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.



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.

If it's conduit all the way to the panel then it is likely grounded at the panel.