What are IG Receptacles and How Do They Work? (Isolated Ground Receptacles)

Perhaps you have seen these orange receptacles installed in places before or heard of them. But what exactly is an Isolated Ground Receptacle (IG or IGR)? In the latest episode of Electrician U, Dustin dives into the topic of what an isolated ground is and where we should be using these types of devices.

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For the most part, these types of devices/systems are utilized where there will be sensitive electronic equipment installed. Things like computers, medical devices, and other items that would not operate well with power that is not “Clean”. By Clean, we mean power that does not have an abundance of electrical Noise floating around. This noise can happen in many different forms. EMI (electro magnetic interference) or ground loops. Maybe you have a system that is using several different pieces of equipment that are plugged into a few different receptacles. And maybe that equipment also has high (120v) and low (12v or 24v or lower) voltage power it is operating on. All of that equipment is generally tied back to the same ground. But the difference in potential between the different voltages and equipment can lend itself to the conductors picking up that additional noise creating havoc with the low voltage systems.
In an Isolated Ground system, we utilize an ADDITIONAL grounding loop to keep the grounding loop of the equipment being plugged into a receptacle separate from the standard equipment grounding loop that bonds ALL our grounds and metallic equipment together. In doing this, it keeps most of that electrical “Noise” separate from the ground going directly to the receptacle and what is plugged into it.
Normally, the yoke, or the metallic strap on the back of a receptacle that holds the device to the box allowing it to be bonded, is connected internally to the grounding prong hole of the receptacle. On an IG receptacle, that yoke is still there, but the ground prong hole is NOT connected to it. Neither is the grounding screw of the receptacle. They are separate from that yoke. Additionally, in a normal type of system, we would install one grounding wire that bonds all our non-current carrying parts together giving us an effective alternate ground return path in case something goes wrong. But with an IG system, we will have to run an ADDITIONAL grounding wire that is specific to the extra grounding loop, keeping them separate.
For installation purposes, the neutral and hot conductors get installed and wired just as you normally would. Nothing different. But the grounds DO require a bit of different handling! The normal equipment ground is still installed, connected to the box as usual, and on to the next box as we normally do. But, it does NOT get tailed out to our device! That is where the IG ground itself comes into play. The IG grounding wire (identified as green with a yellow stripe on it) is connected to the ground screw of the device, but not to the box or to the normal equipment ground. It can still go onto the next box and attach to another IG ground but not the normal equipment ground.
The IG ground DOES connect back to the normal equipment ground, but this is done either at the service where the neutral and grounding is bonded together, or a completely separate grounding triad at the service point. This should be the only place where the two grounding systems come together, and by keeping them separate, we eliminate almost all the noise associated with the different individual systems within our overall system.
We hope this sheds some light on the isolated ground topic! You can also discover information about isolated grounding in the NEC in article 250.146. Please continue to follow Electrician U and Dustin as we are constantly adding new content!

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