We had an inspection done on our house last week. The inspector stated under a concern for electrical that our main panel box is not bonded properly to the neural system. What does this mean exactly and is this something that we can fix ourselves?

 

well,
you probably need an MBJ, or main bonding jumper. this is usually a screw, or mettalic piece that joins the grounding and grounded ( or neutrals & bare grounds) together.

perhaps you could get the panel make & model, and chase thios down at an electrical supply house...

 

If the "Main Panel" is the electrical enclosure housing the main disconnecting device for your electric service (Main Breaker), then the NEC requires the neutrals and grounds to be "bonded" together. In lay terms this means "connected". Wirenuts correctly explained this, but I'll add to it just a bit. Most new panels come with a "bonding screw", but it is often NOT installed because certain circumstances prohibit its use. But it is supposed to be installed in the main panel. There is a hole in your neutral bus, probably near where your main service entrance conductors are connected. This screw simply goes right through the neutral bus and taps into the steel of the enclosure, making the two a common point. Your neutral and ground bus bars are also screwed right to the steel of this enclosure. One screw seems simple enough, but in this case you will have live electrical feeders very close to where you would be working, and killing the main breaker will not de-energize these conductors. An experienced electrician would likely be able to do this in 2 minutes without disconnecting your house from the utility, which is the only way to cut the power in that enclosure.

Does that make sense?

Juice

 

I kind of understand, Thanks for the reply. So basically it's not a significant problem that we should worry about, right?

 

Wrong!

The previous posts only say that the problem should be relatively simple to correct. They did not mean to imply that it's not an important problem. It is very important. The grounding system in your house (if you have one) is not functioning properly.