[Amps] Neutral vs Ground Connection for 220 VAC

Phil Clements philk5pc@tyler.net
Wed, 11 Dec 2002 22:46:53 -0600


> Our club just inherited a Henry 2K-D which I was planning to
> wire for the 220VAC service that we have available in the
> shack. My quandry is how to properly connect the 4 wire
> 220VAC wiring on the Henry (2-hot, 1-neutral, and 1-ground)
> to the 3 pole 220 outlets in the shack? While its clear to me
> that tying the neutral and the safety ground connnections on
> the Henry together will work functionally, I am wondering if
> this would be kosher from a safety/code point of view. Is
> the third wire in a 3 prong 220 outlet supposed to be a safety
> ground or is it actually allowed to carry neutral current in the
> case where both 110V and 220V are needed inside the box
> (it looks like the pilot bulbs and blower in the Henry use one
> "phase" of the 220V circuit to get 110VAC)?

First, we must make some assumptions. Assume your mains
wiring is done by the "code." If your Henry is being wired to
the main service entrance panel, the neutral and safety ground
busses in the breaker panel are strapped together. If you don't
have 4 wires running all the way to the panel, just pair up the
neutral and safety ground wires on the Henry and run them to
the neutral/safety busses in the panel. Run a ground strap from
the Henry chassis to the ground rod under the service entrance panel.
If your Henry is being wired to a sub-panel, the neutral and safety
ground are not strapped together in a sub-panel box. The 4 wires
from the Henry should go to the 2 breakers, the neutral, and the
safety ground busses. The Henry chassis again being strapped
to the common-station ground rod where the mains, telephone,
antennas, etc are all bussed together.

At least that is the way I have always understood it, and done
it.

(((73)))
Phil, K5PC