Right way to ground around a water meter?

[DrSnowman]

An experienced electrician told me there is a right and wrong way to run the AWG 6 ground wire around a water meter. He said the wire from the main service panel must be clamped to the consumer side of the meter first, then jump the water meter and be clamped to the side from which the pipe enters the house. He also said the section of ground wire which jumps the water meter must be bare copper. It this information accurate? The residence involved in our conversation is in a town that doesn't require 2 ground rods.

 

[kwired]

If you have metallic piping that is 10 feet or longer in the earth, you have a grounding electrode. Unless you have other electrodes, you must run an unspliced grounding electrode conductor to the electrode - which is on the supply side of the meter nearly all the time. You can pass through the clamp on house side of the meter, or any other object you wish to bond for that matter if you do it in a manner that doesn't cut the grounding electrode conductor.

You can hit the supply side of the meter first, then add a bonding jumper via a second clamp to bond around the meter.

There are other possibilities, but the important thing is having a non spliced grounding electrode conductor all the way to the electrode. You can have bonding jumpers to additional electrodes though, and if you were to hit building steel first (where applicable) you could have splice in the bonding jumper to the water pipe electrode.

 

[DrSnowman]

Thank you!

 

[infinity]

If you have metallic piping that is 10 feet or longer in the earth, you have a grounding electrode. Unless you have other electrodes, you must run an unspliced grounding electrode conductor to the electrode - which is on the supply side of the meter nearly all the time. You can pass through the clamp on house side of the meter, or any other object you wish to bond for that matter if you do it in a manner that doesn't cut the grounding electrode conductor.

You can hit the supply side of the meter first, then add a bonding jumper via a second clamp to bond around the meter.

There are other possibilities, but the important thing is having a non spliced grounding electrode conductor all the way to the electrode. You can have bonding jumpers to additional electrodes though, and if you were to hit building steel first (where applicable) you could have splice in the bonding jumper to the water pipe electrode.

Can the connection to the electrode be anywhere within 5' of the entrance of the pipe into the structure even if a water meter was within that first 5'?

 

[roach1521]

As long as the first five feet is hit with the wire

Sent from my LG-K425 using Tapatalk

 

[kwired]

Can the connection to the electrode be anywhere within 5' of the entrance of the pipe into the structure even if a water meter was within that first 5'?

That is a very good question, I think most will say no, the GEC must be unspliced to the supply side of the meter, and do it that way to avoid being questioned about it. Need to look carefully at wording - might be possible to interpret what you said though.

Before we had to make the GEC connection within 5 feet of entry (think that changed in 1996) we could connect anywhere on the piping system we wanted to, just had to put bonding jumpers around commonly removed or isolating components in the piping.

 

[infinity]

That is a very good question, I think most will say no, the GEC must be unspliced to the supply side of the meter, and do it that way to avoid being questioned about it. Need to look carefully at wording - might be possible to interpret what you said though.

Before we had to make the GEC connection within 5 feet of entry (think that changed in 1996) we could connect anywhere on the piping system we wanted to, just had to put bonding jumpers around commonly removed or isolating components in the piping.

I hear this often about the supply side of the meter but IMO the wording of that section is lacking the specifics to support that argument. The bonding jumper around the meter accomplishes the continuity as long as the GEC connects within the 5'.

 

[kwired]

I hear this often about the supply side of the meter but IMO the wording of that section is lacking the specifics to support that argument. The bonding jumper around the meter accomplishes the continuity as long as the GEC connects within the 5'.

I haven't read the requirements recently, but kind of suspected one may be able to see it that way. Seems like everyone is normally running an unspliced conductor all the way to the supply side of the meter and then "passing through" a clamp on the house side to ensure bonding of that side of the meter. Uses one less clamp for one thing, and often you are running the conductor from that side of the meter anyway so is a more natural fit so to speak anyway.