Correct, if you're using the raceway as protection of the GEC. But I can't find anywhere stating the GEC can't be installed with branch circuits.
I know this question will look stupid. But I would like to know the reasoning to have to bond it to the raceway. Not that I doubt it or think anything like that, I just honestly wanna know the theory behind it.
The concern is the choke (inductive) effect of the conduit during extreme lightning-induced currents raising the impedance of the GEC and reducing its conductivity and effectiveness. Bonding at both ends minimizes this effect by using the conductor to "short out" the inductor.
That wasn’t bad! Thank you I appreciate it. So one could say in laymen’s terms it can hender the effectiveness of the GEC of not properly bonded to the raceway it installed in.
How effective is it anyway?
The bonding? Completely. It forces the conductor and conduit to behave as parallel conductors.
The bonding strip in those cables is there because the armor is not an effective EGC without it.
Right, because of inductance caused by the spiral construction. The bonding strip is not there to act as an end-to-end EGC, but rather to effectively short out adjacent turns of the spiral, so it acts more as a straight tube during faults.
I meant the idea that somehow bonding the GEC to the conduit makes any real difference in how it works if lightning strikes?
I imagine that this, like most code rules, evolved from observation of what happened before it was implemented.
Absolutely it
Well said.
I don't know, there seem to be a lot of "it just seems like a good idea" codes.
I stated on my cell phone and sometimes I don't hit save...
