Bonding aquatic equipment

[ryan_618]

Question for you theory people out there:

Is there any way that the equipotential bonding discussed in 680.26 could be counter-productive or dangerous?

I have an addition going in that I inspected the footings on the other day. In this addition there will be some sort of strange therapuetic excersise thing that a person will stand in a tub of water and and be sprayed with jets of some sort (the guy didn't explain it any better than that...sorry).

I asked that he stub a piece of the rebar out of the foundation to have accessible in case we want to bond to it, like I said, I'm not sure what I am dealing with here.

Anyway, I would think that all equipotential bonding is good and couldn't be dangerous, but I would like a second opinion.

 

[Guest]

Re: Bonding aquatic equipment

Is the rebar stub going to be inside the wall or will it be out in the elements? Might be better to run 20 feet of #8 bare solid copper instead and stub that out if it's going to be exposed to the elements. Reading that it might not ever be used.

 

[ryan_618]

Re: Bonding aquatic equipment

Originally posted by awwt:
Is the rebar stub going to be inside the wall or will it be out in the elements? Might be better to run 20 feet of #8 bare solid copper instead and stub that out if it's going to be exposed to the elements. Reading that it might not ever be used.

Wayne, I have no intention of creating a grounding electrode system. I am refering to equipotential bonding, such as discussed in 680.26 and somewhat in 680.74.

No teh rebar will not be outside, it will be located inside of the stud wall.

 

[Guest]

Re: Bonding aquatic equipment

Ryan, I see that. I'm just thinking of the best way to stub it out to be future accessible. Can't you stub out with copper if you clamp it to the grid?
../Wayne C.

[ October 18, 2003, 12:24 AM: Message edited by: awwt ]

 

[ryan_618]

Re: Bonding aquatic equipment

The problem is that I'm not the electrician. I was doing the footing and foundation inspection so I had the concrete guys include some additional length on the vertical rebar so that it could be used to bond later, if that is deemed neccassary.

My biggest question is: Could the bonding ever be counter-productive or dangerous?

I wouldn't think so, but I would like to have another opinion.

 

[tonyi]

Re: Bonding aquatic equipment

Originally posted by ryan_618:

My biggest question is: Could the bonding ever be counter-productive or dangerous?

Nobody has ever been electrocuted where the voltage differential was zero

Probably no electrocution risk per se here, but if some neighbor had a bum electric fence or something like that leaking current, you will have eliminated a possible "tingle". I had an uncle getting tingle type shocks in his shower last year. Plastic came in from the well pump, but the drains were copper then cast iron to the septic tank. Bonding the hot/cold & drain eliminated the tingle problem.

 

[pierre]

Re: Bonding aquatic equipment

Ryan
To the best of my knowledge, I thought the rebar was not permitted to be exposed outside of the concrete?
If that is so, Wayne's suggestion of having a piece of copper installed sounds reasonable. If it is not used for the purpose you are suggesting, than it could be cut off.


For Equipotential bonding, why are you concerned about the footing being bonded? For the Equipotential bonding plane (EBP) which you are thinking of creating, why not have the enclosure area and X amount of feet around the enclosure be included in the EBP? Just a thought.

Pierre

 

[ryan_618]

Re: Bonding aquatic equipment

Pierre, thanks for the reply. I'm not aware of any requirement that rebar be inside of the concrete, but I'm not sure. I know for a Ufer it doesn't have to be, as long as its accessible.

Why am I concerned about the footing being bonded? Well, I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure what I'll be seeing with this installation, so I'm just making it available for now.

 

[Guest]

Re: Bonding aquatic equipment

If nothing else it will make a nice Ufer. Some of the Ufer's I've seen had twenty feet of bar running each way so there were two stubs coming out of the footing (they were touching each other). The argument here is that if you stub a 20' bar up into the wall for the Ufer you have less than 20' of rebar in the footing. It can be hard to clamp onto rebar if it's up against a stud too. The #8 wire would give more flexibility and could be run into a J-box or panelboard (if required).

I know I still haven't answered your question, but I don't have that answer.