Bonding to your electrodes

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bernardmulherin1978

bernardmulherin1978

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augusta georgia
My question is does it matter or would it be within code guidelines if I did not take my ground wire from my electrode to my main panel, instead can I go from electrode to steel, then steel to main panel. And on bonding the steel, the drawing shows a part b supplemental, here is a pic
c84be1641bcb472a1f268a7628cafcab.jpg


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petersonra

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Northern illinois
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engineer
It seems to me that the real question is are you allowed to do what you want or are you required to do what the contract documents require? All kinds of things are perfectly acceptable to the code but might not be in compliance with the contract documents. You have to abide by both.
 
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cloudibew

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Location
orlando, florida, usa
bernardmulherin1978 said:
My question is does it matter or would it be within code guidelines if I did not take my ground wire from my electrode to my main panel, instead can I go from electrode to steel, then steel to main panel. And on bonding the steel, the drawing shows a part b supplemental, here is a pic
c84be1641bcb472a1f268a7628cafcab.jpg


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Click to expand...

personally i like to run from the footer steel to my ground rods into the panel up to building steel all unbroken, always looks good and clean and have never had an issue. I have yet to ever see anything non-pvc for water pipes except for sprinkler. Seems to me the cad operator copy and pasted that 1980's pic as opposed a real engineer's design. I also never use 1/2" pvc for anything underground.
 
roger

roger

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cloudibew said:
personally i like to run from the footer steel to my ground rods into the panel up to building steel all unbroken, always looks good and clean and have never had an issue.
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So if the building steel GEC needed to be a 3/0 you would run a 3/0 to the CEE and Rod(s)?

Roger
 
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petersonra

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engineer
cuba_pete said:
Yes...to PVC...that's something that got by the AE, PE, electrical lead (just in case it becomes energized)...simply amazing.
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maybe it was deliberate to see if you were paying attention.

or maybe someone had the bright idea of using the bushing to secure the GEC inside the PVC.

My guess is someone just copied the detail from an old drawings and didn't look at it real close. Especially since the EC says he is "flexible" about whether he follows the plans or not. if they have given him license to do something different than what is on the plans, what difference does it make what is on the plans anyway?
 
bernardmulherin1978

bernardmulherin1978

Member
Location
augusta georgia
Grounding / bonding gap not been my strong area, I am reading more in depth on the subject. I appreciate you guys input. So I have transformer, which I will take to the main panel. The sprinkler ripe coming out the ground, I will take it and bond it to the steel.. Ufer comes up in the mechanical room,right besides the steel, I will take it through a lug on the steel, then go to the main.. Cold water pipe I will take it to the steel. I am driving two 8 foot ground rods, which will be 8 foot apart 1/0 from the rods to main. I need to look at building steel, versus footing steel

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kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
bernardmulherin1978 said:
Grounding / bonding gap not been my strong area, I am reading more in depth on the subject. I appreciate you guys input. So I have transformer, which I will take to the main panel. The sprinkler ripe coming out the ground, I will take it and bond it to the steel.. Ufer comes up in the mechanical room,right besides the steel, I will take it through a lug on the steel, then go to the main.. Cold water pipe I will take it to the steel. I am driving two 8 foot ground rods, which will be 8 foot apart 1/0 from the rods to main. I need to look at building steel, versus footing steel

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If it were my design I wouldn't even bother with the two ground rods. NEC does not require them.

If there are no other electrodes present ground rods are the easiest way to provide an electrode but they are not your only choice either.

The CEE alone, the water pipe alone, or the building steel alone - each likely has lower resistance to earth connection then two ground rods has.
 
roger

roger

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bernardmulherin1978 said:
The sprinkler ripe coming out the ground, I will take it and bond it to the steel.
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Take note that the sprinkler can not be part of the GES even though you might bond it per 250.104(B).
bernardmulherin1978 said:
Ufer comes up in the mechanical room,right besides the steel, I will take it through a lug on the steel, then go to the main.
Click to expand...
No need to make this a continuous conductor, take note of the use of "bonding jumper" in 250.64(F), 250.68(B), and 250.68(C). You will have an unbroken GEC (sized for the largest required) to the first GE, the rest of the GE's that are present can be jumpered together.
bernardmulherin1978 said:
Cold water pipe I will take it to the steel. I am driving two 8 foot ground rods, which will be 8 foot apart 1/0 from the rods to main.
Click to expand...
You will only need a #6 to the rods if you decide to use them.
bernardmulherin1978 said:
I need to look at building steel, versus footing steel
Click to expand...
You will have to use both if they are present.

Roger
 
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