On Thursday, February 6, 2014 3:51:11 PM UTC-5, wrote:
During a kitchen remodel in my mom's circa 1948 house (post WWII made out of reinforced concrete!) with 2-wire electrical and metal conduit, I mentioned to my brother and nephew that, since it was exposed, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to ground the wiring conduit to a cold water pipe, thereby grounding the entire conduit run and at the very least making grounded outlets work properly.



I would think that if metal conduit is being used, it's already
grounded back at the panel, no?

As to making the grounded outlets work properly, it;s clearly
a major code violation to install grounded outlets if they are
not grounded properly to begin with. New outlets cannot be put
in during a renovation without conforming to the grounding
requiremets. And since it's a kitchen, GFCI as well.




They reacted in horror saying it could cause a fire or even worse. I said that at least you'd know if you had a short circuit because the breaker would trip and touching something metal wouldn't kill you.



Ok, who's right here?



BTW, he's my older brother so I just let it go.

You seem to be more on track then your brother. There is no fire
risk from properly grounding the conduit. Did you ask him how the
new outlets are grounded? If they were put in without a ground,
no GFCI, etc, then that is a real shock hazard? Who's doint this
work? Permits pulled?