Inspector rejected grounding installation for single family service.

[cowboyjwc]

When you use the water pipe for grounding, the connection needs to be within the first 5' of where it enters the building. If you are bonding the water system, then the connection can be anywhere on the system and simply must be accessible. Here we require a Ufer or the two ground rods and then just bond the cold water.

The reason we only make you bond the cold water is because I don't know if there is 10' of copper in the ground or if it's been changed to plastic. In a neighboring jurisdiction the make you tie in within the first five feet, but they also have you run a jumper from the cold, to the hot, to the gas line. Why I don't know, because you have bonded the hot and the cold at all of the mixing valves and there is the exception for the gas line if you have plugged in gas appliances.

 

[macmikeman]

When you use the water pipe for grounding, the connection needs to be within the first 5' of where it enters the building. If you are bonding the water system, then the connection can be anywhere on the system and simply must be accessible. Here we require a Ufer or the two ground rods and then just bond the cold water.

The reason we only make you bond the cold water is because I don't know if there is 10' of copper in the ground or if it's been changed to plastic. In a neighboring jurisdiction the make you tie in within the first five feet, but they also have you run a jumper from the cold, to the hot, to the gas line. Why I don't know, because you have bonded the hot and the cold at all of the mixing valves and there is the exception for the gas line if you have plugged in gas appliances.

I know you are going to be able to cite a code section for that, and while you are doing it, please take note of the part about interior connections must be made within 5 foot of where it enters the building. It doesn't say it must be the only place that it can be connected. Connect it outside on the exterior and it can be ten miles from where it first enters the building if you wish to run a gec that far along the buried water pipe from your structure. You would still meet the code requirements if you did.

 

[Pharon]

I think the purpose of the 5 foot rule is to say, 'look, the buried portion of exterior water pipe is an electrode, and you need to connect to it - if you do it within the first 5 foot of the building, you can consider that first 5 feet to be a legal grounding electrode conductor.'

 

[kwired]

I think the purpose of the 5 foot rule is to say, 'look, the buried portion of exterior water pipe is an electrode, and you need to connect to it - if you do it within the first 5 foot of the building, you can consider that first 5 feet to be a legal grounding electrode conductor.'

Exactly, the change was back in about 1993 or maybe 1996. Before that you could land a GEC on any convenient place on the water line if it was metallic. You could use hundreds of feet of interior water pipe as the GEC, now you still have to bond interior metallic piping systems, but you can only use the first 5 feet of pipe into the structure as a GEC. Before the change you could even put bonding jumpers around isolation fittings such as a water softener or a water meter or filter or even jump to other electrodes from any point on the piping, now this all must be done in first 5 feet of the pipe entering the building.

 

[bullheimer]

nevermind.

 

[cowboyjwc]

I know you are going to be able to cite a code section for that, and while you are doing it, please take note of the part about interior connections must be made within 5 foot of where it enters the building. It doesn't say it must be the only place that it can be connected. Connect it outside on the exterior and it can be ten miles from where it first enters the building if you wish to run a gec that far along the buried water pipe from your structure. You would still meet the code requirements if you did.

Well I could, except they removed it in the 2011 and I didn't pick it up. So I guess you can tie onto it anywhere, again.

 

[david luchini]

Well I could, except they removed it in the 2011 and I didn't pick it up. So I guess you can tie onto it anywhere, again.

They didn't remove the 5' requirement in 2011, they simply relocated it.

It is now in 250.68(C).

 

[cowboyjwc]

I know you are going to be able to cite a code section for that, and while you are doing it, please take note of the part about interior connections must be made within 5 foot of where it enters the building. It doesn't say it must be the only place that it can be connected. Connect it outside on the exterior and it can be ten miles from where it first enters the building if you wish to run a gec that far along the buried water pipe from your structure. You would still meet the code requirements if you did.

Then it's 250.68

 

[MasterTheNEC]

Our crew upgraded a single family residential service consisitng of 1-200 amp MBP. The water main was inaccessable so they decided to install 2 ground rods at least 6' apart and 2 seperate runs of #6cu from the bonding bar, 1 to each to each rod.
The Inspector rejected the installation stating that we cannot parallel grounding conductors.

We could have simply jumped the rods together but decided since ther were 2 electrodes required we felt they should be seperate runs.

Im Stumped...

Ummm....Your inspector is incorrect (and I think you know he was) and probably simply does not know any better. This is a great opportunity to educate him/her in a tactful way. Also in terms of "inaccessible" who determined that...You or the Inspector?

 

[jaggedben]

(I know this thread has kinda moved on, but...)

I would like to see someone connect two ground rods to the earth in series.