Swimming Pool equipment grounding/bonding

[powerplay]

When disconnecting swimming pool equipment, I seen they had buried a ground plate at the shed, bonded all the equipment and bonded the pool. What was curious to me was that the cable that brought power from the house to the shed panel had an underground connector attached to PVC conduit underground, and the armour removed in the pipe with the inner rubber jackjet intact. The bare copper wire of the cable had been attached to the panel, as well as 2nd system ground plate by the shed panel, pool bond, etc. It seemed to me the bare copper of the cable attached 2 system ground plates together and if house lost the ground, the pool (UFER) would become the main system ground.... What is the proper way to install a panel for pool equipment??? ...Thanks again!

 

[petersonra]

I don't think you can worry all that much about what happens in a failure mode. I would just make sure it meets whatever code cycle you are on and not worry about something that might happen.

The reality is that a whole bunch of homes have no ground at all, or none really worth anything. And they have never experienced any negative impact from that situation.

On the flip side, you can have 50 ground rods tied together and it won't make the grounding system any "better" for any practical purpose for a typical residence.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

When disconnecting swimming pool equipment, I seen they had buried a ground plate at the shed, bonded all the equipment and bonded the pool. What was curious to me was that the cable that brought power from the house to the shed panel had an underground connector attached to PVC conduit underground, and the armour removed in the pipe with the inner rubber jackjet intact. The bare copper wire of the cable had been attached to the panel, as well as 2nd system ground plate by the shed panel, pool bond, etc. It seemed to me the bare copper of the cable attached 2 system ground plates together and if house lost the ground, the pool (UFER) would become the main system ground.... What is the proper way to install a panel for pool equipment??? ...Thanks again!

Todays code would require an egc to be run with the feeder just as you would for a sub panel. If the panel is in a detached structure then you need to install grounding electrodes and connect the grounding electrode conductor to the equipment ground bar and isolate it from the neutral.

Are you sure that there was a ground ring and not an equipotential bond that ran around the perimeter of the pool and tied all the metal parts of the pool together. This bonding does not need to go back to the panel but must be connect to all equipment. If there is a pool motor that is double insulated then you must connect the #8 to the egc of the motor.