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What's Wrong Here?

Sep 4, 2008 4:21 PM, By Joe Tedesco, NEC Columnist

Hint: Politics in the electrical system

"We are installing a new UPS and PDU for the Florida Legislature," says Trey Morgan, P.E., Morgan Electric Co., Inc., Tallahassee, Fla. "We were requested to terminate our new ground bar to the existing grounding system. Then, we found this under the computer room floor. The copper water pipe has been crimped at both ends to a 3/0 grounding conductor and water pipe clamps were used to terminate the miscellaneous bonding conductors."

If the installer would have followed the requirements set forth in 250.64(C)(2), Morgan's team wouldn't have to deal with this mess.

As per 250.64(C), "Grounding electrode conductor(s) shall be installed in one continuous length without a splice or joint except as permitted in (1) and (2): "(1) Splicing shall be permitted only by irreversible compression-type connectors listed as grounding and bonding equipment or by the exothermic welding process. "(2) Sections of busbars shall be permitted to be connected together to form a grounding electrode conductor."