DIYbanter - View Single Post - Anything wrong with grounding metal conduit to a cold water pipe ina 2-wire house?

philo [_2_]

On 02/06/2014 02:51 PM, 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.

The conduit goes back to your breaker box (or fuse box if the system has
not been upgraded) and the breaker box itself is ground...OR SHOULD BE.
The proper way to ground the outlets, it you are using a standard three
wire plug is to have the ground terminal connected to a ground wire
which would normally be inside the conduit. If there is no ground wire
inside you will need to run one to do things properly.

Other wise, I'd leave it alone.