I recently built an unatached garage about 15ft from my electric meter. My main breaker panel in the basement of the house is also about 15ft from my meter and there is a disconnect below the meter base. My main service is grounded from the main panel in the basement to the cold water pipe, as far as i could tell there is no other ground. I have run 3 strands of #2 awg to the garage which has its own breaker panel and will be hooked up at the disconect below the meterbase. I would like to know about grounding this panel can you help?
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I have a similar situation as you but here is how it was done (I don't know if it is right or wrong). The power comes into a pole, down the pole to the meter to a breaker then down underground to the house and another branch back up the pole and over to the garage and out to the well pump and the barn. There is a ground at the house, one at the pole and another at the garage from that small fuse panel. (????)
Bill
You need to treat the panel in the garage as if it were a service entrance. You install the bonding screw or jumper in the service disconnecting means and drive 2 ground rods at least 6 feet apart & connect these to the neutral busbar.
Make sure that there are no other conductive paths between your garage & house, otherwise you need to add an equipment grounding conductor from the hous to the garage and treat the panel in the garage like a sub-panel by keeping the neutral & grounds separated. You'll still need 2 ground rods at the garage.
Tom
[This message has been edited by Tom O (edited October 15, 2002).]
Two points, both which would lead me to believe you need to get an electrician in to "clean up" your electrical equipment.
The first, you state that the inside panel is grounded to the water line. Sadly, this location is not the service, which is where the grounding is required.
The second, you state you want to tie the wires for the garage into the outside box, below the meter. You can only do this using approved connections. You cannot install two wires under one screw (unless approved), so additional work will be required to tie in your conductors at this location.
You really should get help with this. There are alot of variables involved, and omitting any one could spell disaster for you or your loved ones.
Rick Miell
