Re-routing a Bonding Jumper Wire

t60

I need some assistance with a bonding jumper wire at my house. To give some background:

I live in California in a house that's about 80 feet long, and the circuit breaker box (100 amps) is in the back of the house. At the front of the house is where my water comes in (all copper plumbing). The people that lived in this house before either hired a lazy electrician or lazy plumber to install the bonding jumper wire. This person installed this long 80 foot run along the top of my roof's fascia boards, causing all kinds of leaks due to the nailing of the conduit. It's also very difficult on the eyes with the conduit running all along the house.

I want to re-route the bonding jumper underneath my house in the crawlspace, but am not sure what kind of wire to buy. I've read a bunch of references to #8 bare copper soft drawn -- is that right? If so, is there a recommended place to buy it? The big box stores sell 250'+ for $200 and the local electrical store wants $1 a foot because I don't have an account with them. I only need 100' at the most.

Jim Port

The size of the GEC is determined by the size of your service. What size is your service?

This is not a bonding conductor, but the grounding electrode conductor.

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Answers based on the National Electrical Code. Local amendments may apply. Check with your local building officials.

t60

My breaker box is 100 amps. There is a grounding rod in front of the circuit box already connected to the breaker using #8 bare copper.

t60

And you're right, it's a GEC required by my city..

Edit: I think I found the answer from my city website

Copper: solid, stranded, bare or insulated
#8 can be used, but requires EMT/armor cable or conduit
#6 can be used and requires protection only if subject to physical damage
#4 can be used and only requires protection if subject to severe physical damage

andrew79

If there's already a grounding rod at the panel why does he need to jump on the water pipe too?

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I'm here to learn too, i do mostly commercial/industrial/new construction and this place is a great way to pick up tips on residential from some good electrical minds. Excuse the spelling, my phone has a mind of it's own.

t60

It's required by my city. There are three methods of GEC, and the water jump is required. I then have to utilize one of the two remaining methods, either a grounding rod or a ground to my slab.

Jim Port

The NEC requires a water line ground to be supplemented with another electrode.

__________________
Answers based on the National Electrical Code. Local amendments may apply. Check with your local building officials.

t60

Now that that's answered, does anyone know if I can run two grounding wires in the same conduit pipe? The #8 solid copper for the grounding rod, and a future #6 insulated wire for the plumbing?

My circuit breaker is encased in stucco, and this would save me a ton of time. Otherwise I will have to chip away at the stucco wall a bit and run some conduit through it.

jbfan

Can you pull the exsisting wire and reuse it to save you money?

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t60

I could, but honestly it won't be worth the work for me. The replacement wire will be ~$80 and the existing run is high up and pretty stiff. I may end up recycling the wire, but I don't plan on re-using it as it'll be tough to get it down in one piece.

Still wondering about using two wires in one conduit pipe..

Jim Port

No issues as long as the pipe is sized for the two conductors.

If the pipe is metallic you will need a bond bushing at the ends.

__________________
Answers based on the National Electrical Code. Local amendments may apply. Check with your local building officials.

t60

Awesome, there's one there on both ends for the grounding rod and in the service panel. Looks like I'm good to go. Thanks so much for the info!

andrew79

Another question. Does the nec require conduit fill taken into account for grounds? Here we don't have to. We are also not allowed to pull bare ground into emt.

__________________
Sarcasm is my friend
I'm here to learn too, i do mostly commercial/industrial/new construction and this place is a great way to pick up tips on residential from some good electrical minds. Excuse the spelling, my phone has a mind of it's own.

Jim Port

The NEC does allow bare grounding conductors in a conduit.

The conductors do count towards cross-sectional fill.

__________________
Answers based on the National Electrical Code. Local amendments may apply. Check with your local building officials.