Easy question

[brepanshek]

The only ground wire to panel was a short pce of copper wire attached to the copper water supply line near the panel, the water supply line was city supplied. I was under the impression that the ground wire had to run all the way within 5' of the incoming water pipe then a jumper across the meter is this correct? And can the copper wire if ran 5' from the in coming water line of the home be spliced together? I hope you understand what I'm talking about? Let me know what you think PAUL, MARC??????

[Marc D. Shunk]

Compared to the age of the housing stocks in your area, the supplimental ground rod and water pipe electrode connection within 5' of entrance are fairly new requirements. Most vintage service equipment in the city will only have a GEC connection to the nearest water line. If the equipment is older, it was likely a correct install in its day, but doesn't really square with today's requirements.

[Marc D. Shunk]

That 'within 5 feet' language was added in the 1999 NEC, in case that's interesting to you.

[rromoser]

Splicing is generally not allowed. Exothermic welding is approved and usually compression connections that are done with a crimp tool with properly sized dies are approved.

[David P. Valley]

Brian,

All your answers to your question can be found here.

[Paul W. Abernathy]

Interesting enough...in that item you posted David.....their is an error in their thinking which is seen alot.....

They make this statement:

Two Paths To Ground

This gives the electricity, in theory, two choices to flow to ground. Electricity that comes back to this point can either flow to ground through the neutral service wire, or through the ground wire to the grounding electrode. In practice, the electricity flows through the lowest impedance path which is through the neutral wire back to the transformer. (Note: Impedance is the total of resistance and reactance, and is the total restriction to the flow of electric current.)

The statements in RED are the concern......1.) Electrity is NEVER trying to get to ground and 2.) electicity flows on ALL paths back to the source....it is just proportional in regards to the amount of impedance to which has more traveling on it.

Just figured I would clear that up.......

[ccarrington]

Good Job paul... For some reason many people don’t understand that electricity will take every single path available to it… to a place of lesser potential.

Like if I had a water tank filled with water, and shot it with a 300 magnum, it would leak… And it would leak even faster it I followed up my first shot with 10 rounds from a 22cal…and still faster with a single load of buck shot following that…

[David P. Valley]

Originally Posted by ccarrington

Like if I had a water tank filled with water, and shot it with a 300 magnum, it would leak… And it would leak even faster it I followed up my first shot with 10 rounds from a 22cal…and still faster with a single load of buck shot following that…

Well, I sure do hope so. Common sense.

[Greg Fretwell]

I suspect all but the toughest tank would simply blow apart from the 4000+ ft/lbs of energy the .300 Weatherby packs so there wouldn't be anything to leak after that. The electrical analogy is the O/C device would trip