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Does this electrical panel look wired correctly?

An electrician is telling me I have to move the bare wires and it doesn't look like that's the case in the code. I just want to make sure on my picture below.

I'm very suspect of this electrician because he was telling me I need a 50 amp breaker for a 50 amp EV charger and I was almost positive I needed a 60 amp breaker and I needed to set the charger to 48 amps max.

electrical panelemphasized text

nobody
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njhe njhe
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    This is not a main panel (note the lack of main breaker) - it is a sub-panel with a four-wire feed. The electrician is correct: all grounds must go to the dedicated ground bar where the feed comes in, and all neutrals must go to one of the neutral bars. This is a very dangerous error: if the neutral between the main breaker and this panel somehow gets disconnected, all the grounds that you've connected to that neutral bar will be hot and someone could be killed by touching a grounded metal appliance casing (and no GFCI could save them). – nobody Oct 04 '23 at 01:57
  • If you're worried about space, ground bars generally allow two wires per screw (but check your panel labels to confirm). – nobody Oct 04 '23 at 02:01
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    As for needing a 60A breaker for a 48A continuous draw, you are correct on the basic principle. But we need more details (EVSE model, wire type and size, etc.) to know if that installation as a whole is correct. You also need to perform a load calculation to know if you actually have the service capacity to add a new 48A continuous load. – nobody Oct 04 '23 at 02:04
  • But this is the only panel I have. This is where the main electrical wire from the street goes into. So ?? this is the last place where the neutrals and grounds meet. – njhe njhe Oct 04 '23 at 10:11
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    This is not the place where your service neutral is bonded to ground. You have a four-wire feed (two hots, neutral, and ground) that comes from some other location where your main breaker is as well as the bonding of the service neutral to your local ground rods. In the panel pictured you must put all grounds on the dedicated ground bar (on the far left). – nobody Oct 04 '23 at 11:19
  • @njhenjhe if this is new it's probable that your jurisdiction requires a service disconnect, which usually means a meter-main outside and the "main" panel inside being wired as a sub panel, though strange they wouldn't use one with a main breaker.... – whatsisname Oct 04 '23 at 12:56
  • @whatsisname Judging by the dust and cobwebs on the wires, the yellowing of the neutral wires, the patina on the copper ground wires in back, and the complete lack of GFCI or AFCI breakers, this is a pretty old installation (pre-dating NEC 2020 for sure). It may be a condo/apartment/townhouse where the main breaker is in a central location. – nobody Oct 04 '23 at 22:05
  • @njhenjhe Even if this was the place where the neutrals and grounds meet, it would still be wrong because only a few of them meet here. Just move those ground wires on the right to the ground bus hidden in the back on the left. Wouldn't kill you, literally, to put plastic covers on the main lugs before you do it. Or better yet, find the main breaker and turn it off – jay613 Oct 04 '23 at 22:15
  • @jay613 Huh? I have no idea what you're trying to say. "it would still be wrong because only a few of them meet here"? Number is irrelevant. Either you have a main panel where it's perfectly legal to commingle neutrals and grounds on the same bar (and putting even one ground on a bar that has mostly neutrals is fine) or else you have a sub-panel where they need to be separate. "Just a few" doesn't matter either way. – nobody Oct 04 '23 at 22:21
  • @nobody I'm saying to OP that even if this was a main panel, which it isn't, the manner in which the grounds and neutrals are bonded would still be incorrect. – jay613 Oct 04 '23 at 22:38
  • @jay613 Well you're wrong there. If this were a main panel, it would be fine as pictured. It wouldn't be OK in a main panel to put neutrals on an accessory ground bar (sending neutral current through the box metal isn't allowed) but putting grounds on the bar(s) where the feeder neutral lands is perfectly legal. – nobody Oct 04 '23 at 23:16
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    HI all, I did goof ! there is a singe breaker in a box next to the meter! I did not remember that, so I am sure I have to move the ground wires to the proper ground strip.. I have to eat crow and tell my electrician he was right! At least on this issue, but not the EV! :) – njhe njhe Oct 05 '23 at 03:25
  • Please feel free to ask a whole new question about the EV charging. Or, just skip the question and go straight to this highly related info on EV charging and realize that you probably don't need 50+ amps of charging power (unless you're charging multiple vehicles that are daily driven to near empty). – FreeMan Oct 05 '23 at 14:10

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An electrician is telling me I have to move the bare wires and it doesn't look like that's the case in the code.

The electrician is correct about that. You have shown us a picture of a sub-panel with a four-wire (hot/hot/neutral/ground) feed. There is no main breaker in this panel. There is a main breaker somewhere else, and neutral and ground are bonded together there. In this panel, neutral wires and ground wires must be kept strictly separate - neutral wires to either of the two bars just above the breakers fed by the insulated neutral wire, grounds to the ground bar on the far left fed by the bare ground wire.

You have made a very dangerous error: if the neutral between the main breaker and this panel somehow gets disconnected, all the grounds that you've connected to the neutral bar will be hot and someone could be killed by touching a grounded metal appliance casing (and no downstream GFCI could save them because GFCIs only monitor and interrupt hots and neutral - not ground). In the case of that kind of failure, everything that should be perfectly safe (grounded) becomes deadly.

I'm very suspect of this electrician because he was telling me I need a 50 amp breaker for a 50 amp EV charger and I was almost positive I needed a 60 amp breaker and I needed to set the charger to 48 amps max.

You are correct on the basic principle. But we need more details (EVSE model, wire type and size, whether you have hard-wired or used a receptacle, etc.) to know if that installation as a whole is correct. You also need to perform a load calculation to know if you actually have the service capacity to add a new 48A continuous load.

nobody
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