Is there a problem here with neutral and ground

[james2441139]

My inspector sent me some photos after the NEMA 14-50 was installed (and passed). I see that the green ground wire and the white neutral wire are both connected to the right bus bar. The GFCI pigtail also connected to that bar. My question is, shouldn't neutral and ground be connected to the separate bus bars?

 

[murphyS90D]

It depends. Is there a master disconnect ahead of the panel? If not then neutral and ground are tied together (bonded) in the main panel. That was a major problem for my house, built in 1957, when I added solar panels. That added a master disconnect just after the meters. The bond had to be removed in the main panel. The electrician had to add a ground buss bar and move all of the grounds from the neutral bar to the new ground bar.

Note: Neutral does not come from the power company. There are 3 wires coming into your house. Two hots and a ground. Neutral is created at the single point where neutral and ground are bonded together.

 

[mongo]

My inspector sent me some photos after the NEMA 14-50 was installed (and passed). I see that the green ground wire and the white neutral wire are both connected to the right bus bar. The GFCI pigtail also connected to that bar. My question is, shouldn't neutral and ground be connected to the separate bus bars?
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There is a cross bar at the bottom that bonds neutral to ground, so they are the same thing.

Note: Neutral does not come from the power company. There are 3 wires coming into your house. Two hots and a ground. Neutral is created at the single point where neutral and ground are bonded together.

That's backwards, the power company feed is the center tap (neutral) and both phases from the step down transformer. Ground is provided locally by a grounding rod(s) or Ufer. PoCo may also ground the transformer locally at the transformer, but that is not a reliable low potential at the dwelling thus the local single bond point in the main panel.

Service drop - Wikipedia

 

[mvotb]

In the old days the neutrals and the grounds were all on one bar, now we isolate the neutrals from the grounds. Your panel has grounds and neutrals mixed together on both bars, and it looks like it's tied together at the bottom. In your case all the neutrals should be on the right and all the grounds on the left. That's probably what the inspector is pointing out. The right bar should be floating, ie not touching earth ground, and assuming the connecting bar at the bottom is connecting the 2 bars, that would be removed.

 

[ucmndd]

My question is, shouldn't neutral and ground be connected to the separate bus bars?

Everywhere except your main service panel, where they are purposely bonded.

 

[mongo]

In the old days the neutrals and the grounds were all on one bar, now we isolate the neutrals from the grounds. Your panel has grounds and neutrals mixed together on both bars, and it looks like it's tied together at the bottom. In your case all the neutrals should be on the right and all the grounds on the left. That's probably what the inspector is pointing out. The right bar should be floating, ie not touching earth ground, and assuming the connecting bar at the bottom is connecting the 2 bars, that would be removed.

Ground and neutral must be bonded at one (and only one) point, usually the service entrance. The inspector passed the panel and the pictures were just for reference.
Putting the grounds on one side and the neutrals on the other would be slightly better in a fault situation, but is not required and would increase the volume of wire in the panel.
If it were a subpanel, then the neutral bar would be isolated and the neutrals and ground must be segregated.