The only part of the water main pipe into your house that can be used as a
grounding electrode is the first five feet from the point of entrance. A
ground conductor attaches to the pipe and runs to the ground buss in your
main service panel. In addition to that electrode, essentially two driven
ground rods are required. They get driven six feet apart and another
conductor is connected to them and run back to the ground buss in the main
service panel, effectively bonding these rods to the service equipment and
the water pipe. Looping is probably someone's expression for bonding



"John Ross" wrote in message
oups.com...


RBM remove this wrote:
"John Ross" wrote in message
ups.com...

Quick recap: 1960 house, crawlspace, 2 wire romex, grounds only run to
baths and kitchen, galvanized water pipe to street was used for
grounding (NO ground rod).

I want to ground 2 or 3 outlets and discussed going to a water pipe
method here. Everyone mentioned the "5 foot rule" per NEC. Some were
concerned about the ground not tripping the breaker. I have had
nothing but problems finding a good electrician in my town!!! I think
I finally did and want input on his plan.

Talking on the phone, he proposed the following and said it would pass
code (local):

1. Drive 8 foot ground rod and connect to panel.
2. From desired ungrounded receptacle(s) go through floor to
crawlspace with ground wire and run back to panel.
3. One receptacle is for pc, and he suggested doing same method, but
use new wire and make it a dedicated circuit so there would be no
interference or something with pc. Not sure if this is necessary?

Once the ground rod is driven and connected to the buss in the panel, it
also becomes attached to the existing water pipe ground which also runs
to
the buss in the panel.
The individual ground conductor can be attached to any point along the
grounding electrode system. The most practical location is probably the
panel. IMO running ground conductors to non grounded outlets looks Rube
Goldberg, if it's not to dificult, I would run new cables to these
outlets,
gang a few together in a jbox then run a line back to the panel

I may have not made this clear, but the original wiring is NOT run in
the crawlspace. The idea is to drill a hole up through the floor and
bring the ground from receptacle down to crawlspace and then over to
panel.

I assume in this situation you could not just run a new romex to each
one unless it was dedicated?

As far as being connected to the water pipe. My understanding is that
back then they just connected it to the closest pipe to the panel. So
what I was asking is if the pipe connection should be connected closer
to the water entrance point of the house (which is the opposite side
of the house)?

Also, can you explain what he meant by "looping the grounds?" Any
search on that term brings up very negative things so I am not sure if
I have it in the right context.

thanks,
--
John