TVL
Member
On the outside of our home is an electrical circuit breaker panel used for our Heat Pump. The outside panel is located about 45 feet downstream from the main circuit breaker panel located inside of the home. The outside panel is fed with a 100 amp double pole circuit breaker using # 2 aluminum wire. Since the outside panel is being used to feed 220 volt service to the heat pump, only 2 conductor with a ground was used to complete the wiring.
Now for my questions:
During the summer we built a deck on the rear of our home. One edge of the deck is located just 5 feet from the outside electrical panel. And you guessed it, I want to run a single 15 amp breaker from this electrical panel to power some LED rope lights around the deck.
Looking at the photo mentioned above, you can see that the outside panel has only one grounding bus. If I install a 15 amp - 120 volt circuit in this box, I will have to use the single ground bus for my ground wire AND neutral wire. This scenario will work, but:
1- Is it acceptable?
2- Would it be considerd a fire hazard?????
3- The main box located inside the home shares the ground bus for BOTH the neutrasl AND ground wires. Why not outside also? What's the difference?
And finally, because I believe this would not be considered NEC recommended, could I simply run a neutral wire from the main panel inside the home to the outside panel for the single 15 amp - 120 volt circuit?
Thanks so much!
Now for my questions:
During the summer we built a deck on the rear of our home. One edge of the deck is located just 5 feet from the outside electrical panel. And you guessed it, I want to run a single 15 amp breaker from this electrical panel to power some LED rope lights around the deck.
Looking at the photo mentioned above, you can see that the outside panel has only one grounding bus. If I install a 15 amp - 120 volt circuit in this box, I will have to use the single ground bus for my ground wire AND neutral wire. This scenario will work, but:
1- Is it acceptable?
2- Would it be considerd a fire hazard?????
3- The main box located inside the home shares the ground bus for BOTH the neutrasl AND ground wires. Why not outside also? What's the difference?
And finally, because I believe this would not be considered NEC recommended, could I simply run a neutral wire from the main panel inside the home to the outside panel for the single 15 amp - 120 volt circuit?
Thanks so much!
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