Grounding Gas lines in home


  #1  
Old 04-15-14, 06:33 PM
D
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 1
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Grounding Gas lines in home

I am helping a friend ready their home for selling. She had an inspector suggest that she have her flexible (CSST) gas-lines from her hot water heater and her furnace grounded to her electrical box. Since I do handyman work she thought of me. What is the code for doing such and is it something as a DIY handyman that I can do without running into legal problems? We reside in Ohio. I would appreciate any assistance I can get. Thank you.
 
  #2  
Old 04-15-14, 06:45 PM
PJmax's Avatar
Group Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Jersey
Posts: 64,939
Received 3,951 Upvotes on 3,544 Posts
Welcome to the forums.

This is really something an electrician should do. As I install generators that use CSST pipe we bond the gas system. Here..... based on what my inspectors require...... a piece of #6 copper wire is connected to a grounding clamp around the gas line within six feet of the meter and the other end bugged to the line connecting to the ground rod. One line total...... not a line to each gas device.

You should probably check with the inspector in your area as each one interprets the code differently.


CSST-Direct-Bonding-Tech-Bulletin.pdf

CSST Safety - Frequently Asked Questions
 
  #3  
Old 04-15-14, 11:16 PM
P
Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 640
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Really the wire is for bonding, not grounding. You want to give stray current a way to the ground in case of lightning strike or if a bare wire falls against it. The newer black CSST doesn't require separate external bonding between sections as long as there is a bond somewhere on the gas system, but the older yellow stuff does. I assume your township would require a licensed electrician to do this, and I bet your handyman/carpenter industrial insurance wouldn't cover you if anything went wrong with this. Call in Sparky.
 
  #4  
Old 04-17-14, 04:42 PM
A
Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 4,523
Upvotes: 0
Received 278 Upvotes on 254 Posts
If you have a gas appliance that uses electricity (your furnace qualifies) and it is wired in an up to date fashion (has ground wire in its power cable etc.) then no additional bonding of the gas lines to the electrical grounding system is needed.

Alternatively a #6 copper jumper wire may be run from the gas plumbing to a grounding electrode conductor as described above.

(added later) Appliances connected by the yellow covered gas connectors are considered isolated and a #6 jumper wire is needed, clamped to rigid gas pipe at each end of that yellow colored piece. Other permutations are possible, for example the furnace getting its gas supply through a yellow colored connector might already be grounded via the cable from which it gets its electricity supply while the rest of the gas plumbing is grounded by adding a jumper going to an existing grounding electrode conductor.
 

Last edited by AllanJ; 04-17-14 at 05:00 PM.
  #5  
Old 04-17-14, 07:46 PM
CasualJoe's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: United States
Posts: 9,871
Received 185 Upvotes on 166 Posts
What is the code for doing such and is it something as a DIY handyman that I can do without running into legal problems?
This was just addressed yesterday at Code Question of the Day, I read them every day. There's nothing like an answer from a nationally recognized expert.

Code Question of the Day Archives | NECA-NEIS
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description:
Your question will be posted in: