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

Jon Danniken[_7_]

On 02/06/2014 12:51 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?

The main caveat is that you have absolute certainty that the water pipe
is metal all the way to the water meter, and doesn't transition into
PVC. You also have to make a solid connection to the pipe that will not
be compromised due to corrosion if the pipe is steel.

If you can accomplish these two issues, it would technically work, but
I'm guessssing it's probably not going to be code compliant (should the
incoming pipe be replaced by PVC in the future, the ground would end up
being non functional).

Jon