While running new wire to my AC condenser I dug up this fat (4awg) wire in the dirt with about 1/2" exposed at the end and laid in about 2" of dirt. Turns out it was my main ground wire, and nothing is bonded to my (all copper) plumbing either. 200A service FWIW. I don't care for wiring anything bigger than 10ga, so I'll likely hire this job out but want to do what I can and get a plan here. Questions: 1) I understand the plumbing should be my main ground, but do I have to bond to it as it enters the home? My box is on the far end of the home from where the plumbing enters, and 80' of #4 will not be cheap or easy to run. I have a pipe 8' from the box if I can bond that. Edit: It sounds like I need to connect the wire to within 5' of the plumbing entrance. Should I wire the ground rod to that connection in series, thus having the ground rod near where the plumbing enters (without hitting it of course)? Also, does it matter which side of the meter the wire is bonded? 2) Is touching that #4 wire in the dirt dangerous? Thanks in advance!

Every time I looked inside a panel I have always seen the hot wires do long loops from the entry point to almost the edge of the box and back to the breaker. Whenever I had to bring a new wire into a panel, I would do the same figuring the electrician knew best. Most of the time, the commons and the grounds don't do the loop thing. I've been looking at pictures of panel wiring and most of them have clean wiring with no loops for the hot wire, just the wire following the outside wall of the box and bending in front of the breaker feeding it and... into the breaker -- you can clearly see which cable is connected to which breaker. Right now I'm trying to figure out which wire goes to which breaker in my panel and it's a mess. Is it (was it) considered good practice to do the loop thing? I read somewhere that it was to allow changing the position of the breaker. How often and in what situation do you need to change a breaker from one position to another? Wouldn't it be better to leave some slack in the cable outside the panel box (still supporting the cable within 12" of the box) so that if you do need to stretch the hot wire you can do so by pulling in more cable from outside the box? I also have this big 4-2 cable coming in at the bottom of the box. Both hot wires do the loop -- a lot of tight bending there. Wouldn't it be better for the wires to go directly from the cable's entry point to the nearest breaker? Thanks