I have read more than once Tex say a ground wire should be ran to the water pipe and attach within 5 feet if the pipe is buried in the earth for at least 15 feet. I just looked at mine and there is no ground wire anywhere near the 5 feet. Should I be concerned and repair this?


Thanks

 

The purpose of the panel grounding is for protection against lightning strikes, and other outside failures (like downed power lines). Metal plumbing provides an excellent ground. Modern code requires that this be supplemented with other grounding to make it even better.

Bonding the panel to the plumbing (whether or not the plumbing has 10 feet of contact with the ground) serves a secondary purpose of preventing the build-up of charges on the plumbing.

You have one of two problems:

(1) Your panel isn't connected to the plumbing at all. In this case, you have less protection against lightning. Furthermore, your plumbing can develop small charges that can give people static shocks.

(2) Your panel is connected to the plumbing, but in the wrong place. This could cause large currents to flow through your plumbing in the event of a lightning strike or downed power line. This could be dangerous to anyone using a plumbing fixture during a storm.

You might have a PVC supply line to your house, even if the internal plumbing is metal. In this case, you might not have a problem at all.

 

John:

I heard somewhere (maybe even on this forum) that even if you have plastic PVC entering the home, and metal plumbing anywhere in the home, that you should still ground the panel to that metal plumbing. Is this theory full of beans, or a code requirement?

 

Still needs to be bonded.

 

claassen, your observation agrees with the second paragraph of my prior post.

 

Thanks for the replies.

It is copper running from the street to the house where it enters then all copper pipes from there.

I guess I will run a ground wire from the panel to the water pipe where it enters the house. If there is a ground line connected anywhere else to the water line should it be removed?

By the way I found a ground clamp under the kitchen sink on the cold water can not see where the wire goes could this serve any legal purpose?

Thanks

 

Whithout knowing were the wire from that clamp terminates no one can say.
--
Tom