Light niche not bonded

[kevreh]

So happened on a thread on bonding. Realized my light niche isn’t bonded back to the equipment pad. However it is grounded via a copper rod driven into the ground by the junction box off the deep end. Should I also run a bond wire back to the equipment?

Also, in terms of grounding does the equipment need to be done so via a rod, or is the ground wire back to the feeder panel adequate? Just checking.

 

[tim5055]

How do you know it's not bonded? generally the bonding wire is attached to the back side of the metal niche housing and then is attached to the rebar in the pool shell. There is no way to see this wire unless you jackhammer the niche out of the pool wall.

 

[CJadamec]

In general ground rods are not used anywhere in a bonding system.

The electrical system ground should be connected all the way back to your main breaker panel at the house.

 

[kevreh]

Thanks for your replies Tim and Chuck. Tim, your right, it is possible that the rebar grid is connected to the niche. So I did some investigating yesterday. There's no wire from the pool pad or niche leading back to the equipment pad. So the pool rebar and niche are not bonded with the equipment. Not sure if that was acceptable when the pool was built, around the early 80's. Also, fwiw I do not have a metal railing or ladder. Only bring it up because these are common places to experience shocks.

Way I see it my only option is to connect the ground wire from the niche back to the equipment pad bond wires. Since the light niche has a junction "box" above ground its easy to get at the ground. The ground wire is connected to the brass (?) shell of the niche. IF I do this, should the ground remain connected to the ground rod by the junction box, or be disconnect and used just as a bond wire back to the pad? The light is on a GFCI breaker.