Several of us have been looking over the grounding requirements for a house.
Can not find in the code if the ground wire from the house to the ground rod
has to be solid or can it be stranded. Also insulated or not insulated.
The standard practice seems to be solid, uninsulated wire in the area, but
does the code state that anywhere ? All we can find is the size and it must
be ran in as direct as possiable.

It can be solid or stranded, bare or insulated. I'll try and find the code.
What would you do if you need a #2 grounding conductor in solid copper?



"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
...
Several of us have been looking over the grounding requirements for a
house. Can not find in the code if the ground wire from the house to the
ground rod has to be solid or can it be stranded. Also insulated or not
insulated. The standard practice seems to be solid, uninsulated wire in
the area, but does the code state that anywhere ? All we can find is the
size and it must be ran in as direct as possiable.

250.62 Nec 2008




"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
...
Several of us have been looking over the grounding requirements for a
house. Can not find in the code if the ground wire from the house to the
ground rod has to be solid or can it be stranded. Also insulated or not
insulated. The standard practice seems to be solid, uninsulated wire in
the area, but does the code state that anywhere ? All we can find is the
size and it must be ran in as direct as possiable.

"RBM" wrote in message
...
It can be solid or stranded, bare or insulated. I'll try and find the
code. What would you do if you need a #2 grounding conductor in solid
copper?


Thanks for the reply . We were talking about a normal house where # 6 seems
to be the standard in this area.

If I could afford a house that needed # 2 I doubt I would be here asking
about the ground wire :-)

In article , "RBM" wrote:

What would you do if you need a #2 grounding conductor in solid copper?

Uh, rob a bank first?
--
big grin
JR

On Feb 6, 2:26*pm, "Ralph Mowery" wrote:
Several of us have been looking over the grounding requirements for a house.
Can not find in the code if the ground wire from the house to the ground rod
has to be solid or can it be stranded. *Also insulated or not insulated.
The standard practice seems to be solid, uninsulated wire in the area, but
does the code state that anywhere ? *All we can find is the size and it must
be ran in as direct as possiable.

No. 4 solid uninsulated copper is the defacto and is carried on most
utility company trucks. The reason No. 4 is used is because it can be
run open where not subject to physical damage without a raceway.
A No. 6 generally has to be installed in a raceway..

REF:
310.3 Stranded Conductors. Where installed in raceways,
conductors of size 8 AWG and larger shall be stranded.
Exception: As permitted or required elsewhere in this Code.
250.64
(B) Securing and Protection Against Physical Damage.
Where exposed, a grounding electrode conductor or its enclosure
shall be securely fastened to the surface on which it is
carried. A 4 AWG or larger copper or aluminum grounding
electrode conductor shall be protected where exposed to
physical damage. A 6 AWG grounding electrode conductor
that is free from exposure to physical damage shall be permitted
to be run along the surface of the building construction
without metal covering or protection where it is securely fastened
to the construction; otherwise, it shall be in rigid metal
conduit, intermediate metal conduit, rigid nonmetallic conduit,
electrical metallic tubing, or cable armor. Grounding electrode
conductors smaller than 6 AWG shall be in rigid metal conduit,
intermediate metal conduit, rigid nonmetallic conduit,
electrical metallic tubing, or cable armor.

On Feb 6, 8:31*pm, Jerry wrote:
On Feb 6, 2:26*pm, "Ralph Mowery" wrote:

Several of us have been looking over the grounding requirements for a house.
Can not find in the code if the ground wire from the house to the ground rod
has to be solid or can it be stranded. *Also insulated or not insulated.
The standard practice seems to be solid, uninsulated wire in the area, but
does the code state that anywhere ? *All we can find is the size and it must
be ran in as direct as possiable.

No. 4 solid uninsulated copper is the defacto and is carried on most
utility company trucks. *The reason No. 4 is used is because it can be
run open where not subject to physical damage without a raceway.
A No. 6 generally has to be installed in a raceway..

REF:
310.3 Stranded Conductors. Where installed in raceways,
conductors of size 8 AWG and larger shall be stranded.
Exception: As permitted or required elsewhere in this Code.
250.64
(B) Securing and Protection Against Physical Damage.
Where exposed, a grounding electrode conductor or its enclosure
shall be securely fastened to the surface on which it is
carried. A 4 AWG or larger copper or aluminum grounding
electrode conductor shall be protected where exposed to
physical damage. A 6 AWG grounding electrode conductor
that is free from exposure to physical damage shall be permitted
to be run along the surface of the building construction
without metal covering or protection where it is securely fastened
to the construction; otherwise, it shall be in rigid metal
conduit, intermediate metal conduit, rigid nonmetallic conduit,
electrical metallic tubing, or cable armor. Grounding electrode
conductors smaller than 6 AWG shall be in rigid metal conduit,
intermediate metal conduit, rigid nonmetallic conduit,
electrical metallic tubing, or cable armor.

I have a calculator that determines the size of the grounding
electrode conductor at:
http://www.electrician2.com/calculators/t250_66.html

"RBM" wrote in message
...
250.62 Nec 2008


Thanks for the number. I looked it up at work to see what it said. I don't
know how two of us could have missed it. We were all around it.

I work in a very large plant as an electrician and instrument technician. I
don't have to know the code or really deal with it. One of the coworkers is
licensed and we were talking about the code and looking in the books and
just could not find it . I had asked him the question of the grounding
conductor going from the breaker box to the ground rod. He did not know for
sure and we just kept overlooking it. All he knew for sure is what was
usually done in the local area for a normal size house.

Part of this was because I am a ham radio operator and had put up a 60 foot
tower and wanted to know what the code said about having several ground rods
and how to connect them .
I knew all the rods needed to be bonded, but still wanted to see how the
code related to ground rods and wiring.

"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
...

"RBM" wrote in message
...
250.62 Nec 2008


Thanks for the number. I looked it up at work to see what it said. I
don't know how two of us could have missed it. We were all around it.

I work in a very large plant as an electrician and instrument technician.
I don't have to know the code or really deal with it. One of the
coworkers is licensed and we were talking about the code and looking in
the books and just could not find it . I had asked him the question of
the grounding conductor going from the breaker box to the ground rod. He
did not know for sure and we just kept overlooking it. All he knew for
sure is what was usually done in the local area for a normal size house.

Part of this was because I am a ham radio operator and had put up a 60
foot tower and wanted to know what the code said about having several
ground rods and how to connect them .
I knew all the rods needed to be bonded, but still wanted to see how the
code related to ground rods and wiring.

I'll tell you how I found it. Bout half an hour before your post, I received
in the mail, my new 08' NEC book, not the usual code book, the one that has
twice as many pages, cause it has lots of pictures , diagrams, and
explanations, so I know WTF their talking about. I opened the book up to
grounding and there was a picture of a ground rod and conductor, with the
answer to your question written all over it. Pure luck

"RBM" wrote in message
...


I'll tell you how I found it. Bout half an hour before your post, I
received in the mail, my new 08' NEC book, not the usual code book, the
one that has twice as many pages, cause it has lots of pictures ,
diagrams, and explanations, so I know WTF their talking about. I opened
the book up to grounding and there was a picture of a ground rod and
conductor, with the answer to your question written all over it. Pure luck


We were looking in the same type book. The one with all the drawings in it.
It just happened to be the one from a few years ago. After getting the code
number we looked in the older book again and there it was. We have just the
code book for 08 and not the illistrated book. It is on order. Nothing
like looking in over 1000 pages for about 2 lines of text......

I don't need the code for what I do and the coworker does not need it for
work, but he does some work outside the plant. Just not enough to really
keep up with all the information. I thought someone here that uses the code
would be able to tell us the correct answer.

wrote:
On Thu, 7 Feb 2008 18:30:56 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

Part of this was because I am a ham radio operator and had put up a 60 foot
tower and wanted to know what the code said about having several ground rods
and how to connect them .
I was the inspector on a big radio equipment shelter and tower
project, putting dozens of these around several counties. They used a
grounding system that picked up the foundation of the shelter
building, a ground ring, the pad and foundation of the tower and
buried bare copper radials going to rods out about 50 feet from the
tower. It created a good ground plane for the transmitter and a great
grounding electrode for lightning and other transients that would
affect the service

A 60 ft tower does sound like a good lightning target unless you live
in Nome. You might want to look at 810 also.

--
bud--

"bud--" wrote in message
...
wrote:
A 60 ft tower does sound like a good lightning target unless you live in
Nome. You might want to look at 810 also.

--
bud--


Thanks for the reply. I am aware of the 810 part and also have much more
information on the actual tower grounding. You put all the ground rods and
such in the ground that you can afford...

The question I and a coworker had was just what the code said about the
wiring tying all this back into the power ground electrode and wiring. Just
could not find in the code book what type of wire and insulated or not was
the code. I think it was RBM that saw in that big code book the acutal
code we were overlooking.