Pex and grounding

[bubblegummom]

Hi!

I've been reading some plumbing books, trying to learn something.

One sentence I don't understand says, "If your metal supply tubes are used to ground your electrical system, you'll need to provide a jumper if Pex is installed midrun."

What does that mean?

[HayZee518]

basically what this means is if any of your water lines are of PEX or plastic, then your water system is NOT GROUNDED! the same is true if your house is piped with genova plastic pipe then the fixtures are not grounded and if unintentionally energized by an electrical current, using these fixtures can potentionally kill you if conditions are right. so if you have a piece of PEX in the middle of a run of copper tubing the you'll need to apply a grounding clamp on each piece of the copper tubing and jumpering each clamp with a piece of #8 bare stranded copper wire to continue the bonding.

[mrcaptainbob]

Hmmm, this raises a concern. My nwhole house is copper, except for the connection to the plastic line from the well. THe house electric is grounded to two copper ground rods from the main panel. Should the copper system be 'bonded' to that ground wire from the main? What about the copper heat sytem running the baseboard rads? Those too?

[HayZee518]

the well casing I'm assuming is bonded, grounded through the equipment grounding wire. in addition to the earth ground, several driven ground rods further ground your electrical system. the rods, well casing should all be connected together. somewhere on your system the copper heat lines, cold water and hot water lines have a grounding clamp on it (them)

[DKAudio]

From a driven ground rod you should have a bare grounding conductor to your Neutral/Ground bus in the electrical panel (many counties require bonding bushings on the mains conduit too). Then from the Neutral/Ground bus you should have another bare grounding conductor that runs to both sides of your water meter with clamps. Like HayZee said, if you have a middle run of non-metalic pipe then you must bond the other side with clamps and a bare conductor.

[numberQ]

hey, here it is sourceradix.com/m/f27.html

[mrcaptainbob]

Thanks for the help. I will verify the well casing (am sure it is NOT grounded), hot and cold water system and heating system are grounded.

Hey...would the hot/col water systems be grounded through the ground terminal on the water heater?

[Redwood]

That would be 1 ground connection...

[mrcaptainbob]

Well, then I guess I'm all set. The water heater is grounded to the main breaker panel. The copper domestic water system is grounded through connections to the water heater. The copper/iron heating system is connected to the domestic water system. Apparently all is well, then! Thanks for the help...and allowing me to hijack this thread!

[HayZee518]

not so fast! is the domestic water supply connected to the hot water tank through dielectric nipples or unions?