plastic pipe grounding

Status
Not open for further replies.
J

joel hall

Member
Hello all,heard a good one today
A friend of mine a good electrician,
had a inspection on a house awhile back, everything went ok except the grounding conductor
from the pnl to the water pipe,but the pipe from the water meter at the road uses plastic into the house and all pipe in the house is pvc,the inspector required him to bond the pvc pipe where it came into the basement,he had to ( put a 2 foot peace of copper in the pvc and put a clamp and run a wire to the pnl)would like to get a picture.
where else except in Tennessee? Ha Ha :D :D
 
Re: plastic pipe grounding

I have heard a similar story but involving a hydromassage tub. The inspector was requiring pipe bonding, but the all pipe was PVC. The electrician asked exactly how you bond PVC pipe and the inspector actually suggested using a muffler clamp. The story was third hand, so at some point parts if not all the story could be made up. :eek:
 
Re: plastic pipe grounding

BTW the reasoning was that if for some reason the water heater elements were to burn into it might energize the water!!
 
Re: plastic pipe grounding

joel hall said: <big snip> he had to ( put a 2 foot peace of copper in the pvc and put a clamp and run a wire to the pnl) <snip>
Click to expand...
Are you saying he had to section out a two foot section of the PVC and replace it with a two foot section of copper? Then, put a ground clamp on the copper and run it to the panel?

GC-50-BZ.gif
 
Re: plastic pipe grounding

That is what I am saying,will try to get a picture when possible!
I promise you I am not kidding this did happen.
on sort of same line I was talking to a retired electrician on my ham radio last nite.we were talking about this and he told me a story about a service call he went on back years ago said home owner was getting shocked when he turned the outside water faucet on and put his hand into the water traced it back to a element in the water heater it was open,no ground on water htr,but the pipe was metal and no bond to the service.i can see were this could happen but not plastic (well we do have a lot of iron in the water)HA HA?

Joel
 
Re: plastic pipe grounding

If this was actually done by the electrician he is no better than the inspector. :roll:

[ May 23, 2004, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: electricmanscott ]
 
Re: plastic pipe grounding

I know but sometimes it is easier to do little things that we can laugh at and make the inspector happy!
I personally would not have but the last time I stood my (grounds) it was two weeks before i got his mind changed and the home owner got power hooked up.
The inspector wanted me to cut a cadweld off of a ground rod and put a acorn type clamp on,he said he could not see the integrity of the weld
his supervisor and poco changed his mind after a few phone calls.
btw:same inspector
also did not mean to get friction and feelings hurt by my post,just thought it might be amusing
 
Re: plastic pipe grounding

just out of curiosity. Where in Tn were you at. Just a little bet with some other inspectors.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top