, both from Siemens. I will be using the main breaker to replace the older main lug panel. I will be using the load center to connect the instant water heater.
After doing a lot of reading on this forum and others, I am still not sure if I am supposed to separate the ground and the neutral in all of these new panels that I will be installing, in none, or maybe only the one for the instant hot water heater.
Most of the comments I read say that any panel after the 1st point of disconnect has to separate the ground and the neutral.
Some comments, few, said that it depends if there is a 3-wire service or a 4-wire service. Apparently, if it’s a 3-wire service then all (sub)panels in the system have to bound the neutral and the ground.
This reflects the reality in this house as far as I can tell, although I am still confused why some of the services (outlets) that I found have only two wires, hot and neutral.
I would truly appreciate your feedback on all these.