Gas pipe to water pipe grounding

Unknown

water heater grounding <i>could be</i> an issue to premature failure of the tank. In the US are you guys bound by code to provide WH(gas pipe) grounding to the <i>nearest</i> water pipe?<BR>In Canada we are supposed-to,,but it seems to depend which inspector you ask.<BR>Any input?<BR><BR>Dave

Mark Eatherton

CSST requires ground bond

per the IMC and the tubing manufacturer.

But to the best of my knowledge, ground not required on steel only hard piped system. I'd be leary about using it on a combination copper/steel system tho...

ME

jim lockard_4

Grounding

My jurisdiction requires that CSST Be grounded back to the main electrical panel. Grounding of interior metal water pipe systems are required to be bonded to the electrical panel as well. Having all grounds return to the service panel for whats called a single point "reference" to ground is considered the safest and most reliable and helps to eliminate "Floating Grounds" in the building. J.Lockard

jp_2

inspector said NO

I grounded the gas pipe to the panel and the inspector told me to remove it? that was 8 yrs ago, maybe thing changed?

Matt_67

I've never heard of it and I'm an electrician

Sure we bond the hot and cold pipes together on a HWH and we use the water main as a ground which gets bonded to the neutral but I've never heard anything involving a gas pipe. Also I believe an electric service must be a certain distance away from a gas service. But don't trust me as I'm not a code guru. Mike Holt's message board would be able to tell you yes or no with a code section saying why.
http://www.mikeholt.com
http://forums.mikeholt.com/register.php

A little search there reviled the quote below but it goes deeper in the thread:


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250.52 B 1 prohibits using metal underground gas lines as grounding electrode. However, 250.104 B says that gas piping attached to a structure that is likely to become energized must be bonded.

We always bond the gas pipes at hvac units and generally (in our area) that is all that's required.
(I've spent time thinking about it and I'm still not sure its a good idea - it just seems that its an invitation for fault current or lightning to energize the gas pipe, but that's jmo !)

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Mark Eatherton

Reason to bond CSST gas lines...

IF the building does take a lightning hit, and the Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing is not properly grounded, and the lightning travels through the CSST to the grounded appliance, the CSST turns to swiss cheese, in a millisecond.

It then turns into a raging Roman candle. If you happen to be so lucky as it does not ignite, then you just have a swiss cheese flex connector that is spewing fuel into the atmosphere, looking for a source of ignition....

Did you ever wonder how high a room with an LP leak will fill with vapor? To the height of the first ignition source, what ever that may be...

kaBOOOOOooooommmmmmmm.

As for using pipes for grounds, I can't tell you how many times I have been electrocuted in older homes that had lost (or never had) a good neutral, and the water main becomes the neutral (ground). It got to the point, that if I had to cut into a main water line in the yard (sprinkler taps) I would use a set of jumper cables to jumper across the area on which I was working to avoid getting shocked. Not a good idea for water lines OR gas lines IMHO. Use a copper ground rod driven onto the ground AT THE PANEL.

ME

rich pickering

Not a ground, but a bond. Two different animals.

Timco

As a sparky, we had to bond to the CW pipes at the service entry, and jumper the reg & valve. That and a ground rod made the two required electrode grounds from the service or first point of disconnect, not the panel... In the county over, we had to bond the gas lines ( blk iron) from the water lines near the water heater. That same county made us use solid vent pipes rather than flexible vent for the fart fans due to the risk of leigonairs with flex vents.

Tim

tim smith

Bonding

Here it is required that all be bonded together, waste, water, gas, then to earth & panel. Just a note. Tim