Too small ground wire

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP





.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;







up vote
1
down vote

favorite












The purpose of ground wire is just to carry current in milliseconds enough to trip the circuit breaker, it won't even get hot. So what is wrong with using very small ground wire? For example. You are using #4 AWG in the Hot and Neutral wires (70 ampere capacity) and you use #14 AWG as ground (15 ampere capacity). If the ground is connected to an enclosure and the Hot wire touches it. It would take very fast for the breaker to trip, not enough to heat the #14 AWG. What is the reasons this is not allowed?










share|improve this question













migrated from electronics.stackexchange.com 1 hour ago


This question came from our site for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts.














  • It is a bit more complicated than that. I am not an expert (someone else who is will answer more completely). But a couple of things: 1 - With a GFCI, even a little current going to ground will result in a very fast trip as the difference between neutral & hot is detected, but not all circuits have a GFCI; 2 - With a regular breaker, it is the current on the Hot wire that trips the breaker, and depending on the breaker (some allow for more time for motor startup, etc.) it can take a while. A regular breaker only trips really fast with a very high current overload.
    – manassehkatz
    1 hour ago










  • @manassehkatz interesting notion with the GFCI ground only having to carry 8-30 milliamps. However that relies on a key assumption: that this ground Is monogamous to this circuit. Given the retrofit grounding rules (grounds are allowed and encouraged to be promiscuous), that ground could easily be grounding other stuff that may not have GFCI protection. The GFCI would never know since GFCI's do not interact with ground.
    – Harper
    32 mins ago











  • @Harper I'm not actually suggesting using a small ground wire. I'm trying to say that the ONLY time where it could possibly make sense is with a GFCI - i.e., the same place where you might end up not using a ground wire at all.
    – manassehkatz
    29 mins ago










  • @manassehkatz heh, yes, true.
    – Harper
    29 mins ago
















up vote
1
down vote

favorite












The purpose of ground wire is just to carry current in milliseconds enough to trip the circuit breaker, it won't even get hot. So what is wrong with using very small ground wire? For example. You are using #4 AWG in the Hot and Neutral wires (70 ampere capacity) and you use #14 AWG as ground (15 ampere capacity). If the ground is connected to an enclosure and the Hot wire touches it. It would take very fast for the breaker to trip, not enough to heat the #14 AWG. What is the reasons this is not allowed?










share|improve this question













migrated from electronics.stackexchange.com 1 hour ago


This question came from our site for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts.














  • It is a bit more complicated than that. I am not an expert (someone else who is will answer more completely). But a couple of things: 1 - With a GFCI, even a little current going to ground will result in a very fast trip as the difference between neutral & hot is detected, but not all circuits have a GFCI; 2 - With a regular breaker, it is the current on the Hot wire that trips the breaker, and depending on the breaker (some allow for more time for motor startup, etc.) it can take a while. A regular breaker only trips really fast with a very high current overload.
    – manassehkatz
    1 hour ago










  • @manassehkatz interesting notion with the GFCI ground only having to carry 8-30 milliamps. However that relies on a key assumption: that this ground Is monogamous to this circuit. Given the retrofit grounding rules (grounds are allowed and encouraged to be promiscuous), that ground could easily be grounding other stuff that may not have GFCI protection. The GFCI would never know since GFCI's do not interact with ground.
    – Harper
    32 mins ago











  • @Harper I'm not actually suggesting using a small ground wire. I'm trying to say that the ONLY time where it could possibly make sense is with a GFCI - i.e., the same place where you might end up not using a ground wire at all.
    – manassehkatz
    29 mins ago










  • @manassehkatz heh, yes, true.
    – Harper
    29 mins ago












up vote
1
down vote

favorite









up vote
1
down vote

favorite











The purpose of ground wire is just to carry current in milliseconds enough to trip the circuit breaker, it won't even get hot. So what is wrong with using very small ground wire? For example. You are using #4 AWG in the Hot and Neutral wires (70 ampere capacity) and you use #14 AWG as ground (15 ampere capacity). If the ground is connected to an enclosure and the Hot wire touches it. It would take very fast for the breaker to trip, not enough to heat the #14 AWG. What is the reasons this is not allowed?










share|improve this question













The purpose of ground wire is just to carry current in milliseconds enough to trip the circuit breaker, it won't even get hot. So what is wrong with using very small ground wire? For example. You are using #4 AWG in the Hot and Neutral wires (70 ampere capacity) and you use #14 AWG as ground (15 ampere capacity). If the ground is connected to an enclosure and the Hot wire touches it. It would take very fast for the breaker to trip, not enough to heat the #14 AWG. What is the reasons this is not allowed?







grounding






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 1 hour ago









Samzun

61




61




migrated from electronics.stackexchange.com 1 hour ago


This question came from our site for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts.






migrated from electronics.stackexchange.com 1 hour ago


This question came from our site for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts.













  • It is a bit more complicated than that. I am not an expert (someone else who is will answer more completely). But a couple of things: 1 - With a GFCI, even a little current going to ground will result in a very fast trip as the difference between neutral & hot is detected, but not all circuits have a GFCI; 2 - With a regular breaker, it is the current on the Hot wire that trips the breaker, and depending on the breaker (some allow for more time for motor startup, etc.) it can take a while. A regular breaker only trips really fast with a very high current overload.
    – manassehkatz
    1 hour ago










  • @manassehkatz interesting notion with the GFCI ground only having to carry 8-30 milliamps. However that relies on a key assumption: that this ground Is monogamous to this circuit. Given the retrofit grounding rules (grounds are allowed and encouraged to be promiscuous), that ground could easily be grounding other stuff that may not have GFCI protection. The GFCI would never know since GFCI's do not interact with ground.
    – Harper
    32 mins ago











  • @Harper I'm not actually suggesting using a small ground wire. I'm trying to say that the ONLY time where it could possibly make sense is with a GFCI - i.e., the same place where you might end up not using a ground wire at all.
    – manassehkatz
    29 mins ago










  • @manassehkatz heh, yes, true.
    – Harper
    29 mins ago
















  • It is a bit more complicated than that. I am not an expert (someone else who is will answer more completely). But a couple of things: 1 - With a GFCI, even a little current going to ground will result in a very fast trip as the difference between neutral & hot is detected, but not all circuits have a GFCI; 2 - With a regular breaker, it is the current on the Hot wire that trips the breaker, and depending on the breaker (some allow for more time for motor startup, etc.) it can take a while. A regular breaker only trips really fast with a very high current overload.
    – manassehkatz
    1 hour ago










  • @manassehkatz interesting notion with the GFCI ground only having to carry 8-30 milliamps. However that relies on a key assumption: that this ground Is monogamous to this circuit. Given the retrofit grounding rules (grounds are allowed and encouraged to be promiscuous), that ground could easily be grounding other stuff that may not have GFCI protection. The GFCI would never know since GFCI's do not interact with ground.
    – Harper
    32 mins ago











  • @Harper I'm not actually suggesting using a small ground wire. I'm trying to say that the ONLY time where it could possibly make sense is with a GFCI - i.e., the same place where you might end up not using a ground wire at all.
    – manassehkatz
    29 mins ago










  • @manassehkatz heh, yes, true.
    – Harper
    29 mins ago















It is a bit more complicated than that. I am not an expert (someone else who is will answer more completely). But a couple of things: 1 - With a GFCI, even a little current going to ground will result in a very fast trip as the difference between neutral & hot is detected, but not all circuits have a GFCI; 2 - With a regular breaker, it is the current on the Hot wire that trips the breaker, and depending on the breaker (some allow for more time for motor startup, etc.) it can take a while. A regular breaker only trips really fast with a very high current overload.
– manassehkatz
1 hour ago




It is a bit more complicated than that. I am not an expert (someone else who is will answer more completely). But a couple of things: 1 - With a GFCI, even a little current going to ground will result in a very fast trip as the difference between neutral & hot is detected, but not all circuits have a GFCI; 2 - With a regular breaker, it is the current on the Hot wire that trips the breaker, and depending on the breaker (some allow for more time for motor startup, etc.) it can take a while. A regular breaker only trips really fast with a very high current overload.
– manassehkatz
1 hour ago












@manassehkatz interesting notion with the GFCI ground only having to carry 8-30 milliamps. However that relies on a key assumption: that this ground Is monogamous to this circuit. Given the retrofit grounding rules (grounds are allowed and encouraged to be promiscuous), that ground could easily be grounding other stuff that may not have GFCI protection. The GFCI would never know since GFCI's do not interact with ground.
– Harper
32 mins ago





@manassehkatz interesting notion with the GFCI ground only having to carry 8-30 milliamps. However that relies on a key assumption: that this ground Is monogamous to this circuit. Given the retrofit grounding rules (grounds are allowed and encouraged to be promiscuous), that ground could easily be grounding other stuff that may not have GFCI protection. The GFCI would never know since GFCI's do not interact with ground.
– Harper
32 mins ago













@Harper I'm not actually suggesting using a small ground wire. I'm trying to say that the ONLY time where it could possibly make sense is with a GFCI - i.e., the same place where you might end up not using a ground wire at all.
– manassehkatz
29 mins ago




@Harper I'm not actually suggesting using a small ground wire. I'm trying to say that the ONLY time where it could possibly make sense is with a GFCI - i.e., the same place where you might end up not using a ground wire at all.
– manassehkatz
29 mins ago












@manassehkatz heh, yes, true.
– Harper
29 mins ago




@manassehkatz heh, yes, true.
– Harper
29 mins ago










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
3
down vote













Total heat notwithstanding, wires also have resistance. As in "ohm" resistance.



What you may not be understanding is breaker trip curves. Breakers have a thermal trip mode from 1.0x up to about 10.0x breaker rating, where the action is delayed as a bimetal strip warms up. This is to be permissive of motor starts, inrush current, or "toaster and microwave at the same time" short term overloads. The thermal trip is sized to warm at about the same speed as the wire in the walls, so it trips somewhat before the wire warms enough to be dangerous. That requires matching between breaker and wire size.



Breakers also have a magnetic trip mode that instantly trips at around 10x breaker rating.



With too-small a ground wire, the breaker cannot magnetic-trip because it cannot flow enough current to hit 10x, because of the too-high resistance of the wire. And as you can guess, that's trouble.



Now we're in thermal trip mode. We have a 70A breaker's bimetal strip, in a race with a #14 wire to see if the breaker trips before the #14 wire hits Fahrenheit 451. Obviously, the breaker is going to lose.




Now as a stupidly practical thing, one way you can solve this is do the big stuff in EMT or other fixed metal conduit. In those cases, the steel conduit and boxes are the ground path. And steel conduit has such good conductance (1/resistance) that it can ground pretty much any wire that will fit in it.






share|improve this answer




















  • One point this glosses over is that ground wires are undersized relative to the circuit conductors on circuits that size -- a 70A or 80A circuit using 4AWG for the CCCs will use an 8AWG ground wire as per NEC table 250.122 (in fact, that 8AWG EGC is good all the way out to 100A).
    – ThreePhaseEel
    10 mins ago

















up vote
0
down vote













A fuse, especially a slow-blow could allow enough current to pass for enough time to completely blow off a small ground wire, leaving the device connected to the mains through a nice fat wire, ready to cause death and mayhem.



The fuse should be specified to protect the mains wiring (AWG4 in your case) so it will also protect an AWG4 ground wire, should a ground fault occur.






share|improve this answer




















    Your Answer







    StackExchange.ready(function()
    var channelOptions =
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "73"
    ;
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
    createEditor();
    );

    else
    createEditor();

    );

    function createEditor()
    StackExchange.prepareEditor(
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: false,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    noCode: true, onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    );



    );













     

    draft saved


    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function ()
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fdiy.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f148654%2ftoo-small-ground-wire%23new-answer', 'question_page');

    );

    Post as a guest






























    2 Answers
    2






    active

    oldest

    votes








    2 Answers
    2






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes








    up vote
    3
    down vote













    Total heat notwithstanding, wires also have resistance. As in "ohm" resistance.



    What you may not be understanding is breaker trip curves. Breakers have a thermal trip mode from 1.0x up to about 10.0x breaker rating, where the action is delayed as a bimetal strip warms up. This is to be permissive of motor starts, inrush current, or "toaster and microwave at the same time" short term overloads. The thermal trip is sized to warm at about the same speed as the wire in the walls, so it trips somewhat before the wire warms enough to be dangerous. That requires matching between breaker and wire size.



    Breakers also have a magnetic trip mode that instantly trips at around 10x breaker rating.



    With too-small a ground wire, the breaker cannot magnetic-trip because it cannot flow enough current to hit 10x, because of the too-high resistance of the wire. And as you can guess, that's trouble.



    Now we're in thermal trip mode. We have a 70A breaker's bimetal strip, in a race with a #14 wire to see if the breaker trips before the #14 wire hits Fahrenheit 451. Obviously, the breaker is going to lose.




    Now as a stupidly practical thing, one way you can solve this is do the big stuff in EMT or other fixed metal conduit. In those cases, the steel conduit and boxes are the ground path. And steel conduit has such good conductance (1/resistance) that it can ground pretty much any wire that will fit in it.






    share|improve this answer




















    • One point this glosses over is that ground wires are undersized relative to the circuit conductors on circuits that size -- a 70A or 80A circuit using 4AWG for the CCCs will use an 8AWG ground wire as per NEC table 250.122 (in fact, that 8AWG EGC is good all the way out to 100A).
      – ThreePhaseEel
      10 mins ago














    up vote
    3
    down vote













    Total heat notwithstanding, wires also have resistance. As in "ohm" resistance.



    What you may not be understanding is breaker trip curves. Breakers have a thermal trip mode from 1.0x up to about 10.0x breaker rating, where the action is delayed as a bimetal strip warms up. This is to be permissive of motor starts, inrush current, or "toaster and microwave at the same time" short term overloads. The thermal trip is sized to warm at about the same speed as the wire in the walls, so it trips somewhat before the wire warms enough to be dangerous. That requires matching between breaker and wire size.



    Breakers also have a magnetic trip mode that instantly trips at around 10x breaker rating.



    With too-small a ground wire, the breaker cannot magnetic-trip because it cannot flow enough current to hit 10x, because of the too-high resistance of the wire. And as you can guess, that's trouble.



    Now we're in thermal trip mode. We have a 70A breaker's bimetal strip, in a race with a #14 wire to see if the breaker trips before the #14 wire hits Fahrenheit 451. Obviously, the breaker is going to lose.




    Now as a stupidly practical thing, one way you can solve this is do the big stuff in EMT or other fixed metal conduit. In those cases, the steel conduit and boxes are the ground path. And steel conduit has such good conductance (1/resistance) that it can ground pretty much any wire that will fit in it.






    share|improve this answer




















    • One point this glosses over is that ground wires are undersized relative to the circuit conductors on circuits that size -- a 70A or 80A circuit using 4AWG for the CCCs will use an 8AWG ground wire as per NEC table 250.122 (in fact, that 8AWG EGC is good all the way out to 100A).
      – ThreePhaseEel
      10 mins ago












    up vote
    3
    down vote










    up vote
    3
    down vote









    Total heat notwithstanding, wires also have resistance. As in "ohm" resistance.



    What you may not be understanding is breaker trip curves. Breakers have a thermal trip mode from 1.0x up to about 10.0x breaker rating, where the action is delayed as a bimetal strip warms up. This is to be permissive of motor starts, inrush current, or "toaster and microwave at the same time" short term overloads. The thermal trip is sized to warm at about the same speed as the wire in the walls, so it trips somewhat before the wire warms enough to be dangerous. That requires matching between breaker and wire size.



    Breakers also have a magnetic trip mode that instantly trips at around 10x breaker rating.



    With too-small a ground wire, the breaker cannot magnetic-trip because it cannot flow enough current to hit 10x, because of the too-high resistance of the wire. And as you can guess, that's trouble.



    Now we're in thermal trip mode. We have a 70A breaker's bimetal strip, in a race with a #14 wire to see if the breaker trips before the #14 wire hits Fahrenheit 451. Obviously, the breaker is going to lose.




    Now as a stupidly practical thing, one way you can solve this is do the big stuff in EMT or other fixed metal conduit. In those cases, the steel conduit and boxes are the ground path. And steel conduit has such good conductance (1/resistance) that it can ground pretty much any wire that will fit in it.






    share|improve this answer












    Total heat notwithstanding, wires also have resistance. As in "ohm" resistance.



    What you may not be understanding is breaker trip curves. Breakers have a thermal trip mode from 1.0x up to about 10.0x breaker rating, where the action is delayed as a bimetal strip warms up. This is to be permissive of motor starts, inrush current, or "toaster and microwave at the same time" short term overloads. The thermal trip is sized to warm at about the same speed as the wire in the walls, so it trips somewhat before the wire warms enough to be dangerous. That requires matching between breaker and wire size.



    Breakers also have a magnetic trip mode that instantly trips at around 10x breaker rating.



    With too-small a ground wire, the breaker cannot magnetic-trip because it cannot flow enough current to hit 10x, because of the too-high resistance of the wire. And as you can guess, that's trouble.



    Now we're in thermal trip mode. We have a 70A breaker's bimetal strip, in a race with a #14 wire to see if the breaker trips before the #14 wire hits Fahrenheit 451. Obviously, the breaker is going to lose.




    Now as a stupidly practical thing, one way you can solve this is do the big stuff in EMT or other fixed metal conduit. In those cases, the steel conduit and boxes are the ground path. And steel conduit has such good conductance (1/resistance) that it can ground pretty much any wire that will fit in it.







    share|improve this answer












    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer










    answered 42 mins ago









    Harper

    57.3k335116




    57.3k335116











    • One point this glosses over is that ground wires are undersized relative to the circuit conductors on circuits that size -- a 70A or 80A circuit using 4AWG for the CCCs will use an 8AWG ground wire as per NEC table 250.122 (in fact, that 8AWG EGC is good all the way out to 100A).
      – ThreePhaseEel
      10 mins ago
















    • One point this glosses over is that ground wires are undersized relative to the circuit conductors on circuits that size -- a 70A or 80A circuit using 4AWG for the CCCs will use an 8AWG ground wire as per NEC table 250.122 (in fact, that 8AWG EGC is good all the way out to 100A).
      – ThreePhaseEel
      10 mins ago















    One point this glosses over is that ground wires are undersized relative to the circuit conductors on circuits that size -- a 70A or 80A circuit using 4AWG for the CCCs will use an 8AWG ground wire as per NEC table 250.122 (in fact, that 8AWG EGC is good all the way out to 100A).
    – ThreePhaseEel
    10 mins ago




    One point this glosses over is that ground wires are undersized relative to the circuit conductors on circuits that size -- a 70A or 80A circuit using 4AWG for the CCCs will use an 8AWG ground wire as per NEC table 250.122 (in fact, that 8AWG EGC is good all the way out to 100A).
    – ThreePhaseEel
    10 mins ago












    up vote
    0
    down vote













    A fuse, especially a slow-blow could allow enough current to pass for enough time to completely blow off a small ground wire, leaving the device connected to the mains through a nice fat wire, ready to cause death and mayhem.



    The fuse should be specified to protect the mains wiring (AWG4 in your case) so it will also protect an AWG4 ground wire, should a ground fault occur.






    share|improve this answer
























      up vote
      0
      down vote













      A fuse, especially a slow-blow could allow enough current to pass for enough time to completely blow off a small ground wire, leaving the device connected to the mains through a nice fat wire, ready to cause death and mayhem.



      The fuse should be specified to protect the mains wiring (AWG4 in your case) so it will also protect an AWG4 ground wire, should a ground fault occur.






      share|improve this answer






















        up vote
        0
        down vote










        up vote
        0
        down vote









        A fuse, especially a slow-blow could allow enough current to pass for enough time to completely blow off a small ground wire, leaving the device connected to the mains through a nice fat wire, ready to cause death and mayhem.



        The fuse should be specified to protect the mains wiring (AWG4 in your case) so it will also protect an AWG4 ground wire, should a ground fault occur.






        share|improve this answer












        A fuse, especially a slow-blow could allow enough current to pass for enough time to completely blow off a small ground wire, leaving the device connected to the mains through a nice fat wire, ready to cause death and mayhem.



        The fuse should be specified to protect the mains wiring (AWG4 in your case) so it will also protect an AWG4 ground wire, should a ground fault occur.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 17 mins ago









        Spehro Pefhany

        40127




        40127



























             

            draft saved


            draft discarded















































             


            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function ()
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fdiy.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f148654%2ftoo-small-ground-wire%23new-answer', 'question_page');

            );

            Post as a guest













































































            Popular posts from this blog

            How to check contact read email or not when send email to Individual?

            Displaying single band from multi-band raster using QGIS

            How many registers does an x86_64 CPU actually have?