grounding boiler system

John_11

First of all, I want to thank you for this helpful site. I appreciate all the help you have given me.


My heating job is just about done, but I have one other question....GROUND? Do I need to ground my heating system? My domestic water from the street is grounded and since my hot water boiler is tied to my water line I would think my heating system is grounded too. Is this correct or do I still have to ground my heating system. If I do have to ground my system can I just connect my water ground to one of my hot water pipes off the boiler? Or connect it to the boiler, where? Thank you very much for your help. John, Vermont

Oh yah, one other thing. I want to put in a light near the boiler (for any need of service), so it can just be controlled from a pull chain and not the main basement lights needing to find where the switch up the stairs to the first floor. Where do you think the best place to put the light so where it is getting service the light is best of use? Will 2 lights help more? I could put a seperate switch at the bulkhead boor in the basement to turn on the boiler lights. Note the fireomatic is directly under the burner so I cannot go there. What do you think. Thanks again.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Lighting & Grounding

Grounding has me so damned confused anymore that I won't comment other than to say that grounding to protect electronic equipment, etc. from lightning seems to be at odds with grounding to prevent shocks.

Lighting is another matter. USE FLUORESCENT! Two compact fluorescent bulbs (one on either side of boiler) would be utterly ideal--few shadows, little heat.

hr

The electronics

on some equipment is very sensitive to ground. I had quite a time with my first Munchkin install, with an elusive ground. I finally drove a ground stake in the crawl space for my own use. Maybe the electrican had a loose connection somewhere, who knows, sure was an intermittent hassle.

I think the new Munchkin board will address this and not be polarity sensitive either.

A nice fluorescent fixture and a convience outlet is good to have near the equipment. Fluoescent bulbs are also available for screw in bulb holders also, they last much longer than incandesent especially through the construction phase

I think most electrical code requires a light and receptable in mechanical rooms.

hot rod

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Gary Fereday

Grounding?


Get un confused real quick! It could save your life! Look at it this way! Power plants use only one wire to send electricity to you! That is a fact! the other wire is the earth itself! that is a fact! If you get between the wire and the earth (ground) you are a gonner!. Now the extra ground wire is to prevent that from happening! If the plumbing, heating is electrically connected to earth (ground) you can touch it! if not you could get zapped if you become the wire of that connection! Since water mains and underground water systems have so much earth contact, Pipes are used to ground homes. Plastic mains and pipes have become popular, so an electrical ground (6>8 ft copper clad iron) rod is driven into the earth and the wireing is connected to it! appliances with only two pronged plugs are either very old (unsafe) or electrically isolated to absolutely prevent you from being a ground to it! The small side of the plug prong is the hot wire inlet to the appliance. the large one is the neutral (ground intended) one. The third longer round is a secondary ground, in case the neutral fails. It also makes the rest of the appliance safe to touch! BE Safe know about grounding electrically! bigugh

John_11

So....Do I need to ground my boiler? If so connect where to where. Tap on the water ground line and connect to one of my hot water heating pipes ot the boiler itself? Or is my unit already grounded. I still do not know if My setup is ok or not. If my water line is grounded I would think my heating system is grounded too! TRUE?

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Been there...

...separate ground rod for a particularly sensitive piece of equipment, but I believe it's a complete no-no. I believe stray, very low-level currents in the main house ground can cause problems.

That's where I get confused.

For lightning protection, all I read tells me that it's imperative that ALL grounds (even such things as gutters, etc. if you're doing a really thorough job) have an unobstructed path to to the exact same point (the ground rod bonded to the breaker box with metal piping in the house bonded to breaker box and thus the ground rod).

If the grounds do not share a common path to the same point during a lighting strike, the potential difference between them can be so great that the "high" ground jumps to the "low" and anything in between is toast.

Art Pittaway_2

Basic electricity 101

115/230/60/1...You should have 3 wires to power your boiler. Black is hot, white is neutral, bare or metal conduit is ground. You should be able to check them with a meter. If you don't understand completely what goes on between the utility pole and the device your wiring. Get qualified help or study a good textbook on residential wiring. The other comments about it being worth your life and the lives of loved ones or customers is no joke.

Dana Zaichkin

Agree

The principle purpose of grounding is to protect your life in the event a piece of conductive material becomes inadvertantly energized, which could include equipment, ductwork, plumbing, etc. Yes, the standard is that all grounding conductors run uninterupted to the common building ground and are sized adequately for the potential flow. Many older structures are inadequately grounded - often relying on metalic plumbing for the ground which has been interrupted by plastic repair components and/or dielectric unions

Best regards & be safe out there

DZ

Jed_2

NO!

You're Boiler does not need to be grounded. Your Dedicated Boiler Safety circuit and power supply to the burner and control circuit should have it's own 15 Amp Power Supply from the Main Panel, which is Earth Grounded. Right?

Jed

mike glass

grounding

Hi all!!
We always have the electrician run an insulated ground in addition to a "bare" ground which we bond to our corra-clad or MC Lite conduit. In older homes we drill through the concrete floor close to the footing and drive an eight foot grounding rod in order to provide protection to our control boards. We did this after losing three control panels in an older home! In our area with backfill and rocky clay, the primary ground is usually the water service line when the ground rod gets dry!!!
Hey hotrod! Give me a holler sometime as I am located in Columbia, MO. I'd like to chat with you some.

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John_11

That's Right!

Thank you for my confirmation.
John

Frank_3

I'm confused about your question, so maybe we're even. :-)

a) The boiler, circulators, and control equipment must all be serviced by a direct, dedicated feed from the circuit breaker panel. There must be a shut-off switch located in the boiler room that is clearly visible and easy to reach.

b) That direct feed, like all other modern wiring, will bring with it a ground wire. Sometimes called an "equipment ground", that ground wire should be connected to all metallic equipment boxes, chassis, etcetera which typically have a ground screw for just such a purpose.

c) In addition to the boiler equipment feed, there's supposed to be another receptacle within 25 feet of the boiler equipment which is not connected to the boiler electrical feed. This is so that service technicians have a place to plug in things when they turn off the boiler shut off switch. Lighting has to be provided such that when servicing the equipment the light falls on the equipment and is not behind the technician, casting a shadow on the work area.

d) Code requires that a ground wire be attached to the cold water pipe as close to its point of entry into the house as possible. That ground wire goes to the breaker panel, and from there another wire "bonds" that panel to a ground rod buried outside the house. The ground feed from the electrical service (big, fat wire) is also bonded to the outside ground rod. If there is more than one ground rod servicing the house (for example, sometimes antennas will have their own ground rod) they must all be connected together with nothing smaller than a 6 gauge wire.

e) Since some hot water heaters don't have a continuous connection between the cold water inlet and hot water outlet pipes, code also requires that a "bonding jumper" be connected between the cold and hot water pipes. This is done, typically, with one clamp on each pipe near the water heater and a ground wire connecting the clamps (the wire is again to be no smaller than 6 gauge).

f) In addition, if during servicing of the boiler or other equipment it is possible break the continuous ground protection of the cold or hot water piping, another bonding jumper is required to be installed at that point.

g) The principal behind all this, as has been pointed out, is safety and continuity of the ground path. As an example, sometimes folks need a ground connection and if there happens to be a pipe passing by in the area where they're working they connect to that and say, "I'm grounded!" Well, they might not be if all the bonding hasn't been maintained at points where the hot or cold water pipes enter and exit equipment, or where equipment has been removed for servicing.

h) The National Electrical Code isn't all that frightening for all that it accomplishes. You may want to pick up a copy of "Electrical Wiring Residential" by Ray Mullin (make sure it's the edition based on the 2002 electrical code). It's an easy to read book which goes over residential code requirements room-by-room, including the boiler room.

i) When in doubt, find your local friendly licensed electrician and ask him/her to check your work.

Earthfire

conductors( as in wires)

The NEC defines Conductors (wires) as Non-grounded (HOT), Grounded ( neutral), and grounding ( ground) The groundED and groundING conductors MAY NOT be connected together except at the main entrance panel.The Neutral is a current carrying conductor. Thats why a GFCI trips if you short neutral to ground. The grounding path of your supply piping is interupted by pipe dope, Teflon tape, and if properly installed by the gaskets on the backflow preventer and any dielectric unions. Solder is also NOT a legal means of joining GroundING conductors. The spiral jacket on MC cable is not a legal grounding conductor over six ft. in lenght. That green wire is the code accepted grounding conductor. If you are relying on the metal supply pipe for grounding, when you disconnect the pressure reducing valve , or any other other component, for service you become the grounding path .DO you want to be the Ground Rod? Run a grounding ( Bonding) conductor (green or bare) from your supply ,return ,hot & cold potable water lines back to the ground bar in the panel.Use one wire and run it thru all the clamps. Grounding clamps for all sizes of pipe are readily available. By the way pull in a grounding conductor wire to the junction box on the burner . A lot of the boiler manufacturers don't bother but there is a reason why the burner manufacters put that connector in their junction box and its not because they want to spend extra money for the heck of it. Remember Codes are the MINIMUM acceptable way to install or build anything.

Earthfire

From NEC

In paragraph 250.52 (A) (1) it states " Interior metal water piping located more then 1.52m ( 5ft) from the point of entrance to the building shall not be used as a a part of the grounding electrode system or as a conductor tointerconnect electrodes that are part of the grounding electrode system.