PEX

sii

sii

Senior Member
Location
Nebraska
My son is buying a house that has almost all galvanized steel plumbing that will need to be replaced as there is little water flow at some of the faucets.

It’s almost all exposed where it can be easily worked on with the exception of the basement shower supply. I intend to cut that at the last exposed location and just splice the PEX at that point for now.

A couple other faucets will be spliced to immediately below the upper floor.

The pipes that feed the kitchen sink have been replaced with copper but it only extends down through the floor and immediately transitions to galvanized steel at the 90s. The kitchen piping is about five feet removed from the electrical main panel.

The water service enters on completely the opposite side of the house and the water heater is halfway in between in the center of the basement.

I have not opened a code book other than to look up ampacity and conduit fill in a decade and a half and I’ve never done anything residential before

I plan to run a solid grounding conductor from the kitchen sink piping to the electrical panel ground bar and another from the city side of the meter to the electrical panel ground bar. Is this the correct thing to do? Do I need to bond all of the metal faucet plumbing? How about the water heater, which is natural gas btw?
 
If you are converting the bulk of the water piping to non metallic, you no longer have a "metallic water piping system" and NEC does not require bonding it. If you still have a qualifying electrode as the incoming supply you are still required to connect a GEC within the first 5 feet of entry.
 
If the city connection is metal, all you need is a jumper around the meter, and a GEC attached where the line enters the house (within 5’ if I remember correctly) to the service disconnect.
 
250.104(A) required bonding of "metal water piping systems". If the system isn't primarily metal piping, it isn't a metal piping system.

250.104(B) possibly could require bonding of sections of metal water piping that are "likely to become energized". Which really is subject to opinion on whether it is subject to that in many cases. If said piping is connected to some appliance or other apparatus that has electrical run to it, the EGC of that circuit is likely sufficient for bonding that limited section of piping since that circuit is what may be likely to energize it.
 
hillbilly1 said:
If the city connection is metal, all you need is a jumper around the meter, and a GEC attached where the line enters the house (within 5’ if I remember correctly) to the service disconnect.
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If he is converting as much as possible to non metallic, only the qualifying electrode portion needs a GEC connected to it. If in a location where meter is in a pit outside the home, you possibly still need the jumper. If meter is inside the home you shouldn't need the jumper if there is no "metal piping system" anymore. A non "metal piping system" can still have sections of metal piping in it. In fact is pretty common to still have metallic piping at/ near certain equipment like tub/shower valves, many fixtures are metallic, may be some short sections of metal piping run at water heaters or other appliances with direct water connections in some instances.
 
sii said:
I plan to run a solid grounding conductor from the kitchen sink piping to the electrical panel ground bar and another from the city side of the meter to the electrical panel ground bar. Is this the correct thing to do?
Click to expand...
No, you should connect EGCs to the neutral bar (unless there is a wire conductor interconnecting the two bars, not just the enclosure metal.) This is a common error.
 
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