I know this isn't the general kind of question asked here, but I figure it's worth a shot.
We bought an older house, and the house is grounded normally.
At some time, someone ran electrical wires to the garage, which is about 80 ft away.
2 wires, run from the breaker, to the garage roof, no grounding wire.
The wiring in the garage is all wired in for a ground wire, but the main junction box obviously doesn't have one, so nothing is grounded in there.
The 2 old wires looked old, and in fact looking closer, I think someone used old clothes line for wire. The plastic coating is chipped off in several spots, so I decided to run some new wires underground.
I utilised some wire I had sitting around, it's really thick multi strand wire from a solar project a few years ago. 4 conductor, rated 480 volt, and I buried it about 8" deep in 1" electrical conduit.
I know thats not how code says, but I figure it's better than clothesline, and I already had everything to do it, so I went for it.
Right now, the garage with the crap old wires is on a 15 amp 115v breaker, and I have a little welder; and if I run anything at the same time I run the welder, the breaker overloads.
So, I wanted to utilize the 4 wires for 2 115v 15 amp circuits, or maybe even one 115v and one 230 v for a bigger welder.
Either way, should I have ran a 5th wire for a ground to the house box ?
Will I have to sacrifice one of the 4 conducters already buried for a ground?
Can I pound a ground ron in the ground near the garage and use that for a ground?
We bought an older house, and the house is grounded normally.
At some time, someone ran electrical wires to the garage, which is about 80 ft away.
2 wires, run from the breaker, to the garage roof, no grounding wire.
The wiring in the garage is all wired in for a ground wire, but the main junction box obviously doesn't have one, so nothing is grounded in there.
The 2 old wires looked old, and in fact looking closer, I think someone used old clothes line for wire. The plastic coating is chipped off in several spots, so I decided to run some new wires underground.
I utilised some wire I had sitting around, it's really thick multi strand wire from a solar project a few years ago. 4 conductor, rated 480 volt, and I buried it about 8" deep in 1" electrical conduit.
I know thats not how code says, but I figure it's better than clothesline, and I already had everything to do it, so I went for it.
Right now, the garage with the crap old wires is on a 15 amp 115v breaker, and I have a little welder; and if I run anything at the same time I run the welder, the breaker overloads.
So, I wanted to utilize the 4 wires for 2 115v 15 amp circuits, or maybe even one 115v and one 230 v for a bigger welder.
Either way, should I have ran a 5th wire for a ground to the house box ?
Will I have to sacrifice one of the 4 conducters already buried for a ground?
Can I pound a ground ron in the ground near the garage and use that for a ground?