DIY Home Improvement Forum banner

Running the first grounded circuit in a home with 2-wire system.

1082 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  AllanJ
In a 1953 14-2 wired home, an updated 100 amp panel has been installed with a braided copper ground wire running from an outside buried copper rod. No other bare ground wires are attached to the section where this Main Ground is. I have run a single 14 awg wire from that section to a junction box in my basement. To one side of the box I fed a 14-2 wire from a ceiling fixture. Then on the other side of the junction box I ran a 14-3 line to run to new or existing outlets to have grounded circuits in the basement. The reason for the single ground wire was because it 'fit' where a new 14-3 cable would not (existing cable or plumbing routes). It made sense to me at the time. But, is this a bonded connection? I just recently read about bonding and this idea seemed to cover the issue. Would appreciate any input.
1 - 1 of 3 Posts
The brand new junction box needs a brand new 14-3 -with-ground cable going to the updated panel where you have a brand new 2 pole 15 amp double wide breaker set inside for that brand new 120/240 volt branch circuit.

An existing ungrounded outlet box may have a single conductor ground wire run from it (and possibly daisy chaining through other existing outlet boxes on the same ungrounded branch circuit and) over to the panel ground bus bar (or to the braided ground wire to the ground rod if that is closer). Then 3 prong receptacles may be put in the affected existing outlet boxes.

If the basement is unfinished then all of the new receptacles need ground fault circuit interrupter protection. This may be accomplished either with a GFCI breaker for the applicable branch circuit or a GFCI receptacle unit. For receptacles daisy chained on a 14-2 (or 12-2) circuit, the first receptacle can be a GFCI unit and the other further on can be regular receptacles.

GFCI receptacles may be substituted on non-grounded circuits without the need to add grounding.

"Bonded connection" is a redundancy. A bond is a connection, specifically an essentially resistance free connection in the sense that if A is bonded to B and B is bonded to C then A is bonded to C. For electrical purposes, the quality of the bond is significant such as the bond from the panel to the ground rod must be a wire of at least 6 gauge copper and sections of copper plumbing may not constitute part of that connecting path.
See less See more
1 - 1 of 3 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top