On Monday, July 25, 2016 at 12:08:17 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jul 2016 08:32:08 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Monday, July 25, 2016 at 11:17:02 AM UTC-4, trader_4 wrote:

...snip...

250.50 is a bit weird.
Suppose for example you had an old ground rod on the other side of the
house. That is also present, so strictly following the code, you'd
have to either pull that out of the ground or use it too?


Your description of "old ground rod" is not clear to me. Are you talking
about an abandoned ground rod with no conductor attached to it? If so, IMO
that would not have to be used. If it did, then all those spare grounds
rods stashed in the shed would also have to be used. Aren't they "present"
also?

I take 250.50 to mean that if an object is *used* as a grounding electrode
then it must be *bonded to all other grounding electrodes*. Just having a
piece of metal - even if the receipt says "ground rod" - pounded into
the ground doesn't make it a grounding electrode.

That's my two cents.

...and that's mine.

...and I could be wrong. ;-)



I have never heard of inspectors going looking for unused "made
electrodes" but the ones that are inherent in the building shall be
used.

Sounds reasonable to me. So the underground water pipe and Ufer, if
present have to be used. How about:

A ground rod that happens to exist on the other side of the building?

A ground rod that's close to the panel?

Assuming neither of those is required to meet the min ground system
reqt, would either have to be used? Sounds to me like you're saying
the answer is no, or probably no, depending on the inspector?