Electrical question.

[duffer]

If you have a sub panel in your barn/shop from the main panel in the house, check to see if the neutral and ground buss bars (in the sub panel) have a strap connecting them. If so, turn off the breaker to the sub panel in your main breaker box in the house, and disconnect the strap in the sub panel.

Might be a long shot, but if the barn/shop panel does not have its own meter, then these to buss bars shouldn't be connected.

 

[grsthegreat]

If you have a sub panel in your barn/shop from the main panel in the house, check to see if the neutral and ground buss bars (in the sub panel) have a strap connecting them. If so, turn off the breaker to the sub panel in your main breaker box in the house, and disconnect the strap in the sub panel.

Might be a long shot, but if the barn/shop panel does not have its own meter, then these to buss bars shouldn't be connected.

Not so….in older homes, they only ran 3 wires between buildings and drove new ground rods at the secondary buildings. In these cases you leave the bonding jumper inplace. In more modern houses, they run 4 wires between buildings, and this is the case you dont want to bond ground and neutrals.

 

[dj1701]

If you have a sub panel in your barn/shop from the main panel in the house, check to see if the neutral and ground buss bars (in the sub panel) have a strap connecting them. If so, turn off the breaker to the sub panel in your main breaker box in the house, and disconnect the strap in the sub panel.

Might be a long shot, but if the barn/shop panel does not have its own meter, then these to buss bars shouldn't be connected.

I think it does.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

If you have a sub panel in your barn/shop from the main panel in the house, check to see if the neutral and ground buss bars (in the sub panel) have a strap connecting them. If so, turn off the breaker to the sub panel in your main breaker box in the house, and disconnect the strap in the sub panel.

Might be a long shot, but if the barn/shop panel does not have its own meter, then these to buss bars shouldn't be connected.

If there are four conductors running to the barn/shop, then this would be good advise. Line 1, Line 2, Neutral, Grounding conductor.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I think it does.

View attachment 816906

If this is your sub panel in the barn/shop, I would turn the power off and remove that strap connecting the neutral and ground bar together.
Only place a connection like this should occur is at the main panel. All sub panels should isolate the the ground bar from the neutral bar.

 

[Torvy]

I don't know much on the topic, but we had a whole house surge protector added when we did some other work. It really seemed to cut down on problems. In our case it was spike during thunderstorms that damaged electronics and even blew out a transformer plugged into an outlet. Completely fried the outlet, too.

Don't know if it would help OP. Listen to those guys that actually know about electricity. I leave that to the pros.

 

[lilranch2001]

I think it does.

View attachment 816906

I’m no electrician either, but the workmanship in this panel leaves something to be desired

 

[Chewwy]

I have a box in the barn that is fed from the house. It is an aluminum wire.

Is your home’s internal wiring from breaker box to loads wired with aluminum conductors? Many homes built in the 1960s thru the mid 1970s have aluminum internal wiring.

 

[grsthegreat]

If this is your sub panel in the barn/shop, I would turn the power off and remove that strap connecting the neutral and ground bar together.
Only place a connection like this should occur is at the main panel. All sub panels should isolate the the ground bar from the neutral bar.

Agree, you have a modern 4 wire fed subpanel. Lose the jumper bar. And that panel is a mess. if my employee did something like that, hed be unemployed that same day.

 

[ultrarunner]

Neatness counts and can avoid problems is my take…