supplimentary grounding electrodes

[e2me]

OK after a code question came up and was not answered the way i felt it should be i bring it to you for clarification.

By 250.54 supplementary grounding electrodes are not required to to comply with bonding requirements of 250.50(bonding together)or 250.53c(bonding jumper size)or 250.56(ohms)

So lets say i have a supplementary grounding electrode not one that is required in 250.53d2 because of water service but just decided to put in a extra one in,or had a extra rebar poking up what size wire do i have to run to this extra electrode ? Can it be a #12 or does it have to be a #4/0 or is there yet another exception in the NEC that refers me back to 250.53E in which case it has not to be larger than #6 if 250.66 states higher because of conductor size.

Just for clarification the question was stated to me like this :
What size wire do you need to run to a supplementary grounding electrode

my answer was whatever size you have in your truck
correct or not ?

 

[infinity]

Supplemental electrodes are required by the NEC. Supplementary electrodes are not, therefore they are not required to be sized according to article 250. Look at 250.54.

 

[iwire]

Supplemental electrodes are required by the NEC. Supplementary electrodes are not, therefore they are not required to be sized according to article 250. Look at 250.54.

That is the important thing to remember.

The NEC has chosen two similar words to describe electrodes with widely differing requirements

Supplemental

Supplementary

Supplemental electrodes are sometimes required and if used must conform to all the rules. Of course one of those rules is 250.66(A) which tells us the conductor running just to a ground rod need not every be larger than 6 AWG CU or 4 AWG AL.

Supplementary electrodes are entirely voluntary / optional and you can hook one up with 14 AWG or 1000 Kcmil, the NEC does not care about these voluntary electrodes.