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Nate Nagel

On 10/28/2013 09:50 AM, wrote:
On Monday, October 28, 2013 9:18:34 AM UTC-4, philo wrote:
On 10/28/2013 07:14 AM, wrote:

snip

If you want to do something before help arrives, I might *look* (but not

touch) for any clamps with wires that are attached to your water supply

lines. Incoming phone terminals, CATV lines, the circuit box area and the

furnace areas are places you might find a ground wire connection (no longer

code).

Now you're off in true lala land. Since when is it no longer

code to have those things grounded? In fact they all are

supposed to be grounded. Good grief. And to add to the foolishness,

what purpose is it going to serve for Fred to go looking for

anything when he obviously doesn't have the skills to diagnose

this serious problem?

He did not say /ungrounded/ he said grounded to water line

And again, who says that your circuit box (panel)can't be
grounded to the water pipe? In fact, it's a code
requirement that if a metal water pipe enters the
house that the panel be grounded in part to that metal pipe.

Not exactly. It useta be the case that a copper or steel water service
could be used as the grounding means for an electrical panel. Today, it
functionally can work that way, but it is not code compliant to rely on
the water service for the ground. However, you are still required to
*bond* the panel ground bus to the water service, assuming that it's
metal. So it still looks the same, but the reasoning behind that
identical connection is very different.

A new construction house would require an additional ground wire at the
electrical panel and that would go outside and be connected to a network
of several ground rods driven into the ground, *that* being the primary
means of grounding.

The phone, CATV, etc. *should* be grounded back to the electrical panel,
although functionally if they are connected to the water service, and
that in turn is bonded to the panel, which is connected to a network of
ground rods, that will in effect be a more roundabout way of
accomplishing the same thing.

And in older homes, not unusual to see the cable
or phone system wires being grounded to a cold water
pipe near where they enter the building. It's not
a safety issue or something that needs to be corrected.

Agreed, but like I said above, current code does not recognize a metal
water service as being a grounding means anymore but as something that
needs to be bonded to an accepted ground.

It would appear from the OP's message that his house is one of those
special cases that illustrates just *why* this change in code was made;
clearly he does not have a modern code compliant grounding network
and/or the water pipes inside the house are not bonded to same, and the
water service is not providing a good ground either because a jumper
over an insulating element like a meter is missing/corroded or a metal
service has been replaced by ABS or some nonconductive material.

And it's all pointless anyway, because the OP
clearly doesn't have the skills to figure out what
is or isn't the problem anyway.

We can always learn. But this is one of those things that needs to be
approached with caution...

nate

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