Electrical panel in barn

[Farmall1]

I have a separate electrical service for a barn. It is attached to a pole with a panel just below the meter. The panel is grounded and has a main disconnect. I added a 100 amp breaker and ran a 3 wire (non insulated neutral) service through pvc conduit 75 feet to the barn. In the barn I have 8 circuit panel. The panel only has a neutral bar. Do I need to add a ground bar and ground the panel in the barn?

 

[Norcal]

I have a separate electrical service for a barn. It is attached to a pole with a panel just below the meter. The panel is grounded and has a main disconnect. I added a 100 amp breaker and ran a 3 wire (non insulated neutral) service through pvc conduit 75 feet to the barn. In the barn I have 8 circuit panel. The panel only has a neutral bar. Do I need to add a ground bar and ground the panel in the barn?

You need a 4 wire feed & the bare neutral needs to be gone, if it’s aluminum it will fail adding to issues.

 

[Aceman]

You need a 4 wire feed & the bare neutral needs to be gone, if it’s aluminum it will fail adding to issues.

I'm with Norcal.

In Oregon, we have a state amendment and are still allowed to run 3 wire feeds assuming we might certain requirements. My preference is still 4 wire though.

Regardless, you installed the wrong wire type and you would need to verify if a 3 wire feed is even allowed in your area.

Also, if this barn contains livestock you may run into equipotential plane issues. Our crew does a lot of ag work, so we do A LOT of grounding in barns.

 

[Farmall1]

I have 3 wires coming into the meter. The meter is grounded to the ground bar as required by the service provider. The panel below the meter has 3 wires from the meter with one wire going to a bus bar. If I want to run a 4 wire from this panel to the barn, how do I connect it since the other bus bar in this panel is not connected.

 

[pattenp]

The panel after the meter with the main disconnect will have the neutral bonded to ground. So the ground and neutral of the 4 wire feeder can connect to the same bar. In other words the neutrals are not isolated from ground in the main service disconnect panel. The neutral will be isolated at the barn sub panel. In most cases you will need to buy a ground bar kit for the grounds and remove the bonding strap/screw on the existing bar to isolate it from the case for the neutrals. You should also drive 2 ground rods 6ft apart from each other at the barn and connect those to the subpanel.