Why did my breaker not trip? Need some assistance on this one.

jbfan · 12-20-2011, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackie_

Jbfan

I thought that wire can be to small but not to big?

It can, but why short yourself from the extra power?
The wire will handle the 30 amps, and you may need it one day.

Stubbie · 12-20-2011, 10:20 PM

I'm asking the questions about your wiring to try and determine if you have an effective ground fault path back to the transformer. If it is broken then your breaker will not trip. All metal must be bonded to the EGFP or when a short to metal occurs a fault circuit cannot complete itself to the transformer and your breaker will not trip.

Stubbie · 12-20-2011, 10:25 PM

Can you take a good picture of how things are wired in the gould sub-panel and post it here?

Jim Port · 12-20-2011, 10:56 PM

I too was wondering if things were properly bonded.

Blackie_ · 12-20-2011, 11:13 PM

Sure, I'd be glad to grab some pics, I'll do that and post them tomorrow.

Thanks

Blackie_ · 12-21-2011, 09:56 AM

This is the main panel located on the house, seems as both neutral and ground are sharing the same bar. The two 30amps breakers are on the upper left.

Blackie_ · 12-21-2011, 10:01 AM

This is the Junction Box, Where you see the gound wires twisted together I only had them nutted before I made the change afterwards and also made sure all wires were well twisted together. I'd like to point out too that the red wires did not have a tight connection before either this time I made sure they were.

Blackie_ · 12-21-2011, 10:03 AM

A view of the whole picture inside the shop, the juction box is located down under the 4" pvc pipe which is part of my DC.

Blackie_ · 12-21-2011, 10:06 AM

Here is the Gould Panel, it has both Neutral and ground bars. I also need to correct that it was the red that shorted not the black, don't think that very much matters though. You can also see where it shorted just above the bar screw on the right side the second was down below at the clamp under the panel.

jbfan · 12-21-2011, 11:18 AM

You have a couple of issues.
This is a detached shop, correct?
Of is then the wire you have feeding from the main panel to the shed is incorrect.
That cable is rated for dry use only, and can not be used outside or underground, even in conduit.
You allso need 2 ground rods, if you do not have any.

Like someone said ealyer, the fault may have cleared before the breaker coould trip.

It also looks like the bonding screw is attached to the neutral bar, but I'm not sure about that.

Blackie_ · 12-21-2011, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbfan

You have a couple of issues.
This is a detached shop, correct?
Of is then the wire you have feeding from the main panel to the shed is incorrect.
That cable is rated for dry use only, and can not be used outside or underground, even in conduit.
You allso need 2 ground rods, if you do not have any.

Like someone said ealyer, the fault may have cleared before the breaker coould trip.

It also looks like the bonding screw is attached to the neutral bar, but I'm not sure about that.

Two issues, OK sounds like I should be using THWN wire inside the conduit and also adding two 8' grounding rods 6' apart at the detached building with #6 back to the grounding bar? By making these changes what will the outcome be?

Stubbie · 12-22-2011, 01:34 AM

I can't pin point any smoking guns but l would say your bonding of metal played a role in the failure of the breaker protecting the feeder to trip. The current bonding in the jb is not what I would like to see.

Blackie_ · 12-22-2011, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stubbie

I can't pin point any smoking guns but l would say your bonding of metal played a role in the failure of the breaker protecting the feeder to trip. The current bonding in the jb is not what I would like to see.

Stubbie, are you referring to the ground wires coming to close to the neutural bar? Looks like it could use a bit if tidying up in there maybe a different angle on pics too.