Bonding at water heater

[Doc13067]

I'm a GC in the SF Bay Area. We recently completed a kitchen remodel and on the final inspection the building inspector is making us run a bonding wire from the gas line to the hot and cold water lines at the water heater and bring to a nearby subpanel. These are located in the garage near each so its not hard to do. My electrician says it isn't necessary or correct, he says just run it from the cold water to the gas line. My dilemma is I've got to deal with this inspector on other jobs, so I don't really want to go to the mat on this issue so I'll do what he asks. My question is, is this a hazard or is it just a a pointless, yet harmless exercise?

Redundant and useless if the water pipes are already bonded but as long as everything ultimately leads to the main panel via the sub panel ground bus/sub panel ground wire/main panel ground bus where it ultimately gets bonded to neutral and out to a ground rod, I can’t see how it could be hazardous. The inspector should study up on bonding though.

 

[infinity]

I'm dumbfounded by this statement. Are we reading the same text? Everything you say is the dictionary definition of implicit, not explicit. And it is entirely the judgment call of the AHJ.

The word explicit is correct. It it not implied that it is specifically spelled out in that code section, it is written for all to read right there in post #23.

As I said above, it's entirely the judgment call of the AHJ.

There is no judgement call in any of the wording of 250.104. As many in this thread have already stated If the actual wording of the NEC is being enforced there is no bonding jumper required to a gas pipe. I'll leave it at.

 

[jaggedben]

The word explicit is correct. It it not implied that it is specifically spelled out in that code section, it is written for all to read right there in post #23.

There is no judgement call in any of the wording of 250.104. As many in this thread have already stated If the actual wording of the NEC is being enforced there is no bonding jumper required to a gas pipe. I'll leave it at.

The phrase "likely to be energized" is 100% AHJ judgment call. It’s the brother of 'subject to physical damage' which is equally undefined and subjective. In any given home an AHJ can declare his/her opinion that a circuit other than a gas appliance circuit may be likely to energize gas piping. You're obviously free to have a different opinion but I see nothing in the code to sway my AHJ.

250.104 literally says nothing explicit about appliances whatsoever.

I'll leave it at that.

 

[Isherwood]

Hi, my first post here. Years ago I use to do a lot of residential remodel work in San Francisco and bonding the cold water, hot water, and gas together at the water heater was standard practice. Regarding the use of the appliance ground to ground the gas, and the possibility of the gas pipe becoming energized, we had a very common issue in SF which had bearing on the matter. SF has a lot of old Victorian buildings which were originally lit with gas lights fed by pipes coming through plaster rosettes. Later on, they were converted to electric lighting by running knob and tube. The common technique, still often found is to attach the fixture to the gas pipe with a hickey that caps off the gas and gives you a threaded fitting to attach the fixture to. The only thing that secures the fixture is often that gas pipe. Plus, it is not at all uncommon to find that the gas pipes are still live with pressurized gas hissing out if you take off the cap. Very easy for old wiring with cracked insulation to touch one of these pipes. Additionally, sometimes there are still old gas stoves in use with pilot lights and no electrical connection at all, or if it is plugged in, the outlet might be ungrounded, so no appliance ground there. In messy situations like this, with old houses with ungrounded circuits and a long history of questionable repair jobs and no easy way to see what the hell is hidden in the walls, it is easy to see why bonding at the water heater is a good idea.
I once did a service change on a house and they had their original dual gas and electric light fixtures (not something I had ever run across before), because at the time it was built I assume they weren't sure if new-fangled electrical lighting was going to catch on or not, so they decided to use both, just in case. So, for eg, one arm of the fixture came out to a keyed light bulb socket and the other to a gas socket operated by a valve. I had to change a couple fixtures, and lo and behold, the valves still opened up gas! Scary as hell to think they'd been like that for 100 years!