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Well actually, the neutral is bonded to ground at the meter base, not the panel.

This (second picture under Identifying The Parts) is what I usually see. I know there seem to be a lot of differences in different places as to grounding. Some places you can still use a ground rod, I understand.

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Many electricians and builders run 12/3 romex for reasons of saving labor and material. It has three conductors and one ground (Black, Red, White, ground). This saves time because you only have to pull one run of romex back to the panel.

At the most logical J-box, the electrician ties in a separate 2/12 romex for another run of devices. At this J-box, the neutrals are tied together and ran back to the panel as "shared".

Which raises another concern that never really ever gets many eyebrows raised. Not only can you overload a hot leg of a mains circuit, it is possible to overload a neutral leg. My garage for instance, picked up the two 15A circuits onto 14-3 as they came out of the concrete pad. Now each hot conductor is carrying up to a 15A load, and the shared neutral can see 30... on a 14ga. wire. Bad.

But the NEC and CEC always seem to contradict themselves. The 12-3 solution would work better, since the extra wire size would make carrying the load easier. Then I get my wrist slapped by my electrician neighbour who mentions the CEC requires any run to the panel made with 12ga has to be connected through a 20A breaker.

Argh. The more you know, the less you know.

Bren R.