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Grounding/Earthing is one of the most confused topic also among professionals and I being an electrical engineer have not found such an easy and clear explanation of it in last 10years of my research about this topic. Thanks for this good work Ben and please spread the rare knowledge which you possess. Thanks a lot.

Great explanation! As Einstein said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

Some folks just don't understand how to teach a subject such as electricity flow. You are a very good teacher & explain the things that others leave out, because they don't have much intuition when it comes to the thought process of the student. Thank you for making your videos the way you do!

As an industrial designer who worked at two major lighting manufacturers (and Klein Tools) I have run into countless engineering coworkers who refused to provide a sketch in creative meetings or after some private time in their own space. If it ain’t done on a computer I guess it is not real. Kudos, Ben, for proving that one should not let perfection (in visual illustrations) get in the way of progress. Sure your drawings are a bit rough but they are more than adequate along with your exceptional dialog to explain what has been for too many an elusive topic. May the 2022 NEC deities smile down upon you and your work.

Former marine engineer, shipboard engineer, shop teacher, home tinkerer. This brought a lot of things home for me.

Ben in addition to being technically excellent, you are also a very talented teacher. Your pacing, selection of instructional points, and language skills are in a different league! Also, the moment where you invite people to correct you was very humble and touching. Good job!

Nice lesson Benjamin! About those "stray" or "leakage" currents. Those currents are caused by inductive or capacitive coupling. Those are both "non-galvanic" meaning there is no metallic connection. They can be confusing because they don't need frayed or broken wires to cause official ground faults. A capacitor is two plates separated by an insulator. Alternating current passes thru capacitors depending on the capacitor plate area, frequency of the alternating current, and distance between the plates. If you were to take a capacitor and connect it between a Hot and, say, an unbonded/ungrounded enclosure the enclosure would become live. It would not be at the same level as a metallic wire contacting the enclosure but could easily still be fatal or cause an accident due to uncontrolled body motion. Sources for leakage current are any products that have lots of conductive metal near other metal that is ultimately fastened to touchable metal or enclosures. The most common found around homes are motors. In a motor you have thousands of wire wraps close laid on metal in the stator. So many wires add up to many square inches or even square feet of pseudo capacitor plate between the windings and ultimately the metal structure. Hence current is conducted via that capacitance to the chassis. Having that chassis/framework/enclosure grounded gives that current a return path and sets that metal to "ground potential".

I really appreciate this very clear explanation on bonding/grounding. Been working with electric for 40+years and didn’t have this clear of an understanding until your video. Thank you very much!

At last someone knows how to perfectly explain this very confusing topic. Bro you are awesome, you are an expert. I am extremelly surprised u way u easily explianed this bro.

Have been struggling to understand this for about a year, reading books, watching videos, FINALLY! You are a great teacher. Thank you.

WOW - I thought 20 minutes would be too long, but you did such a fantastic job of explaining this!

Ben has a good understanding of residential wiring. Not always the technical terms are used but close enough. Good job, Ben. Retired Utility Co. protection and control engineer.

Ben is a true guru. I'm blown away by the detail and thoroughness of this video and all his electrical videos. Masterful.

Used to be a Navy electrician and it was fun tracking down fault lights. Every panel we had had three fault lights that when we press the N/O button it would light the leg that had it. Then it was just turning off/on those connected breakers to see when the light wasn't illuminated. Great video. Thanks

This is a brilliant explanation! I studied electricity/magnetism at the college level pursuing my BA in Math. I have done wiring for over fifty years, but never completely understood the role of the neutral and ground systems even though I've carefully done it correctly. I always thought the neutral/ground was a redundant ground. Now that I know the neutral is a center tap of the secondary of a transformer, it makes perfect sense. Thank you so much! Henrik Hansen, DDS

I'm just a DIY'r, but always wondered about the differences between ground and earth and why the bus bars are connected in the panel. This cleared everything up. Great video!

Here's one thing to keep in mind too. Not all grounds go to a grounding rod. In older homes, sometimes they are grounded through the cold water pipe if you have copper lines in your home. If you go to where your water main is which is where your plumbing system comes into the home, you might find a bare wire in a grounding clamp. If you follow this wire, it might go to your power box. In our area, we are required to have 2 grounding rods as well as a wire going to the cold water pipe right before the main shutoff valve. Here's another thing for you. If you ever noticed on your equipment how one blade is wider than the other, that's because the item is being grounded through the wide blade. Things like your stereo with the metal casing and a lot of the newer plugin style power tools gave them. They call it a "polarized plug." It's because the ground wire and the neutral wires come together in the main service panel that they can get away with grounding things through the neutral blade. This is why you should never defeat that wide blade to fit. They are designed that way so they only fit in the plug one way. It's so you can't plug the plug in backwards causing the neutral/ground to be hot. It won't do anything and the devices will still operate. But you could get a shock because by plugging the plug in backwards, it bypasses the ground. Surge protectors work in that way to protect your equipment from excessive power spikes. When a surge protector detects a surge, it reacts to catch that surge and direct the excess current to the ground. Another point. The grounding system can also help reduce interference in radios which is the stray noise you sometimes hear in the form of a hum. Old component style record players often had a small wire that came out of it. Old stereo amplifiers that had a phono (phonograph) input also had a grounding post where you would connect that wire to to help ground it which usually stopped that power supply hum you would often get if you didn't use it. On the newer stereos that don't have this feature anymore can still except record players. All you have to do on these is open one of the screws that hold the metal cover on and wrap that grounding wire under the screw and tighten it down again. This will effectively give it the ground it needs to stop that annoying power supply hum.

I love this, you really bring things together! When I was young (70s) I often got shocked through my body when grabbing the door handle of the old fridge in my unfinished basement especially with no shoes. My family never believed me because I couldn't repeat it when I tried. Now I've become the electricity expert in the family (and the least sensitive to shock)

Until the white, black, red and green wires realize they are all copper on the inside, only then will they all truly connect.

Ben, I am 58 years old and I have always regretted not sticking in the electrical field when I used to do grunt work down in Arizona. I have always wondered about this neutral and hot question and you have answered it for me and I did go ahead and subscribe to your channel and like the video. Thank you so very much!

Doing a total remodel of a 40 year old house, total upgrade and increasing from 200A to 320A, splitting the service at the meter equally to the house and the garage with to external switches. After seeking understanding and advice from industrial electrician associates of mine at work, and still being quite confused, your videos have helped me tremendously in understanding the principals for why this system is wired, grounded and bonded the way that is correct. Thanks a million for your service to the greater DIY public who seek understanding in order to perform home projects properly and also safely and to code. Well done!!

Great job, Ben. I once asked a friend who is a master electrician the question of why grounds and neutrals are connected in the breaker box. He talked for 5 minutes, but said nothing. Now I get it (kind of)! Thanks! Cheers!

Time stamps: * 00:15 The first disconnect means (FDM) in your main panel after your electrical meter is where your neutrals and grounds are bonded together - white wires and copper green wires tying into the same location. * 1:03 Electricity --> transformer primary side to secondary side at 10k volts --> electrical system at 240v --> center tap to tranformer winding (where your neutral comes from) for 120v (which are grounded). * 1:30 The neutral of the main utility line is physically connected to the neutral of your electrical system. This goes through the electric meter to the first disconnect means/main panel where neutrals/grounds are tied in at the same location * 2:15 Utility neutral is physically connected to the neutral of your electrical system. * 3:25 Metallic objects in the electric system are tied together via the grounding wire and bonded the neutral. A green screw specifically connects the neutral to the enclosure of the system. * 5:00 Bonding is connecting all of the electrical parts of a system together. We are discussing it today with the equipment grounding conductors (EGC). The EGC ties metal components of a system that normally don't carry charge to the grounding conductor in case of a ground-fault. * 6:32 The Effective Ground Fault Current Path (EGFCP) - a low impedance path that carries current from a ground-fault to the electrical supply source, allowing deployment of over current protective device/ground-fault detectors (from: 2020 NEC Handbook) * 7:24 Multiple electrical appliances in your household are connected to the same EGFCP to ensure the protective breaker to trip in case of a ground-fault by bonding to the neutral. * 8:55 If your system is grounded to the earth but does not have a feedback loop (EGFCP) the protective breaker *will not trip and your system is still unsafe.* Grounding is not what allows this safety check, bonding to the neutral (and source) is what allows this check and makes your system safe. * 10:00 The neutral will draw more energy than the circuit breaker with a ground fault short which will allow the safety breaker to trip. * 10:33 Electricity doesn't necessarily want to return to ground, it wants to return to its source. * 11:10 The ground is connected to the source in case of lightning. * 12:20 Ship engines are ungrounded systems. The generator doesn't have any portion of its winding connected to the ship frame. * 13:34 Grounding also can get rid of excessive static electricity, but Ben's not sure why. If anyone knows, please comment. * 15:14 We separate neutrals and grounds distally in a subpanels because we don't want any neutral current in the equipment grounding conductor (EGC) which can be dangerous. * 16:00 If they are bonded at multiple locations, they will have current in both the ground and neutral, which is a dangerous situation. They are only connected at the FDM (first disconnecting means). He goes into this if further detail in another video that's linked in the description. * 17:52 Review and summary.

Thanks Ben! Brilliant explanation! Often we Engineers get negligent to basics and start to overlook the veracity of electrical system. Thanks, again! Very good refresher!

The haters (99%) can't Understand this class. love this class! Much love to you're knowledge.

Thank you so much for your clear explainations, real world application and use of a diagram. You basically covered one semester of my electrical trade school class in .20 minutes. You are a natural at teaching, please continue making your videos.

I'm building an 8kw solar pv system, and this topic has confused me for weeks. Even when explained to me by other RE people, it just makes my head spin. This has cleared it up for me. I didn't know how, or understand why, I needed to know this. With 2 solar arrays and a wind generator, I just didn't get where and when I need ground rods and how I was suppose to know what to look for when accessing these ground/neutral points. Thanks very much, Benjamin. I really appreciate it. Lee

Hi, EE student here (yet to have classes on this subject), just recently I was wondering why the ground and neutral on the "fist disconnect" were connected, I thought ground existed only so if something goes wrong, there's a better connection to the ground than the people around the equipment, I never realized it's just a big circuit and how it actually works, big thanks for the insightful lesson!

This is the best explanation I've seen on any KZfaq video about the grounds and neutrals. I always learn something from your videos.

Thank you for acknowledging the existence of ship’s electrical service. As a former mariner (engineer/electrician), it makes me very happy.

You are an excellent teacher. Even I could understand and I am a visual learner but have tried to understand grounding and neutral relationships for some time. You helped me greatly. Thank you.

Bravo!! Mr 200 should be your name! It took me YEARS in the field, and 5 yrs at a JATC program before the ‘lightbulb’ lit and to grasp the concept! You could EASILY teach the grounding class better than 80% of the instructors! I think homeowners could even understand your explanation. I always tell them it’s not for them to understand, if you don’t want little Susie to get fried and your house to burn down don’t mess with it and call me. It usually scares them away from any dreams of being a DIY electrician! Thanks Ben, keep it up.

I've always known what to do, but today I just learnt the "why" it is done that way

Wow, super helpful! I've always glossed over this my whole life while knowing enough to do home electrical work. Thanks much!

Bingo. The discussion starting about 9:30 is what really cleared it for me. In case of a ground fault, and current flowing through ground wire, the breaker will not trip unless the ground wire is connected to the neutral wire. If ground wire is only connected to the dirt, breaker will not trip. Makes sense. Thanks and subscribed.

This is the clearest and most complete explanation of how grounding and bonding works I’ve ever seen. I learned a lot. Thanks so much!

I don't usually comment but this specific subject has been a complete blur for me for YEARS. The parallel path explanation solves it and my brain can finally stop melting. This had me stumped for you don't know how long and I'm an engineer, just not an electrical one ;) Thanks! Subscribed!

I understand the HOW. You help me to understand the WHY. Great video.

Blue for neutral works for me, Here in the UK Blue IS neutral, Live is Brown and Green and yellow striped is ground. We always use those colors for mains AC and only use Red/Black or Red/White for DC

This way of how grounding works (from the grounded component earth wire through the neutral line back to AC transformer) ONLY applies to specific TN-earthing systems (TN-C and TN-CS). It does actually not apply to TN-S and TT earthing systems, used in Europe and Asia (and US at gas stations ect. by exception). In a TT-earthing system (common in Europe) the return fault current actually IS returned by going trough your premise ground rod trough the earth to the distribution AC-transformer ground rod connected to its starpoint or neutral wire. There is here NO link between the neutral line from the supply at your premise to the grounding/earthing wires in your installation. Because of the higher resistance of the earth soil the current will in a lot of cases not be high enough to trip your normal circuit breaker (overcurrent protection) while still being deadly dangerous. Therefore a RCD/GFCI-device covering your entire installation at the supply is mandatory in most countries, as it will trip much faster at a the existence of a ground fault current of 300mA/30mA. When in a TN-C earthing system the neutral gets broken (by heavy weather at power poles for example) you get a dangerous situation because (1) the only return path is trough the soil with higher resistance and the installation does not always have a general RCD covering the entire installation and (2) with the lack of a neutral conductor the devices connected between the 2/3 phases and the in-house neutral are getting connected in serie leading to a dangerous abnormal high voltage on your 'grounded' equipment. Using a PEN-conductor (combined neutral and protective earth condictor) as in this video can be really dangerous if the PEN-conductor is broken upstream. In the UK/Australia this setup is called PME (Protective Multiple Earthing), but it basically the same as TN-C-S with additional ground rods along the way to reduce the electric potential created by the PEN-conductors themselves because of the long distances/resistance of the cheap conductor materials used. So based on your earthing system, the ground rod at your premise is besides lightning strike protection possible also used as a conductor back to the transformer neutral trough the earth as part of the normal earthing system. The explanation in this video only applies to common household installations in North America, but not to the rest of the world.

I have worked with a ton of guys in the field that know the rules and have no understanding why, glad to see your video!

Huge props for covering this subject. Very important information most electrician overlook.

I have been building/wiring for 50 years and yet there are a few details that I had yet to grasp. YO ! finally I got it ! Thanks Ben..... I,m building my own last house and feel good about it,s safety. Keep it up.!

Hi Ben - I’m an electrical engineer and want to commend you for this outstanding video. One suggestion I have regards your use of the phrase “clearing the fault.” I think the average person would better understand the material were you to say something like “trips the breaker or ground fault interrupter.” Thanks again. Awesome work! -Jim

Thanks Ben. You're a great teacher. I've learned and understand everything you've shown.

You asked so nicely that I subscribed immediately. I also really appreciate learning things and you’re good at explaining them so I think this will work out well for all.

glad I found your video's; they are informative and answering some questions I had as I am working on my panel. I watched a couple videos before I clicked on any of your links and when I finally did, I find that the tool ( gerber )that has been in my pocket for 6 years and I can't leave my house without is what you have linked in every video you do.... explains why I trust you know what you are doing....

Ben, I really appreciate your time. Thanks for all you do for us!

Hey man .A while back I mentioned Holt Enterprises, it seems like you have increased your knowledge. Excellent video. Awesome topic and a very very important one.

Yes, grounding will prevent buildup of static electricity. Static electricity is just built up potential, and you get shocked when you create a path to ground for it. If it's already grounded, it can't build up.

Excellent presentation. I will ditto the previous comments. My grandson is preparing to become a lineman and I am going to recommend to him that he become familiar with your presentations. I’am an old dog electronic tech that never got deep into power systems and I am learning a great deal from your program. You should appreciate your talents, few people are able to convey information the way you do ! Keep up the good work ! 👍👍👍👍👍

I’m a math teacher and I’m very impressed with how well you explained this man… Nice work man!!

We also connect the neutral to the ground so that it will always have the exact same electrical potential as the ground we are standing on, this ensures safety for people using the electrical systems. Any metal bonded parts (fridge, pendant light, toaster etc) and any neutral wire are all safe for users during usage.

Just recently started wondering about why its wired this way, great timing for this video to come out. Thanks.

You have a gift for making the difficult to understand clear and understandable. You are a great teacher!

One of the absolute best You Tube videos I have seen in a long time. Clear. Concise. Accurate. Thank you.

Thanks sir, you're a good teacher and I got everything you've taught clearly.

Actually, neutral and ground are connected together on a ship when on generator or inverter, but not when connected to shore power. With shipboard generators or inverters, they are a power producing devices, hence need to have neutral/ ground connection. I once had to troubleshoot why a sophisticated Jennaire range worked on shore power but not on generator. The generator had no neutral/ground bond. I installed a proper jumper and bingo, range worked fine

Amazing explanation, and that diagram is extremely helpful and easy to follow!

Excellent video. Suggestion - mention that these fault connection requirements are to avoid people being best path for current and thus avoiding electrocution. It is implied, but super important to reiterate.

This is a great video also your very lucky to have this kind of service. Here in toronto almost everything is overhead and the meter gets installed on the side of the house and then the panel is inside... We use EATON here and most panels separate the ground and neutral

This video is utterly fantastic. Love the clarity. Confirmed some of what I already thought I knew, and learned about the secondary panels not having ground and neutral bonded (which totally makes sense now, thanks to this video!)

Thank you! You did an exceptionally great job with explaining this to where just about anyone should understand. At least, help them to get closer to understanding what many make so difficult to grasp. I've was an industrial electronic technician for over 25 years, and during my career, I found so many issues and just couldn't make others understand the importance of grounding. I had one incident where an automation machine would just go haywire on its own. It took days to find the problem. The problem was the machine itself was creating enough electrical interference to disrupt feedback and, in return, make motors & controls to be unstable. I found the first grounding wire that was connected to the source (that was bonded) and ran a ground wire from the machine to that wire. The machine ran with no problems after that. I got much respect for "fixing" that problem. After that, I checked the ground 1st for any issues.. .lol. Your video will help a lot of people!

Excellent. Got my electrical ticket 40 years ago. Didn’t stay in trade. Work in hvac which is largely electrical troubleshooting. This is a great refresher

0:11:10 not primarily "lightning" but more to keep the common from developing a biased charge. Your household or even medium industrial commons and grounds are not going to handle even a mild lightning strike without taking damage that interrupts the continuity and contiguity of the wiring and connections. The grounding and bonding makes the un-charged lines all but invisible to lightning and the ground bond on housings and conduit will allow an arc of lightning to cascade through them to ground but the bonded ground is literally there to turn it all into "dirt" in lightning's view - to negate any bias in charge on the systems that arrive at homes, commercial and industrial properties. The simplest way to look at this is that the charges in the sky will slowly start to develop companion charges on the ground to couple to and if Billy Joe Bob Willie Mac Jim Jones doesn't believe in bonding and lets his tractor shed build up a charge, the lightning is gonna think his shed's charge is its soul-mate and nail it hard. Lightning rods work by exploiting this localized cultivated charge when it increases in power and they bridge from sky to ground just like the arc suppression grid in a breaker. The common bonding "stealths" your electrical system in your structure by homogenizing its entire charge AND the area around the localized grounds to all the other grounding points up and down the grid. Which will leave your tree standing there with a MASSIVE target on its head as the minerals in its bark and any enclosed growth areas with bark will carry the ground charge just like a lightning rod. This is also the single most important reason to ensure your roof isn't leaking.

18:25, Grounding is used to protect against lightening strikes and to remove "voltages accumulating on the electrical system". The metal buildings and panels can pick up static electricity so the grounding drains that off. The static can come from nearby overhead power lines, or the wind blowing over the metal surface; (maybe the wind comes from charged clouds?). This was an excellent video!

When I started my electrical career so to speak, I went to a vo-tech in high school we used green for ground obviously, and orange or yellow for the white wire, and black for the black reasoning, there are some aspects where blue comes up and red comes up in 3-ways we used dotted lines for our boxes. After we did a job he had 35 set jobs on job boards, such as receptacle, switch and light then went into 3 ways and other things. He was persistent with his o.c.d. Nothing wrong with your drawing just saying, great video.

Yet another fine example of the value of bonding in our lives. Delightful and informative video. Many thanks!!

Ben did not explicitly mention it - but in this video when he is talking about breakers tripping due to ground faults: He is not talking about GFCI safety devices (outlets, breakers, etc) function. Even for normal breakers to trip (exceeding 15, 20, 30, etc amps of current), the ground fault circuit needs a path to the neutral of the source. This is what Ben is covering in this video. That said, GFCI safety devices that trip at a much lower fault current (5 to 25ma), also need this ground path to eventually lead back to the neutral of the source.

From one pragmatic nerd to another, I appreciate your full accounting of your experiences (tribulations) in figuring all of this out. It's great that you openly accept advice and even encourage it. From my experience, this shows above-average intelligence. You are a both a good student AND teacher. Thank you very much for sharing. I have learned a lot from watching your videos. I subscribed and recommended your channel to several other nerds. Take care, bro.

I really appreciate that you quote the 2020 NFPA NEC as a reference! This certainly adds credibility to what you are talking about. The static can occur from RF energy (radio transmitters, satellites, etc) and from the SUN, and objects in the air such as dust, wind, rain, snow in the air carrying a charge (lightning is a good example of static charge).

Excellent description of the need to tie earth ground and neutral together at the first disconnect. Then keeping them separate in all sub panels.

Damn, finally I get an explanation for this after yrs. Seems electricians don't even know why they are connected. So the grounding rod is for lightning striking your electrical system and neutral is for faults. And they are bonded just incase lightning leaks into your fault system it will still have a path to the ground. because faults want to get back to the source but lightning wants to get to the ground. You are right. everyone seems to think as long as any part of the system is grounded somewhere that it's safe. It all makes so much sense now.

Benjamin, I am really enjoying your presentations, very logical, and you make it interesting and easier to follow... You have a real talent for this. Keep up the good work!

Loved this video! Really made me understand why the sub panel is grounded differently. All of your videos have been very helpful and easy to understand quickly. Thank you for your videos!!

Great stuff Ben! I already have the Sense monitor just cos I'm geeky and wanted to know what each appliance is using but especially the the two fridges and the chest freezer. Have not quite figured how to identify these in sense yet but will when I can give it more time to play. The Grounding/Bonding explanations are fantastic. I been having an issue with my small 120v mig welder popping the breaker in our new house. Even installed a new breaker with about 3 foot of 12ga romex to a seperate test duplex plug and same result. Refuse to believe my little Lincoln welder is funky. Went through the unit, checked and cleaned all connections, etc. Starting to think something else like ground or return which is why I come across your video(s). Keep up the great work!

Good job explaining. I needed a refresher course to remember how I built my off grid system. Must of been right because I'm still here after building it 26 years ago.

Many years ago, the chassis of many tube-type radios and some TV’s were “hot.” The better ones used isolation transformers or filament transformers but some had series-connected tube filaments with the chassis one side of the circuit. Few of these devices actually had polarized plugs so there was a 50% chance that the chassis was carrying 120 volts AC with respect to actual ground. The only “protection” for users was insulated knobs and cabinets...a very dangerous situation.

The very best, simplest clear correct explanation of grounding principle. There is no other video like this. Thanks a lot

Well done!!! Thank you for the videos as they aid those who may be looking for CLEAR understanding to obtain it. The fact that your video had no background music and that you speak clearly and articulately, using and defining electrical terms where necessary, with diagrams, a.k.a. drawing, easily aid the listener, your audience to gain the main points of your explanations. WELL DONE!!!! If only we had more people using this forum who are equally effective as you are, there would be a greater interchange of useful knowledge being shared and obtained. KEEP UP THE GREAT STANDARD YOU HAVE SET!!!!! And again, thank you!!!!!

Good explanation.......Concerning earthing, read a while back that earthing is required to get rid of the static charges picked up by the transmission lines friction with the air molecules as the earth rotates.....

As an easily trolled person and an engineer, I feel compelled to point out a few things. The likely reason you didn’t trip a breaker when you connected to a grounding rod is because there was too much resistance and therefore not enough current to trip a breaker. When you complete the circuit back to the proper path, there is a low enough resistance to generate a momentary current spike to trip the breaker. If you had a GFCI, you would have tripped it the instant you touched the grounding rod. Also... the electricity is not magically finding its way back to the breaker box through the ground... it is simply dissipating into the giant electron sink that is the earth on the peaks of the AC sine wave. Similar in principle to how you can static shock a metal object that isn’t grounded.. but on an almost infinite scale.

Great job Benjamin. Another thing worth mentioning is that center-tapping the 240 volt transformer winding and then bonding it to earth ground limits the voltage potential to ground to only 120 volts, making the residential distribution system inherently safer.

1) i rarely subscribe to any channel and i never hit the notification bell. However, you answered a question for me that no one else seemed to be able to. So i subscribed and hit the bell. Thank you very much. BTW, your presentation is clear and concise, making even ppl like me able to listen and learn.

Lightening, in some cases, actually travels from ground to the positive charged ionized air. I have personally experienced a lightening strike that was 10 feet away and you could see the arc jump from the ground. I also saw what happens when lightening goes thru a sub-panel in a boat house without a ground rod. The lightening went to ground via an electrical outlet 1 foot from the ground. The electrical outlet was blown off the wall of the boat house and vaporized. Without a proper ground rod or ground plate on a panel, there is greater chance of a fire when lightening hits the line feeding the panel as the lightning wants to go to ground. If flammable material is in the lightening’s path to ground, a fire may occur.

Whenever I watch your video, I'm so familiar with your main panel right now! Thanks for your great explanation about the grounding and bonding system. I can't wait for your next actual example related to the topic that you'll plan.

Well-Done, I'm an old military electronics tech & had to get-rid of a lot of electronic noise especially in the grounding circuit. Besides not-good connections, the main problem was looping in the grounding circuit. A looped wire is a good antenna & picks-up noise. Only having a single grounding point at the main electrical panel eliminate noise catching loops in the grounding circuits.

So, I have been intrested in Electricity since 2009. Presently I am an apprentice taking ABC Institute, state funded classes. Between 2009 and now I have NEVER heard such a well explained, detailed, intelligent way of explaining the magical phenomenon of electricity science as you do! Are you a physics teacher? If not then make that your next career move. Continue what you are doing and we out here in the cyber world will continue plugged in cheering you on. Together exploring this wonderful, wild and strange land of electricity. Cheerio and God speed.

Lighting is also static electricity caused by an updraft cloud like cumulonimbus cloud rubbing against surrounding downdraft cloud, thus stripping electrons from ice crystals as it travels upward. I would think the same theory applies to static electricity as lighting; main panel grounding dissipate static electricity the same way it handles lighting.

Also the build up static charge, Mother Earth wants everything balance so when the enclosure is either positive or negative charge (atoms) the rod helps it to drain out the static charge to the earth and making it balance charge which avoids it from getting hit by lightning. I’ve read this somewhere but hopefully I’m somewhat right just giving an idea

Best explanation of the bonding/grounding issue to date. Thank you! I knew what I had to do, but not why!

This is fantastic, especially the part about separating neutral and ground in the sub panel. Very well explained. Thank you.

Love these videos

Vey goon showing us what’s going on thanks

Best video on the subject ever. All the others keep repeating the same ideas about neutral : "return path" but cannot explain why.

Thanks, your explanation was spot on. I had researched for a few hours before I finally found your presentation. Best explanation I could have had.

Never stop learning... i really dig these videos

It doesn’t just stop on the neutral bus it’s going to go back to the transformer neutral, back to the phase conductor which the breaker is tied in and that causes a lot of current to flow and that’s why it trips the breaker

Benjamin, you're a fine teacher. Much appreciate your clear and straightforward explanations!