Nope. The two ground points could very well have tens to hundreds of
ohms of soil resistance between them. For purposes of electrical
safety, bond 'em together!

They are bonded together by earth ground.

The National Electric Code says otherwise. Earth ground is *not*
considered adequate bonding for the purposes of electrical safety.

The antenna is not going to
carry any AC load if your station is grounded. Who knows maybe a 747
will clip the guys antenna at the same time as lightening hits the 747
knocking the ground wire from the antenna and creating a huge fireball
above his house.

The whole purpose of proper electrical *safety* grounding is to ensure
that when things go wrong (short circuits, open neutrals, etc.), they
go as *little* wrong as possible.

Failing to bond ground rods together would be one of those things
which would make no difference *normally* (in the absense of faults in
the building wiring). If a wiring fault, short circuit, etc. were to
occur, proper ground-rod bonding could make the difference between a
tripped circuit breaker (if you're run a heavy-gauge bonding wire),
and a burned-down building (if you didn't bond 'em, and the current
flow through the soil wasn't enough to trip the breaker).

The bonding rule is there for a very good reason... safety.

As a very practical matter: if you fail to follow the Electrical Code
(or your own local rules, if different), then your home may fail
inspection if you try to sell it, and (if a fire occurs) your
insurance company may refuse to pay your claims if they find a
not-to-code electrical installation/modification.

Bonding the grounds together will cost maybe $10 worth of wire. It's
cheap insurance.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

Consider:

The National Electric Code says otherwise. Earth ground is *not*
considered adequate bonding for the purposes of electrical safety.

The bonding rule is there for a very good reason... safety.


Bonding the grounds together will cost maybe $10 worth of wire. It's
cheap insurance.

My main pannel's nutral bar is attached to a stranded 2AWG wire attached to
the cold water pipe (from 1963). Other work done in 2001 by a contractor
has a solid 6AWG wire on the nutral bar, going out to a stake in the back
yard. He tied the gas line in the house, to the cold water pipe, and also,
in another area of the basement, tied the copper sewer line to the cold
water line. Am I good-as-gold with this setup?

alex
batsonaatcomcastdotnet

The National Electric Code says otherwise. Earth ground is *not*
considered adequate bonding for the purposes of electrical safety.

The bonding rule is there for a very good reason... safety.


Bonding the grounds together will cost maybe $10 worth of wire. It's
cheap insurance.

My main pannel's nutral bar is attached to a stranded 2AWG wire attached to
the cold water pipe (from 1963). Other work done in 2001 by a contractor
has a solid 6AWG wire on the nutral bar, going out to a stake in the back
yard. He tied the gas line in the house, to the cold water pipe, and also,
in another area of the basement, tied the copper sewer line to the cold
water line. Am I good-as-gold with this setup?

I can't speak for the legalities of the situation (only your local
code inspector can), but it sure sounds good to me! Keep up this
approach with any new grounding points/rods you add, and I think
you'll be in very good shape.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 22:26:31 -0500, "Alex Batson"
wrote:

Consider:

The National Electric Code says otherwise. Earth ground is *not*
considered adequate bonding for the purposes of electrical safety.

The bonding rule is there for a very good reason... safety.


Bonding the grounds together will cost maybe $10 worth of wire. It's
cheap insurance.

My main pannel's nutral bar is attached to a stranded 2AWG wire attached to
the cold water pipe (from 1963). Other work done in 2001 by a contractor
has a solid 6AWG wire on the nutral bar, going out to a stake in the back
yard. He tied the gas line in the house, to the cold water pipe, and also,
in another area of the basement, tied the copper sewer line to the cold
water line. Am I good-as-gold with this setup?

Here the answer would be no, but YMMV depending on location (local
codes)

Although tied together the Neutral and ground are not considered the
same. Neutral is the return to the power transformer on the pole and
is normally the same size at the hot wires. (220 VAC). There should
be a ground at the pole and one (or two) within 6 to 12 feet of the
service entrance.

*Here* and I emphasize here, that ground varies with the size of the
service, but for a 200 amp service I believe it was #6. It had to be
"Green" and tie to the ground clamp in the breaker box. In the breaker
box is a jumper that ties the neutral and ground together. My
electrical service for the house has two 8 foot ground rods, one with
in 6 feet of the entrance and the other at 12 feet. The shop with the
same size service (200 amp) only has one ground rod.

BTW, although the ground wire is #6 the feed wires are 2 ought, or
(#00) for both the house and shop. It takes pipe benders to get that
stuff around the bends in the meter sockets and panels. Both the
house and shop are fed with underground runs of about 130 feet. Some
where I have some photos of me running the "trencher" across the
driveway to install the PVC conduit.

The gas line should have another Green wire (insulated except at the
connectors) of the same size tieing back to the ground in the breaker
box. Each of the other lines should also have it's own green wire
going back to the breaker box ground. Only one ground wire from the
box to the ground rod(s). This puts all of those metallic systems
tied to the same potential. We were not allowed to "daisy chain"
grounds. Each had to be a separate run and all tie to the buss where
the green from the ground rods ties in.

Again, I emphasize *here* is quite likely different than *there*
although I'd assume they'd be close. Everyone has to meet the national
electric code, but some areas are more strict. (I make no claim to
being an expert on the national code, but having just rewired our home
including installing a transfer switch to a 9 KW generator I am up on
the local requirements) Part of this is still under way.
Here being, Homer Township, in Midland County, Michigan.

You'll have to fix the return add due to dumb virus checkers, not spam
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair?)
www.rogerhalstead.com

alex
batsonaatcomcastdotnet