electrical ground correct?


  #1  
Old 06-20-05, 03:08 PM
jakeami
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electrical ground correct?

This involves electrical and plumbing so I will post it on both forums:

Where the main water line enters the house, there is a ground "jumper" around the water meter.

The brackets at either end appear to be brass, with a #6 copper stranded wire running from a bracket on the "city side" of the meter to a bracket on "my side" of the meter. Coming out of my side of the meter there is a short length of pipe (looks like brass?) attached to a short length of iron pipe, followed by a dielectric connector, and then copper pipe.

I assume because of the dielectric connector (which keeps the copper piping from coming into contact with the iron pipe), the jumper goes from iron pipe on the city side to the copper pipe on my side. BUT the iron pipe on my side of the meter (between the meter and the copper) has a whitish look to it, and there is some type of white corrosion that has formed on the copper water pipe where the ground wire bracket is attached.

It looks to me like something must be wrong here but I have no idea.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated!

It's sort of like this:

......................................white "coating"
......................................||||||||||||||||||
.........................................iron.....dielectric.....copper
city pipe.............................pipe.......union..........pipe
=========X==METER===================X=====
.....................[__________________________________]
................................GROUND WIRE

(I had to add the dots to make this display right)

The iron pipe to the right of the meter has the whitish coating and white corrosion is on the copper pipe where the bracket is attached.
 

Last edited by jakeami; 06-21-05 at 11:50 AM.
  #2  
Old 06-21-05, 08:30 AM
I
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Electrically, it is correct and required for the copper wire to connect to the pipes on both sides of the meter. This is probably just normal corrosion on the connectors. If you think it could be electrolosis, there may be problem.

Under normal circumstances, there should be very little to no voltage and no current on this wire. If however, you (or a nearby neighbor) have an electrical short to the plumbing somewhere in the house or a loose neutral connection to the utility transformer, there could be current flowing across the meter jumper. Have you noticed any electrical tingling when touching plumbing, etc? Any major flickering of lights (other than when using vacuum)?
 
  #3  
Old 06-21-05, 11:51 AM
jakeami
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No tingling, no electrical issues at all.
 
  #4  
Old 06-21-05, 12:57 PM
I
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Then I suspect that you don't have any problems with the grounding system in your house, and what you have seen is normal corrosion and calcium build-up.
 
  #5  
Old 06-21-05, 01:05 PM
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What type of piping is used to supply the house from the public water main?
--
Tom Horne
 

Last edited by hornetd; 07-23-05 at 06:13 PM.
  #6  
Old 06-21-05, 01:36 PM
jakeami
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I don't know for sure. House is about 45 years old, in Illinois. Pipe comes up out of corner of basement floor and is curved - pipe seems to be a little bit flexible (is not rigid like regular cast iron pipe).
 
  #7  
Old 06-21-05, 05:29 PM
J
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Is it grey in color like galvanized but soft? Sounds like it could be lead. That's not good.
 
 

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