Electrical Question

[Starplex]

They did a 360 perimeter ground (bare #6 copper) tied to the deck rebar and carried it back to the equipent pad. Attached it to each piece of equipment and then terminated it on my end pump motor. Shouldn't it leave the end pump and then go into the control box to the ground bus? The pump has a normal ground that was run with the two hots on to the hook up of the motor, thus I guess theoritically it is carried back to the ground bus. However, I thought the #6 bare copper should also be carried to the ground bus in the Jandy control box. When I question the electrician on this he said that it should not go to the ground bus, but stay just how it is??? :?:

What is the correct way to do it? It is easy enough to add 4ft of wire to carry it to the bus if needed, but I'm unsure if it should be or not. I assume I shouldn't just add another ground rod at the equipment pad. (I don't think code allows that anyway.) Help!

 

[poolvibe]

If its bonded to the motor it is in effect attached to the ground bus...

 

[linen]

That wire is not a ground it is a bonding wire. Your bonding wire/grid should not be attached directly to your ground. Bonding is separate from grounding. Bonding is to keep the water, deck, pump and anything else metal near the pool at the same equipotential. Google pool bonding verses grounding for more info. To me, it sounds like yours is hooked up right.

 

[Starplex]

thanks guys, i appreciate the info.

 

[JasonLion]

This is different in the US and Canada. In Canada the bonding wire must connect back to the electrical panel ground, but in the US it is not normally connected to ground intentionally, though it is often connected to ground indirectly (through the pump chassis, or lighting niche, for example).

 

[linen]

This is different in the US and Canada. In Canada the bonding wire must connect back to the electrical panel ground, but in the US it is not normally connected to ground intentionally, though it is often connected to ground indirectly (through the pump chassis, or lighting niche, for example).

Good to know. I wonder why it is done that way in Canada? Seems like you are forcing equipotential over a larger area...I guess that is not bad since it is effectively happening inside the pump,etc...in fact, the more I think about it, it makes some sense?

 

[Bama Rambler]

If your Jandy control box has a bonding lug on it then the bonding loop should be extended to it, but not necessarily to the ground conductor (unless you're in Canada).

 

[JasonLion]

There are thousands of different ways for things to go wrong. Each way the bonding wire could be setup makes some of them safer and others more dangerous. No choice is perfect, so different regulatory bodies pick different tradeoffs. There are many many failure cases to work through. Discussing them all here is impractical.

To give just one example: Grounding the bonding wire increases the chances that ground currents will flow through the grounding/bonding system, potentially creating corrosion which could lead to the failure of both systems and in severe cases overheating and sparks. Grounding systems should ideally only be connected to the ground in one place to avoid this possibility. Remember that many of the other failure cases work out the other way, so don't act on this example taken alone.

 

[marksatex]

So we are in midst of our build... What is the most effective questions I shoukld be asking the pb to be sure we are done right ? The City (San Antonio) inspector was unhappy the PB gunited before he checked electrical- steel signed off all ok- Inspector told me the ground was probably done right but he will ask that some gunite be removed to show the ground was done right... This sounds like a major screwup to me....