I just added an equipment grounding bus in my old GE service panel pictured below in order to free up posts for neutral wires which had been double lugged. I attached the new bus on the right in the picture by drilling and tapping two mounting holes also backed by lock washers and nuts. I moved most of the ground wires to this new bus. <br />

My question is; should I run a wire between the new bus and the existing neutral/grounding bus? And not just depend on the bonding created by screwing the new bus to the panel. <br />

If I can do this what size wire should I use? I have 2 30amp and 20 20amp breakers in the panel.<br />

I don't have room for a single pole ground lug on the old neutral bus bar. The thick blue wire goes to a grounding rod outside. The black marked green wire grounds to the water pipe at the entrance in the basement, and the other green wire grounds the gas line coming into the basement before the start of flexible stainless steel gas line. Thanks for your help.<br />

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<img src="https://apis.mail.yahoo.com/ws/v3/ma...Neo&amp;pid=2" border="0" alt="" class="post_inline_image" />

 

Being connected to the panel is enough, but if it makes you feel better you can use a bare solid piece of #6 copper to bond the two bars together.

 

There is no need for a jumper between the bars.

 

Thanks. I will leave it as it is. When I tested with my OHM meter it went to 0 just like the other bars. I will remove the colored cable ties on the black wires. I read that is a no no because of possible heating up in the box.

 

Last time I did this the unbalanced loads caused the panel to overheat. The breakers melted and the house burned down. Luckily it wasn't my house. If it was my house, I'd make sure to have the grounding bars connected with copper wire.

 

Welcome to the forums Wirerpo.

Then your new grounding bar was poorly attached to the panel.
You may have also been missing the bonding screw.


When I add an additional ground bar..... I only move the grounds to it. The neutrals stay on the main neutral/ground bar.

 

There should have been no current on the grounding conductors. They only carry current in the event of a fault. This was not the cause of your issue.