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Posted by Tony Hwang on June 28, 2007, 10:57 am
daokfella wrote:
> I've been in my home almost 10 years and all of a sudden, a single
> circuit in my home started to flicker and intermittently power on and
> off (the breaker never tripped). I've done electrical work in the past
> when I finished my basement. The first thing I thought of was to
> replace the breaker. It's a Cutler Hammer twin (slimline) 15A breaker.
>
> After replacing it, the problem still occurred (so it was unlikely it
> was the breaker). After some diagnosising, I noticed that there was
> some arching ocurring in one of the terminals on the neutral buss bar.
> I tapped on the panel, and a small spark shot from the terminal. I
> turned off the circuit in question, and the arching and spark ceased.
> I then knew that the arching neutral belonged to the circuit in
> question.
>
> I found it odd that there are one or two ground wires on the neutral
> buss bar. However, the neutral buss bar is right on top of the ground
> buss bar. Don't they go to the same place anyway? Is this odd or OK? I
> know I've seen some panels where the ground buss is totally separated
> from the neutral buss.
>
> This neutral wire is sharing the same screw terminal on the buss bar
> with a ground wire from another circuit. I shut off the main breaker
> and screwed down the terminal firmly which fixed the problem. However,
> 5 days later, it started happening again. No sparks fly when I tap on
> the panel, but there is slight arching in that same termAinal.
>
> Just eyeballing it, it looks like my neutral is a 14 gauge whilst the
> ground in the same terminal might be a 12 gauge which would explain
> why the neutral is not secured enough by the screw terminal. I am
> going to to shut off the main breaker do some housekeeping on the
> terminals making sure the same gauge wire is shared by neutrals in the
> same terminal.
>
> 1. Does it look like I've diagnosed the problem and I'm taking the
> correct measures to fix it?
>
> 2. Why would this happen all of sudden after 10 years of living in the
> home? The terminal screw didn't seem all that loose when I tightened
> it the first time. I barely got 1/16 to 1/8 of a turn on it.
>
> 3. Is it OK for neutrals and grounds to share the same terminal on the
> neutral buss bar? Of different or same circuits?
>
> 4. Any other comments to add on what I've described?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jason
>
Hmmm,
First thing you'd do is checking for loose wire(hot, neutral, ground)
for that circuit. At the panel neutral and ground is same.
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