Grounding of Aluminum siding and soffit

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ronaldrc

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Hello hope everyone is fine.

My question, is there a NEC. code covering the grounding of a aluminum sided
house or the metal soffit or gutter used on them?

I know through the years I have been call to find the reason the metal on houses was
causing shocks when they clean there gutters or just touch the outside of the house
while standing on the ground.

Would grounding of these metal parts be more of a fire hazard than maybe saving someones
life from a fatal shock?

Every thing else made of metal around a residents is required to be grounded why not metal siding,soffit
and gutter?

Thanks:Ronald :)
 
Index says see FPN in 250.116

FPN: Where extensive metal in or on buildings may become
energized and is subject to personal contact, adequate
bonding and grounding will provide additional safety
 
I'm not sure how you could properly ground all of the siding on some buildings. Most of the siding does not lock together so it is electrically continuous. Because of the paint and loose fit, there might be a high resistance connection between panels that will allow the siding to be energized, but not trip the breaker.

I don?t think grounding would be a fire hazard if it were possible to ground it.
 
I agree you could not do a proper job of it if you wanted to and IMO siding is not 'likely to become energized' by anything that is not already bonded / grounded.
 
jumper said:
Index says see FPN in 250.116

FPN: Where extensive metal in or on buildings may become
energized and is subject to personal contact, adequate
bonding and grounding will provide additional safety
Click to expand...


Thanks for the replies thanks for that NEC art. Jumper.
I can't disagree with anything anyone has said so far.

Just wanted to know what others thought about this.
I really have no opinion yet. Just never heard a discussion on this before

Thanks:Ronald :)
 
I did encounter a mobile home that had problems with the siding being energized. A few lessons came from that experience....

First off, there really MUST be an excellent path from the grounding system back to the PoCo transformer. This particular trailer had the neutral and ground separated, with only a ground rod. When the neutral was bonded to the ground at the panel, the fault would trip the breaker that provided the power that was energizing the siding. A basic wiring error allowed the dangerous situation to exist.

For lesser faults - it takes a lot less than 15 amps to hurt you - perhaps there is merit in the AFCI rules. (I never expected to say that!) This is because the AFCI breakers also -supposedly- incorporate a 30mA GFCI .... though they're not recognized for use on, say, snow melt equipment where a 30mA GFCI is required.

There's no doubt that an ordinary GFCI breaker could provide protection from energized siding.

Once you have such a fault, finding it can be a challenge. I really am not happy that I had to tear the trailer apart until I found the problem (a nail in the shower trim had pierced the romex). I do wish there was some better way to localize the problem; such a fault is enough to defeat wire tracers.

The trailer also had a second fault that may have contributed to the problem. The second fault was in the controls of the built-in oven.
 
I did also. Worked in an old house on the front porch. Took down an old light -- switched neutral deal-- and the hot wire touched the siding. It blew a small hole in the far corner of the front porch near the floor. I can't imagine aluminum siding could be adequately grounded.
 
I have never heard of a fatal shock from this but I'm sure they happen.
My last experience of this was a brick house with metal soffit and guttering.
The hot side of the power cord of direct sat receiver came into contact with
the receivers metal case and hotted up the coax ground. The receiver continued
to work perfectly believe it or not.

The owner of the house found out when he decided to clean his gutters with
an aluminum ladder I don't think I need to go into details about that, but he didn't
waste any time calling an Electrician.

Every time I think of grounding or trying to ground an Aluminum siding house
I envision a #8 copper ground wire to a piece of siding under a lug hooked to the siding
and a outside receptacle with the hot wire touching the metal box attached to the siding
and a large sparkling like a arc welder going and the breaker not kicking and the house
eventually burning.

Not grounding is probably best.

Ronald :)
 
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