Electric main feed line

I had the inspector out last week and he told me I needed to run 4/0 4/0 2/0 wire from the meter box to the house, roughly 100 feet. I ran 4/0 4/0 4/0 and connected them. There are two 7 foot ground rods at the house connected with #4 solid wire. Now that it is buried he wants me to run a 6 gauge stranded wire to connect meter box ground to the ground at the house. Is there a reason I need to connect these? I did everything that was asked, but the inspectors keep coming up with more stuff. I write everything in a notebook when they tell me and check it off as completed, so I didn't just "miss" it.

If I read that right the ground rods are not connected to the box but are connected to each other. That would be a mojor problem.

Sorry, there are two ground rods at the house that are connected to my box.

He probably would have checked it off had you run the 2/0 he told you to.

You can have surge problems if the box to house ground/neutral is missing or too small.
I had a problem with this after the cement guys I contracted with punctured one of my supply cables. Three years later, the aluminum wire corroded to the point of going out. I was able to rig the neutral from the box to the house over to the supply side, and ran a solid copper 2 gauge over the ground for my neutral. With the neutral/ground disconnected, everything worked, but if the fridge kicked on while the dryer was running, lights would momentarily surge. I eventually busted out the concrete and had someone patch the corroded wire.

Good luck.

Yea then hes fixing the wire like davsel pointed out instead of making you pull the correct guage. Actually doing you a favor.

So running a larger wire was not the correct thing to do? I thought 4/0 was bigger than 2/0.
I'm sorry, I'm not good with electricity, but I thought bigger would be better.

2/0 is bigger than 4/0

12 gauge shotgun is bigger than 16, is bigger than 20, is bigger than 28.

There is nothing wrong with the 4/0 you ran. It is bigger than the 2/0 so that is the reason he didn't make you change that out. Yeah you do need to run a ground to the meter housing if you do not have a meter main combo. The reason he didn't tell you before is anybody's guess. Maybe he missed it the first time. That has happened to me before.

I guess thats where I got confused. I knew 6 ga is bigger than 4 ga, I thought when I got into the aughts, it went the other way. 0 being the smallest and 0000 being the largest.

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Originally Posted by encorehunter

I guess thats where I got confused. I knew 6 ga is bigger than 4 ga, I thought when I got into the aughts, it went the other way. 0 being the smallest and 0000 being the largest.

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I misread - you are correct.
No idea what his problem is.

So I need 4 wires from the meter/main to my box. He initially told me just the three wires, 4/4/2. It wouldnt be so bad if the ditch wasnt all ready partially covered.

Sorry but you have to bond all your grounds together. Sucks he did that to you.

I just got off the phone with an electrician and she confirmed what you said. She agrees that was pretty %*/!"ed up in her terminology that he forgot to mention it. Thanks for the info and help.

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Originally Posted by encorehunter

I just got off the phone with an electrician and she confirmed what you said. She agrees that was pretty %*/!"ed up in her terminology that he forgot to mention it. Thanks for the info and help.

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FYI I am a master electrician as well.

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Originally Posted by encorehunter

I guess thats where I got confused. I knew 6 ga is bigger than 4 ga, I thought when I got into the aughts, it went the other way. 0 being the smallest and 0000 being the largest.

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If you are talking shotguns, the bigger the gauge number, the smaller the bore dia. The same is true with wire gauges. Telephone wire is 22 AWG, and the smaller the number, the larger the wire dia. Then you get into the aught sizing which reverses the AWG sizing, 1/0 is smaller than 2/0and so on. Then you get into MCM sizing on wire, and you don't want to go there.....

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Originally Posted by Sparky

FYI I am a master electrician as well.

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Thanks again. I was trying to buy the wire over the phone and had to explain to her what I was using it for. That is when she made her comments. I'm going to diconnect the whole thing tomorrow, attach a rope to the main line and pull everything out. I will then attempt to push and pull both the main and ground back through. It is 3" conduit.

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Originally Posted by encorehunter

Thanks again. I was trying to buy the wire over the phone and had to explain to her what I was using it for. That is when she made her comments. I'm going to diconnect the whole thing tomorrow, attach a rope to the main line and pull everything out. I will then attempt to push and pull both the main and ground back through. It is 3" conduit.

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Not saying it will work, but try putting a fish tape in first if you want.

I dont have a fish tape. It is roughly 115 feet. I may call the electrician again and see if they have on I can borrow. There aren't a lot of plàces to pick up electrical supplies around here.

I too misread the ought

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Originally Posted by encorehunter

I dont have a fish tape. It is roughly 115 feet. I may call the electrician again and see if they have on I can borrow. There aren't a lot of plàces to pick up electrical supplies around here.

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Go buy a 250 ft. X 1/4" fish tape it will be worth it in labor and back aches trying to pull out and then re-pull the feed back in.
If the fish tape stops, you can see-saw the wire back & forth while pushing on the tape to get it through.

but if you decide to just pull out the feed and re-pull it back in with the ground, pick up a couple gallons of wire lube & lube the wire as it goes back in the conduit, it will ease the pulling effort.

I thought the smallest grounding conductor according to NEC that could be used has to be at least #4 AWG?

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Originally Posted by encorehunter

I dont have a fish tape. It is roughly 115 feet. I may call the electrician again and see if they have on I can borrow. There aren't a lot of plàces to pick up electrical supplies around here.

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see below for advice. I tried to pull wire with something other than f/tape. in the long run it was worth the time & money to drive down the road for the correct tool. Especially If what you're using breaks 1/2 way between here and there.

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Originally Posted by SideShow Bob

Go buy a 250 ft. X 1/4" fish tape it will be worth it in labor and back aches trying to pull out and then re-pull the feed back in.
If the fish tape stops, you can see-saw the wire back & forth while pushing on the tape to get it through.

but if you decide to just pull out the feed and re-pull it back in with the ground, pick up a couple gallons of wire lube & lube the wire as it goes back in the conduit, it will ease the pulling effort.

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If it were me and I needed to pull it all out, I'd be thinking about blowing in pull strings or at least putting some in with the new pull. Although 125' shouldn't be any trouble with a fish tape.

But I'm not an electrician, only had to do some telco and lan cabling back in the day.

I decided to pull it out with a rope attached and it worked with some struggles. I couldn't get a fish tape until today, so I decided to give it a try.

Next question is, what circuits do I need Arc Interrupter breakers on? He told me the laundry room even though they are all gfi plugs. Would I need them in the baths and kitchen as well? At $38 each, I don't want to buy a bunch of them.

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Originally Posted by encorehunter

I decided to pull it out with a rope attached and it worked with some struggles. I couldn't get a fish tape until today, so I decided to give it a try.

Next question is, what circuits do I need Arc Interrupter breakers on? He told me the laundry room even though they are all gfi plugs. Would I need them in the baths and kitchen as well? At $38 each, I don't want to buy a bunch of them.

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Bathrooms no. Kitchens need to be both gfci and arc fault on most of the circuits. I don't have my code book in front of me to tell you which ones.

Pretty sure all my bedrooms are Arc faults.