Grounding/bonding in a 2-family house

[Michael S. OMalley]

Yesterday's inspection: 2-family house, underground service supplying 2 meters, each with a 100-amp main panel. One panel has an obvious equipment ground going from the buss to the cold water main, the other panel does not.
Since these are separate services shouldn't they each be grounded and bonded separately? There were other issues, so I advised "refer to a licensed and qualified electrician for evaluation and repair," but I'm wondering what I should have looked for in the second panel with no obvious cold water ground.Are both main panels bonded together by their conduit connections and share a single cold-water ground? What's standard practice and what should I look for?

[Marc D. Shunk]

Without some pictures or a little more information, it is hard to say for sure if what you're looking at is okay or not. It can be "legal" to have one grounding electrode conductor serve two panels by several means. A tap to each panel from a main GEC conductor would be among the methods. Also, the presence of multiple meters does not necessarily mean multiple services. You can certainly have one service, metered multiple times, as would be the case with a ganged meter socket or a meter stack. Don't suppose you have any pictures that would assist with the evaluation?

[Marc Benz]

A photo will worth a thousand words and it will really clearify for us to able to steer ya in right way with the info you are looking and i will echo Marc Shunk's comment on the method of using the EGC connections and type as well and some POCO have additonal regulations slapped top of it.

Merci, Marc

[Joe Farsetta]

MArc S,

Good reply.