Armoured Cable - Ground

Users who are viewing this thread

Chefwong

Member
Messages
949
Reaction score
11
Points
18
Location
District of Columbia
The AC on the cable serves as the ground in my house circuit runs. Steel boxes-mc/bx cable.

I'm looking at the wire run that the spark did for our HVAC. Ran flex to a J Box. 3 Wires *2 hots, 1 neutral*. Than ran pipe to the HVAC. Spliced/Extended the wires in the J Box and added a ground terminal in here and added a ground in the conduit leading to the HVAC.


I don't really run conduit much.
I'm adding a sub panel off my main panel.
Plan to connect the 2 via Flex and just the standard Squeeze Flex Connectors on the Sub Panel.
No need to run a seperate ground, ground bushing, etc etc right ?
 

Stuff

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,221
Reaction score
130
Points
63
Location
Pennsylvania
Regular flex conduit can be used as ground up to 6 feet and 20 amp or less only.
 
Last edited:

Chefwong

Member
Messages
949
Reaction score
11
Points
18
Location
District of Columbia
Interesting...The spark than ran it to the J Box, I would estimate a good 15-18 feet. Then from the J Box leading down to the HVAC.....another 20-25 feet from there,
 

hj

Master Plumber
Messages
33,599
Reaction score
1,037
Points
113
Location
Cave Creek, Arizona
Website
www.terrylove.com
Because fo the way the armored cable connects to the boxes, it CAN be a 'high resistance' connection and not a very good conductor for a grounding circuit. In fact, given that the panel box is painted, the meta covering l may only be making "marginal" contact with the bare metal as the connector is fastened to it.
 

ActionDave

Electrician
Messages
418
Reaction score
9
Points
18
Location
Colorado
The AC on the cable serves as the ground in my house circuit runs. Steel boxes-mc/bx cable.
That's fine, AC cable has a wire in the sheathe that shorts the coils to make it a proper equipment ground. BX is a brand name AC cable. MC is different, it has a green insulated wire in it for equipment grounding.

I'm looking at the wire run that the spark did for our HVAC. Ran flex to a J Box. 3 Wires *2 hots, 1 neutral*. Than ran pipe to the HVAC. Spliced/Extended the wires in the J Box and added a ground terminal in here and added a ground in the conduit leading to the HVAC.
What size wires? What kind of flex? What kind of pipe/conduit? What are the distances in each segment?


I don't really run conduit much.
I'm adding a sub panel off my main panel.
Plan to connect the 2 via Flex and just the standard Squeeze Flex Connectors on the Sub Panel.
No need to run a seperate ground, ground bushing, etc etc right ?
You need an equipment ground/green in the flex. You don't need ground bushings.
 

Chefwong

Member
Messages
949
Reaction score
11
Points
18
Location
District of Columbia
I was planning to add a ground wire, but then I was looking at how the sparky ran the HVAC - and I was like , well, if the flex is good enough for the pro, then why do I need to pull the ground for this .

For the HVAC, the run looks like this
Main Panel - Flex Run to J Box. 6AWG - 2 Hots and a Neutral ( I did not check but it looks to be ALU flex)

J Box - added a ground ring to J Box and added a ground wire
The length from J Box to HVAC is about 25 feet or so
 
Last edited:
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks