Terminating ground wire when no ground lug present
#1
09-25-06, 09:38 AM
Terminating ground wire when no ground lug present
I installed some temporary lighting in my remodel & am a little perplexed about what I should do with my bare ground wire at the end of the run. The cheap $2 lamp holders I bought only have connections for hot & neutral, no ground screws. I also used plastic ceiling boxes so grounding to the box is out of the question. Where should I connect the bare ground? Right now I just connected it to the neutral. Is this right?
Thanks,
Dan
Thanks,
Dan
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#2
09-25-06, 09:46 AM
Running a ground wire is the right thing to do.
In the case where you run into an appliance that does not have a ground terminal hook the ground wire to nothing.
The wire is still in some small way protecting the cable lenght.
Think of it like the two prong lamp or radio that is plugged into a recepticle in one of your rooms.
Hooking it up to the neutral is wrong. You do not want a ground wire to carry current when there is not a fault on the system.
In the case where you run into an appliance that does not have a ground terminal hook the ground wire to nothing.
The wire is still in some small way protecting the cable lenght.
Think of it like the two prong lamp or radio that is plugged into a recepticle in one of your rooms.
Hooking it up to the neutral is wrong. You do not want a ground wire to carry current when there is not a fault on the system.
#3
09-25-06, 09:51 AM
Never ever hook a ground wire to a neutral wire at a regular junction box. This is wrong and creates a life-saftey issue.
The light fixture you bought may have been inexpensive, but that does not mean it is cheap, as in lower quality.
Fixtures that are all plastic do not need a ground. Just leave the ground wire unconnected, pushed to the back (or in this case top) of the box. However, do make sure that all grounds in the box are connected togather. So, for example, if this box is fed from another with a simple lamp holder, the grounds in that box need to be connected together.
The light fixture you bought may have been inexpensive, but that does not mean it is cheap, as in lower quality.
Fixtures that are all plastic do not need a ground. Just leave the ground wire unconnected, pushed to the back (or in this case top) of the box. However, do make sure that all grounds in the box are connected togather. So, for example, if this box is fed from another with a simple lamp holder, the grounds in that box need to be connected together.
