TL;DR
The equipment grounding conductor (EGC) is the bare or green wire run with every circuit that bonds metal enclosures, boxes, and appliance frames back to the panel, giving fault current a low-impedance path that trips the breaker instead of energizing the equipment case. It carries no current in normal operation — that is the neutral's job — and the two must never be joined downstream of the main bonding jumper.
What it means
The equipment grounding conductor (EGC) is the bare or green wire run with every circuit that bonds metal enclosures, boxes, and appliance frames back to the panel, giving fault current a low-impedance path that trips the breaker instead of energizing the equipment case. It carries no current in normal operation — that is the neutral's job — and the two must never be joined downstream of the main bonding jumper. NEC Table 250.122 sizes it by the circuit breaker rating.
Where it sits in the glossary
Equipment grounding conductor is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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