Breaking Connections That Don’t Carry Current

Your work may require temporarily breaking an existing ground, bond, or neutral connection for operating equipment. Before breaking any ground, bond, or neutral, evaluate the circuit for a need to provide an alternate path (e.g., jumper around the break). This sounds like common sense, but in practice this caution is often ignored.

For example, metallic raceway is often used as an equipment grounding conductor (EGC). Any break in the raceway path opens the EGC. As a general practice, you should jumper around raceway before disconnecting it at a panel, pullbox, or other enclosure.

In branch circuits, the device is often used as part of the neutral path. If you install receptacles in a manner where this doesn’t happen (e.g., you pigtail the neutral and the ground), then no problem. But if you remove a receptacle that is also serving as part of the path for the neutral or the ground, then you break this path. By necessity, GFCI receptacles are wired such that they are part of the neutral path. But you can still pigtail the ground connections.