electrical chick
Member
NEC calls for the concrete encased portion of new construction ground to be 20ft of continuous electrically conductive coated steel reinforcing bars or rods. We have in the past cadwelded our copper ground wire to a short piece of rebar and tied it into the rebar in the footing to achieve this 20ft of continuously connected steel. This also placed a short section of the copper ground wire inside the concrete encasement. Is it required per NEC code that the copper ground wire actually be bonded to the steel inside the concrete? I have had one local inspector tell me that we can simply have the footing contractor turn up a piece of rebar that is tied to this 20ft continuous length at the service panel or disconnect and we can then bond our ground wire to this exposed turned up rebar. I cannot find anything in the code that says the copper ground wire has to be bonded inside the concrete. What is your opinion or translation of this?