Wiring question on 240 volt neutral wire

[Crowz]

After spending some of the day adding a generator plug to my solar load panel I was resting between parts of the job and decided to look around in a few of the various electrical boxes that make up the outside wiring panels on my home (you wouldn't believe how many there are..). While doing this I ran across one that is wired pretty damn strange.

It has the normal hookup for L1 and L2 of the legs to make 240 like you would think but the grounding blew my mind.

They have the Black and Reds feeding the L1 and L2.

The 3rd insulated white wire goes to ground.

The bare copper wire goes to neutral.

Now this works as it is but has anyone ever seen a box done like this?

I'm planning on rewiring it tomorrow so that the neutral is the insulated white wire and the bare copper wire is ground. Just seems safer to me and proper to boot I would think.

 

[CoolWill]

Are you sure the ground and neutral aren't connected in that box? A pic would help.

 

[hwy17]

Yeah, pictures. Sounds like it's probably bonded.

 

[Crowz]

Ground is on the bar that is bolted to the box and the neutral is on the insulated from the box bar.

Its wired right as far as the working they just used the bare wire for neutral and the white insulated wire for ground.

Too tired to go outside tonight for pics. I'll try to shoot some tomorrow before I rewire it.

Basically the white wire and bare wire needs swapping from the main box and sub panel box. Otherwise its wired right. They just chose to use the bare wire to run from the neutral bar in the main box to the neutral bar in the sub panel box. Then they used the white wire to connect to the ground bar in the main box to the ground bar in the sub panel box.

 

[hwy17]

As you describe it, yeah sounds plain swapped. Make sure you're sure both are where you expect them in the main panel, I'm guessing that's both on a bonded neutral/ground bar.

 

[CRenner]

If this is coming from the main panel, would they not be bonded and therefor the same?

 

[time2roll]

Yes at the main panel there should be a N-G bond making the bus equal either way. Still best practice to keep all neutral on the neutral bus and same for grounds on the ground bus.

 

[timselectric]

If this is coming from the main panel, would they not be bonded and therefor the same?

Yes, they are potentially the same inside the main panel.
But they have to be separate after leaving the main panel.
The neutral must be insulated (so that it can't make contact with anything grounded) and identified correctly. (White or Grey)

 

[CRenner]

Thanks for clarifying that.