"J.A. Michel" wrote in message
...

"Eigenvector" wrote in message
. ..
I asked the electrician why there was such a difference between the two
types of wires but never got an answer other than "It's code".

So when I had my earth ground installed in my panel, 2 ground rods ~4
feet apart with a 10 gauge wire connected between them and the panel.

When using two ground rods, they should be seperated by a minimum of 6
feet. Also, 6 AWG wire is required when using
ground rods, not 10AWG. If the work is done "to code" then this is how it
should have been done.
Did they pull a permit? Better verify what they did and what wire sizes
they used.

At the same time he installed bonding for the hot, cold, and gas pipes -
but for this he used like 5 twisted strand 10 gauge wires - it was a
HUGE copper cable.

Correct. 4AWG is required for bonding the pipes.

You know I wasn't asking for a critique of the job, I was asking WHY the
size difference between the two. Or do you not know, but you felt compelled
to answer anyway?

In any case I got the answer I needed a couple posts back. Thanks for
responding.


When I asked why the bonding got the big cables and the earth ground got
the single 10 gauge he mentioned that 10 gauge is really all that is
required for good solid ground and that's what code called for. But he
didn't really explain why the bonding required such massive wires. It's
not like I think he cheated me on the copper, I trust the company he
works for and he did very good frugal work in the panel. I just kind of
want to know - why the difference in size? If anything I would expect
the situation to be reversed, the massive cable to the ground rods and
the small wire to the pipes.