water ground removal safety?


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Old 12-22-15, 05:48 AM
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water ground removal safety?

I had a plumber in for repair. He removed the grounding clamps around my water meter. He forgot to reinstall them after he left.

No sweat, I put it back together properly.

But then I thought, did I put myself in harms way doing so?

I didn't turn off the power. And I simply rationalized that it was safe since the plumber handled the grounding wires when he removed them (he didn't jumper the meter or anything.)
 
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Old 12-22-15, 06:23 AM
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There should have been no current on the ground wires in a properly operating system.
 
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Old 12-22-15, 06:46 AM
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The significance of turning off the power before reconnecting bonding jumpers in the plumbing system is to protect you if per chance there was a ground fault up in the house that energized a water pipe or drain pipe.

If you took a set of auto jumper cables and, while holding only the insulated handles and standing on dry cardboard, you jumpered the plumbing on both sides of the (water meter, water heater, or whatever), then you can safely re-attach the bonding jumper with the power on.

Line pole electricians often put jumper cables in strategic locations on supposedly dead overhead lines while making repairs so unexpected energizing is shunted (shorted if you insist for better or worse) around where the electricians and others are working. Of course the jumper cables need to be removed before the power is restored.
 
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Old 12-22-15, 10:45 AM
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Line pole electricians often put jumper cables in strategic locations on supposedly dead overhead lines while making repairs so unexpected energizing is shunted (shorted if you insist for better or worse) around where the electricians and others are working.
That is also standard practice to drain static charges from de-energized high voltage lines.
 
 

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