Creating parallel ground circuit???

Hi again, electrical gurus:

I am remodeling and am adding a totally new 200A OSD (in a different location than the present OSD and disconnect).

The meter/breaker combo panel will be grounded by both a UFER and two 5/8" x 8' ground rods (separated by more than 6 ft)--using #4 CU wire.

However, the only water pipe ground location is clear across the house, about 60 feet away from the panel--using #6 CU.

If I connect both the UFER/rod grounds and the water pipe ground, am I not creating a parallel ground path?

Also confused about the differing requirement for size of ground wire, as well as the requirement to have both ground rods and a water pipe ground.

Obviously, I am a bit confused over the whole grounding issue.

Thanks for your advice.

Cheers,
s/Mike

 

The only "parallel" problem with Grounding connections is a connection where a Grounding Conductor is connected in parallel with the Grounded Circuit Conductor which is the "Neutral" / "White wire" Conductor. Should the Neutral Conductor become defective, the Grounding Conductor will be the "current-carrying" Conductor instead of the Neutral.

The ONE and ONLY execption is where the Service Neutral connects to the Grounding Condutors at the terminations inside the enclosure for the Service Dis-connect.

The inspector MAY cite the metallic UG water-service line a the "Primary" Grounding Electode , which requires a #4 copper conductor between the Service Dis-connect and the UG water-service line. I suggest you discuss this with the inspecting authorities.Perhaps others responding to this post can clarify this issue.

The "#6 Grounding Condutor" applies only to connections to "Supplementary" , or "Secondary" ( rods, etc. ) Grounding Electrodes.

 

Hmm. Guess I got it backwards.

From what you say, guess I need #4 to the cold water pipe (60 ft away), and only #6 to the UFER and ground rods (about 4 ft away).

Is that correct?

Thanks for the reply.

Hey, Frenchy, chime in here with your comments, too.

Cheers,
s/Mike

 

ok i will comment on this one

#4 bare copper conductor will go to cold water pipe [ baseied on you have at least 5 foot of copper tubing buried in the ground however if you have plastic water pipe that will change a bit then next best step is use the UFER grounding system [ it will have one rebar sticking up and attached the #4 bare copper hook up there that will be next primary grounding electrode ] if you don't have those two item then ground rod[s] is next you can run #6 but if you use the ground rod as primary grounding electrode then you have to bump up to #4 per NEC [ i think the CEC is paralleled with this as well ]

and this section of code it kinda confuseing even the best electrician get lost on this one as well myself it is not a best soluation but still learning on this one.

Merci,Marc

 

Thanks, guys:

I appreciate the comments (and enlightment for me).

Cheers,
s/Mike