Fused neutral

I am looking for the specific articles that you cannot fuse neutrals. I recently met one panel builder and they are fusing neutral in their panels. On top of it these panels are in wet locations. I was very surprised and I believe it is wrong

 

If that fuse blows open, current is interrupted, but the line potential remains, and can conduct to ground. Did the builder say why he had elected to do so?

I do not have a copy of the NEC, but you may be able to get a link from this one - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Electrical_Code

 

That certainly sounds like a very bad idea to me.

You'd have to refer to your National Electrical Code, State and Local codes to find out for certain.

We have absolutely no clue where you are, as you have not provided that information in your profile. You don't need to be overly specific; country and state is generally sufficient.

 

You would need to be specific about the term Neutral. I have seen industrial control panels that have the ladder rails fed by the secondary of a transformer and does not have either side of the secondary tied to ground. In such an installation, two indicator lamps are wired in series and the node between the two is tied to case/earth ground. The basis of such an arrangement is that if either side of the ladder rails gets shorted to ground, operation will continue but one of the two lights will go out while the other goes to full brightness, thus alerting to a problem. In such an installation, fusing either side of the secondary protects from overloading of the transformer.