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The Code Question of the Day (CQD) is NECA and ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR Magazine’s flagship National Electrical Code (NEC®) public forum for the industry. The daily distribution of Q&A generates a lively dialogue and shares relative Code-based practical responses.
November 12, 2026
Hey CQD - settle a debate for us. Our engineer says the receptacles in a hospital medication preparation room belong on the critical branch, and the facilities director says life safety branch. Thanks, Jack T.
November 11, 2026
Good Morning CQD. Is it true that bonding a metal box defeats the purpose of an isolated ground receptacle? That is what the IT contractor told us, and he wants the isolated conductor to be the only EGC to the metal box. Gordon F.
Good Morning Gordon. The metal box still requires its own equipment-grounding/bonding path through the approved wiring method or an equipment grounding conductor. That path is separate from the isolated equipment grounding conductor connected to the IG receptacle’s grounding terminal.
Section 250.146(D) permits the receptacle grounding terminal to be insulated from the receptacle mounting means and connected to an insulated equipment grounding conductor run with the circuit conductors.
The isolated equipment ground conductor may pass through panelboards, boxes, wireways, and other enclosures without being connected to them; however, this does not eliminate the requirement to ground the raceway system and outlet box. The isolated conductor is permitted to terminate within the same building or structure directly at the applicable derived-system or service equipment-grounding terminal.