William, if you attach the wire to the pipe close to the electric panel and
someone like a plumber,disconnects the pipe between your ground wire and
where the pipe enters the house, and there is a fault current, the plumber
can get electrocuted. I know there are a lot of if's here, but that's the
reason
"William Deans" wrote in message
news:1108170958.2f5d79f7d165805f48344067ea94cc4a@t eranews...
Greetings,

I understand your logic for why they want it connected -- and it already
is
connected with 4 awg solid copper -- but why must it be connected within 6
feet of where it enters the house? The water enters the house on the
opposite side of the basement from where the electrical comes in. There
is
a water-pipe which runs right by the circuit breaker. Why run a 40 foot
grounding wire when a 3 foot will do?

William


"RBM" rmottola1(remove wrote in message
...
Doug is absolutely correct. The reason they want it connected close to
the
point the water pipe enters the building is to prevent fault currents
from
hurting anyone if a fitting along the pipe gets disconnected. Which is
the
same reason you install a jumper around water meters
"Doug Miller" wrote in message
news
In article 1108165344.086189350038cb1a4aa23a6256ddc271@teran ews,
"William Deans" wrote:
Greetings,

I understand that I must ground my water pipe within 6 feet of where it
enters the basement. My circuit breaker box is 40 feet away on the
other
side of the basement. Is there any reason why I cannot just insert
another
grounding rod near where the water pipe enters the basement and ground
it
there? Is there some requirement that the two grounding rods be tied
together by anything but the water pipe?

You're missing the point about this. The idea is not that the water
pipe
needs
to be grounded (it already is, by virtue of being buried in the
ground).
The
point is that the electrical code requires that metal water piping be
bonded
to the grounding electrode(s) for the electrical service to ensure that
there
cannot be any voltage differential between the plumbing and the
electrical
safety ground. Verify this with the inspector before doing anything,
but
I
imagine what he means is that you need to have the grounding bus in
your
electrical panel connected to the water pipe, within six feet of where
the
water pipe enters the building -- most readily accomplished by running
an
appropriately-sized copper wire from the panel to within six feet of
where
the
water pipe comes in.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his
butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?