Metal cabinet ground ?

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slect

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A safety inspection at a commercial building turned up a citation for not grounding a stand alone metal cabinet that contained flammable liquids.
He did not cite his reference.
I cant find anything in the NEC. NFPA 30 does not seem to require it either.
Am i missing something ?
 
I found this:

Some flammable liquids storage cabinets have a grounding screw. Is the cabinet required to be electrically grounded?

NFPA 30 does not require that the cabinet itself be grounded. Many manufacturers provide a grounding screw on their cabinets as a convenience to the user. The user can connect this screw to a building ground and use the cabinet-mounted ground point as needed to ground individual containers from which liquids are dispensed.
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Here:

http://www.nfpa.org/faq.asp?categoryID=920#22907


Did the inspector see a ground screw/lug and assume it was required?
 
I have had to do this to satisfy safety inspectors. The racks were to hold 1 gal. paint cans. Their reasoning was prevention of static elect. sparks igniting the paint. The only problem was it was all water based latex paint:confused:
 
ceb58 said:
I have had to do this to satisfy safety inspectors. The racks were to hold 1 gal. paint cans. Their reasoning was prevention of static elect. sparks igniting the paint. The only problem was it was all water based latex paint:confused:
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If it was a flammable storage cabinet and had a provision for grounding connection and maybe even a vent, then the inspector presumed that it intended for flammable storage. Unless it was specifically labeled "NON-FLAMMABLE STORAGE ONLY" then it is rightfully presumed to hold flammables sometime in the future. The NFPA may not require grounding, however the manufacturers installation instructions AND the UL labeling of the cabinet may require it and the AHJ rightfully request the manufacturers installation instructions to be followed. (Lotsa IF's though here......)

Although the subject is about grounding, this type grounding does NOT fall under electrical grounding and/or within the NEC scope.
 
weressl said:
If it was a flammable storage cabinet and had a provision for grounding connection and maybe even a vent, then the inspector presumed that it intended for flammable storage. Unless it was specifically labeled "NON-FLAMMABLE STORAGE ONLY" then it is rightfully presumed to hold flammables sometime in the future. The NFPA may not require grounding, however the manufacturers installation instructions AND the UL labeling of the cabinet may require it and the AHJ rightfully request the manufacturers installation instructions to be followed. (Lotsa IF's though here......)

Although the subject is about grounding, this type grounding does NOT fall under electrical grounding and/or within the NEC scope.
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No flammable cabinet. Just a metal rack with metal shelves.
 
slect said:
A safety inspection at a commercial building turned up a citation for not grounding a stand alone metal cabinet that contained flammable liquids.
He did not cite his reference.
I cant find anything in the NEC. NFPA 30 does not seem to require it either.
Am i missing something ?
Click to expand...

I used to get worried about this kind of stuff but any more I figure that what it will cost to gound the thing is far less than the cost to fight over it.

Just the resaerch you did and the posting time and reading the resulting posts probably cost more than just doing it.
 
petersonra said:
I used to get worried about this kind of stuff but any more I figure that what it will cost to gound the thing is far less than the cost to fight over it.

Just the resaerch you did and the posting time and reading the resulting posts probably cost more than just doing it.
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That is true, but think about how many people now know this - as the result of posting it here - and be able to use this information in the future?!;)
 
weressl said:
That is true, but think about how many people now know this - as the result of posting it here - and be able to use this information in the future?!;)
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The problem with these kind of inspections is that the inspectors rarely know what they are doing. They take a short class and get some checklists and go off to make the world safer. They rarely have the detailed knowledge of what it takes to actually make things safer.
 
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