I can think of 4 general explanations that might fit:

 

1)  current carrying capacity

2)  ground potential difference

3)  safety of equipment or personnel in some fault condition

4)  some regulation or code that may not make sense but you have to follow it 
just because

 

Our guesses are probably not going to be helpful, I would ask your low voltage 
guy where this spec comes from.  It seems very specific, it must come from 
somewhere.  If he says it’s in the GE installation manual, I would ask GE.

 

OK, there’s another possibility #5, it’s what they’ve always done and he 
doesn’t know why.

 

From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Steve Jones
Sent: Thursday, February 5, 2026 11:59 AM
To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Reference ground sizes

 

My guess would be so that the fire starts aways from the rectifier and not at 
it. Not saying there is an inherent fire risk. But it takes the detrimental 
load away to a far off point of failure. 

 

On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 9:44 AM Adam Moffett <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

When we get big rectifiers installed, the low voltage guy is running a 350kcmil 
to the MGB.  350kcmil is about 7/8" diameter including the jacket.

 

It feels kind of silly to have that on the bus bar and have a #2 to earth, but 
I'm told this is normal.  What's the point of having that anaconda from the 
rectifier to the bus bar?  

 

These are GE Infinity systems by the way.  16KW to 32KW systems. 

 

-Adam

 

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