[simonmax]

Hi,

My gas water heater is connected with three wires as shown in the picture.

First question, why there are three ground wires? I see all of three wires as grounding wire. Correct me if i am wrong. IS it just that they didn't remove old grounding wire and added a new one when we replaced heater 5 yrs ago.

Second, these wires are coming in my way where i am planning to have garage attic access. I can move and run these wire by another joist to solve my problem but can i run those in PVC conduit?

Appreciate all your help.

Thanks
Sam

 

[jmon]

Hard to say what they did or why. Not unusual. only guesses, something needed grounding. Best to follow each one and see where it goes. If it goes to a electrical panel, I would leave it alone and consult an electrician on an alternate way of grounding.

 

[dj3]

Can't see much in your single pic.
We need to see where these wires go to.
I'm not an electrician, just a retired builder, but normal grounding should include a wire from the cold supply to the WH to the hot pipe and then to an iron pipe like gas pipe.

 

[AllanJ]

If the water heater uses electricity, say, for a vent blower, and that electrical connection is correctly wired to today's standards including groudigng then no additional grounding is needed for the water heater.

Otherwise you run a ground wire (a bonding jumper) from the water heater frame or shell to the ground wire that goes from the electrical panel to a ground rod or to a metal water pipe within 5' of where that pipe exits the house underground.

You also run a bonding jumper as mentioned previously between the cold inlet and hot outlet of the water heater.

The pipe nipples on the top of the water heater may or may not bond the water heater to the rest of the plumbing. Some nipples, called dielectric nipples, are not electrically conductive and it is not easy to distinguish them from ordinary nipples.

Then you can ignore the wires you pointed out.

Ground wires, too, need to be protected from physical damage. One method is running thrm through PVC or Wiremold (tm) or other conduit where they are likely to be bumped into, or hit by a vacuum cleaner nozzle, or have clothes hung on them, etc.

(I have chosen not to include here fifteen more sentences each beginning with "if" which when followed might exempt you from the need to run the bonding jumpers described preceding.)