Hello, I discovered this weekend that I have a broken bond wire on the handrail anchors. I have a cut on my hand and when I grabbed the handle with my feet in the water I got a slight shock. I ran a temporary wire from the bonding loop to the hand rail and the shock did not exist. So now I have to figure out a way to install a new bonding wire to the anchor cast in concrete. The anchor is about 5 feet from the edge of the concrete so not sure if I can fish the wire under ground to the anchor. Once I diagnosed it to the be a bad bonding wire I started trying to figure out where the electrical leak is coming from. I finally killed all power to the house by tripping the main house breaker. My main breaker for the house is mounted directly beside the power meter. With everything off I am still getting the leak in the pool. Is it common for underground power to have a slight leak? If it's leaking before the meter, would it be the power companies responsibility to find and fix? Just looking for suggestions on what my next step should be? First thing is getting the bonding wire fixed!
Electricity Leakage question?
- Thread starter joshua5438
- Start date
Stray voltage can come from many sources, it may not be your house, it could be something in a neighbor's yard or even a larger issue related to the power grid and undersized neutral wiring they used for years that can not handle harmonics produced by switching power supplies used today - in most cases the bonding grid becomes attached to the grounding conductor of the electrical service and therefore connected to the electrical grid allowing those harmonics to backfeed. The point of the bonding grid, to ensure that everything around the pool that may potentially be a point of contact by a person who is touching the water will be at the same potential voltage. It's like the bird on the wire, even though there are thousands of volts in that wire, the bird is safe because the bird is at the same potential as the wire with no path to something with a lower electrical potential. If all of the parts of the pool are bonded then you remove the potential voltage difference between parts and therefore the will never be a current generated through someone completing the circuit.
Ok. I completely agree with your comment but here is my thought process and what I think you are getting at... just to make sure I am correct....
I found the issue with the broken bond at the handrail. I will replace the bonding wire so that everything will be back at the same potential. Once everything in/around the pool is properly bonded I am now safe to use the pool as normal. The voltage leak in still in the ground but out of my control at this point (just a side note, the house was built in 1980 so no telling what has been modified/changed or originally installed by the power company). Should I pursue the issue with the power company or just tell myself it's a common thing and move on?
I found the issue with the broken bond at the handrail. I will replace the bonding wire so that everything will be back at the same potential. Once everything in/around the pool is properly bonded I am now safe to use the pool as normal. The voltage leak in still in the ground but out of my control at this point (just a side note, the house was built in 1980 so no telling what has been modified/changed or originally installed by the power company). Should I pursue the issue with the power company or just tell myself it's a common thing and move on?
The power company will probably tell you it's an issue with your pool, they'll never admit to anything 
There has been debate about the connection of the bonding grid to the equipment grounding conductors in various forms going on. Usually the connection between the 2 is inadvertent and indirect, for example on my pool the Hayward panel has a bonding lug on the outside and an equipment ground bus bar on the inside, since the equipment ground bar is connected to the steel case, the bonding grid and equipment grounding conductors are now linked. Add in the backfeeding from the electric company via the equipment grounding conductor and that is where you can get your voltage potential differential between unbonded metal parts. When you turn off the main 'breaker' for the house, the connection to the EC "neutral" still exists so that doesn't change the potential for harmonics to play a role.
Fix your bonding wire and you should be good to go, the bonding requirements for metal parts has existed since before 1980. To be sure you can use a volt meter with one lead connected to the bonding grid and take the other lead to all of the various metal parts, pumps, filters, etc and to pool water itself to validate the integrity of the bonding connections.
There has been debate about the connection of the bonding grid to the equipment grounding conductors in various forms going on. Usually the connection between the 2 is inadvertent and indirect, for example on my pool the Hayward panel has a bonding lug on the outside and an equipment ground bus bar on the inside, since the equipment ground bar is connected to the steel case, the bonding grid and equipment grounding conductors are now linked. Add in the backfeeding from the electric company via the equipment grounding conductor and that is where you can get your voltage potential differential between unbonded metal parts. When you turn off the main 'breaker' for the house, the connection to the EC "neutral" still exists so that doesn't change the potential for harmonics to play a role.
Fix your bonding wire and you should be good to go, the bonding requirements for metal parts has existed since before 1980. To be sure you can use a volt meter with one lead connected to the bonding grid and take the other lead to all of the various metal parts, pumps, filters, etc and to pool water itself to validate the integrity of the bonding connections.
Thanks dloki! That makes me feel better. I actually had the same question when it came to my automation panel. It seems to contradict what other say about the bonding and grounding being linked. I do have a few questions now...
Should the bonding wire be a bare #8 wire or shielded? I know I used a bare wire when I updated my equipment pad earlier this year but that was for a short run of wire. To get the ladder bonded I will need about 100 feet of wire to get back to the equipment pad (the only place I have found the actual bonding wire).
What setting should I use to test with a meter? I have seen it done but not sure what needs to be used.
I also installed a junction box for the light and noticed it does not have a bonding wire attached to the light niche. From what I have read, the niche needs a #8 wire from the niche to the plastic J-box. That is where the wire ends and the J-box is not bonded or grounded to anything. Does that sound correct to you? Update... just did more research and this is the correct way to connect the internal lug on the light niche.
Should the bonding wire be a bare #8 wire or shielded? I know I used a bare wire when I updated my equipment pad earlier this year but that was for a short run of wire. To get the ladder bonded I will need about 100 feet of wire to get back to the equipment pad (the only place I have found the actual bonding wire).
What setting should I use to test with a meter? I have seen it done but not sure what needs to be used.
I also installed a junction box for the light and noticed it does not have a bonding wire attached to the light niche. From what I have read, the niche needs a #8 wire from the niche to the plastic J-box. That is where the wire ends and the J-box is not bonded or grounded to anything. Does that sound correct to you? Update... just did more research and this is the correct way to connect the internal lug on the light niche.