Outside of pipe

[JoeNorm]

How do I know what type of ground wire can be run outside of pipe? For instance, I have seen green #6 THHWN run outside of pipe where it would be considered "subject to physical damage." Is this legal? I am guessing bare #6 has heavy duty strands for a reason, so it is a bit more tough for applications like these?

Maybe it just follows the listing of the wire like it would as a conductor?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

How do I know what type of ground wire can be run outside of pipe? For instance, I have seen green #6 THHWN run outside of pipe where it would be considered "subject to physical damage." Is this legal? I am guessing bare #6 has heavy duty strands for a reason, so it is a bit more tough for applications like these?

Maybe it just follows the listing of the wire like it would as a conductor?

In general the only "ground" wires that can be run like that are equipment bonding jumpers and grounding electrode conductors. There are no special rules for the protection of equipment bonding jumpers. The rules for the protection of a grounding electrode conductor are in 250.64(B).

 

[tom baker]

A common question here is can I run the EGC on the exterior of a conduit due to wire fill?
An EGC can be run on the outside for up to 6 ft. Over that the impedance is too high due the conductors being separated and the magnetic fields don't cancel in a ground fault.
And being in WA, there are rules that don't allow the GEC to be run exposed, even if strapped to a conduit.