Community College Baseball Field Fence Grounding

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luckylerado said:
Not required by NEC or NFPA 780 as long as it is not supporting electrical devices or enclosures in which case I believe bonding is a requirement.
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I went to article 250 and searched for the word fence in my PDF copy of the 2011 code. The word fence was not found. Therefore I conclude that it is unlikely the code requires a fence be bonded.

However 250.4(A)(4) does say this:

250.4 General Requirements for Grounding and Bonding.
(A) Grounded Systems.
(4) Bonding of Electrically Conductive Materials and
Other Equipment. Normally non–current-carrying electrically
conductive materials that are likely to become energized
shall be connected together and to the electrical supply
source in a manner that establishes an effective groundfault
current path.
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250.4(B)(3) says this:

(B) Ungrounded Systems.
(3) Bonding of Electrically Conductive Materials and
Other Equipment. Electrically conductive materials that
are likely to become energized shall be connected together
and to the supply system grounded equipment in a manner
that creates a low-impedance path for ground-fault current
that is capable of carrying the maximum fault current likely
to be imposed on it.
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I conclude that there is no general requirement to bond a fence unless it is likely to become energized, whatever that means. I think there is a requirement for pools and fountains and what not to bond nearby metal fences, but no such general requirement.

The long winded way of agreeing with you.
 
sharan said:
Is grounding required for a community college baseball field fence?
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I'm not aware of any NEC or other code requirements. That said, the design specs could certainly require it. Given that there is some history of people being shocked and in some cases killed by inadvertently energized metal fences in venues such as this I think it is a good thing.
Along similar lines is the case of handhole enclosures with cast iron lids. Years ago there was specific no specific requirement to bond the lids. After a number of fatalities over the years the NEC put language in to make it a specific requirement. There are many thousands of them out there even today with no bonding and just accidents waiting to happen, especially since many are in the middle of sidewalks.
 
petersonra said:
...
I conclude that there is no general requirement to bond a fence unless it is likely to become energized, whatever that means. I think there is a requirement for pools and fountains and what not to bond nearby metal fences, but no such general requirement.

The long winded way of agreeing with you.
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On the other hand, if freestanding light poles for the field are anywhere near the fence, even if not attached to it, a ground fault coupled with an inadequate EGC could well energize the fence through the earth.
There have been a couple of threads with detailed reports of similar problems, in some cases with injuries.
As long as the lighting circuit is known to be OK, this is not a likely problem.

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sharan said:
Is grounding required for a community college baseball field fence?
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What do you mean by “grounding”? If you mean connection of a green or bare “equipment grounding conductor,” then I would ask what light bulb, light switch, scoreboard controller, or other electrical component would be installed onto the fence. They I would say bond the EGC from the circuit that feeds that component to the external metal parts of the component (you have to do that anyway), and also bond the component to the fence. The mounting bracket might be enough to do this job. But if there are no electrical components mounted on the fence, then this step has no meaning (and is not possible anyway).

On the other hand, if you mean a connection (such as a local ground rod) between the fence itself and planet Earth, then I would point out that the fence is already attached to planet Earth.
 
GoldDigger said:
On the other hand, if freestanding light poles for the field are anywhere near the fence, even if not attached to it, a ground fault coupled with an inadequate EGC could well energize the fence through the earth.
There have been a couple of threads with detailed reports of similar problems, in some cases with injuries.
As long as the lighting circuit is known to be OK, this is not a likely problem.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
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I was thinking similar, it can be bonded whether intentionally or not to a metal lighting pole, but if the lighting pole should become energized all it is likely to do for less then 300 volts to ground is to just energize the fence.

High voltage substations have more reasons to ground a fence. Eliminating inductive or capacitive coupled voltages on the fence is maybe pretty high on the list.
 
petersonra said:
I conclude that there is no general requirement to bond a fence unless it is likely to become energized, whatever that means. I think there is a requirement for pools and fountains and what not to bond nearby metal fences, but no such general requirement.

The long winded way of agreeing with you.
Click to expand...
If within 5 feet of the inside walls of the pool, same for most any other conductive object near a pool.
 
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