Chimney top draft inducer motor

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Ken 6789

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I plan on wiring in a stainless steel draft inducer on a chimney top. The motor housing is approx 18" tall and approx 18" diameter. The chimney is approx 20' above grade. The motor is 120 volt and draws less than an amp. I am wondering if it is necessary (I believe yes) to bond a GEC to the unit housing and down to a ground rod and also bond it to the electrical service GEC on the opposite side of the house. The instructions does not mention anything about bonding the housing to a GEC and only an EGC is needed to ground the housing. My concern is the possibility of a lighting strike to the unit and traveling through the EGC. I never installed anything like this and just seeking a second opinion. Thanks.
 
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Ken 6789 said:
ok, well I assume no one wired one in.
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Ken, I dont know. But I ran into a situation with a church steeple. It was fiberglass with aluminum frame and came with a pigtail for grounding. But it had no instructions on how it was to be grounded. The NEC really doesn't address lightning protection. And from looking around on the web and here the system would have to be a elaborate lightning protection system.
But one thing I did read, cant remember where I found it, made more sense than any thing. The author basically said why do you want to ground something that would not be normally grounded any way. The jest of it was you have something made of wood or fiberglass sitting on top of a building that is wood. It is not grounded. If you grounded it then it would become more of a attractant to lightning.
In your case it is basically the same. You would need the EGC for the motor and housing. But it is attached to brick that is probably not considered grounded.
 
I appreciate the reply, but would the egc by itself make it likely that lightening would strike the unit? The unit will probably be wired off the living room circuit. My main concern if lightening fries electronics, and other appliances plugged in that circuit. A #6 cu gec would probably divert most of it to ground. Just wondering if others would run it to a ground rod. Thanks
 
I'd really consider purchasing this book NFPA 780. And it's an up to date release of 11'.

While it will provide some insights to your design issues, I don't think you could minimize anything about this potential or libility issue, otherwise. While your not so much installing a lightning rod it sure does sound like your creating one, is my point. :)

I personally certainly would not tap of the circuit as mentioned. I don't think I'd ground rod what sounds like a free floating chimmey(as I read it). This might be exaclty what 780 might want you to do! A whole house or panel breaker surge protection might also be a sellable item! As ugly as it might be I would certainly apply a combination power strip for the Big picture and toys!
 
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Ken, from what I remember about looking up things for the church steeple. You would run a braided bare #2 on insulators down to a ground rod,then from there you would have 10-20ft of bare copper in the ground and tie it to the main service ground rods.
In my situation with the church I ask the company about a engineered drawing and specks on how it was to be done. They told me every one just ties it to a ground rod and that was all. Knowing that was crap I gave the church a number of a company that specializes in lightning protection and walked away.
 
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