Jimmie D wrote:


Hopefully you are not really using the water pipe for a ground for your
electrical service. Hopefully your plumbing is just bonded to the
electrical ground. Dont even think about using this for lightning
protection. Nothing like having lightning run in on your plumbing while
taking a bath or have it run in on yor ground and eat about $7K worth of
test equipment(my bad).

Jimmie

Jimmie

DE KB3OPR

I am an electrician by craft. The US National Electric Code Requires that
underground metal water piping on the premise be used as a grounding
electrode for the electrical system. There is no way around it. No
matter how fast people talk you cannot avoid using an underground metal
piping system as a grounding electrode unless the electrical inspector is
incompetent.
--
Tom Horne


Tom you are confusing grounding with bonding, the plumbing should be bonded
to ground but not used for ground, at least this is getting to be the rule
in most places. I know that using the plumbing for ground is still
acceptaable in places and in a lot of places it is still acceptable if if
the local code permitted it at the time it was installed(grandfathering)..



An electrician confusing grounding and bonding - that is pretty funny.

From the US National Electrical Code
“250.50 Grounding Electrode System
All grounding electrodes as described in 250.52(A)(1) through (A)(6)
that are present at each building or structure served shall be bonded
together to form the grounding electrode system.”

“250.52(A)(1) Metal Underground Water Pipe”
(10 feet or more metal in earth)

Using underground metal water pipe as a grounding electrode is REQUIRED.
And this has been a requirement for a very long time. Local codes may be
different from the NEC, but it is unlikely they are different on this.

And if you just "bond" metal water pipe it will work as a grounding
electrode anyway.

--
bud--