Old House With 'fixed' Ground

GregS

I bought a house a year ago that was built in 1953. It had an old 60A fuse [edit: not breaker] service in the basement.

One of the conditions I had for purchase was that the owners upgraded it to 100A breakers.

Well they did and the EC reported back that he did it up, replaced one line of aluminum as well as "ran a new ground line".

He pulled a bare #6 from the panel, and a bare #6 from the water main in the next room. But I guess was too lazy to pull it completely through the drop ceiling.. So he found an old 14.2 (no ground!) line, and wrapped them altogether with the #6. No clamps/bolts.

Here's a picture of what he did by the water main. I cannot show you a picture of the other end since it's INSIDE OF A DUCT. #6 in one side and 14.2 out the other.


Now I ask you... is this legal by your NEC? Because I'm pretty sure it ain't by the OESC.


I was lucky and salvaged some #6 from my last office, so I guess I'll be replacing this hack.

Also that aluminum line he replaced went to the furnace, about a 4m run in an unfinished room. Not stapled at all.

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JoeTedesco

Splicing of a GEC is permitted when of the exothermic, or irreversible compression types, but never can the splice be concealed or buried unless in a footing when connected to the electrode. UFER concrete encased electrode.

The size is based upon the size of the service entrance conductors. See 250.66 in the NEC and report the installer to the proper authorities. If you need access to the NEC look here:

NEC

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mdshunk

Since you know who this nut job is, I'd suggest that you ring him up and ask him to come over and fix that hack job. I don't know the Ontario code, but my gut feeling tells me that's not legal there either. It wouldn't fly under the NEC, as Joe explained.

GregS

The report that came to me about the upgrade was through my realtor, who got it from the sellers realtor, who got it from the seller, who is now deceased.

The whole house is somewhat of a nightmare of wiring that I have been replacing as I go along. The lack of grounds made it really difficult to plug any computers in.. and the outlets that were NEMA5-15 had grounds that went nowhere.

faber307

Did you pay for this?

GregS

No, the previous home owner had to upgrade the service to 100A breakers otherwise she wasn't going to be able to sell the house to anyone.

See my message right above yours.

EB'sSDG

250.64 Grounding Electrode Conductor Installation
Grounding electrode conductors shall be installed as specified in 250.64(A) through (F).

(C) Continuous Grounding electrode conductor(s) shall be installed in one continuous length without a splice or joint except as permitted in (1) through (4):
(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.
(3) Bonding jumper(s) from grounding electrode(s) and grounding electrode conductor(s) shall be permitted to be connected to an aluminum or copper busbar not less than 6 mm × 50 mm ( 1/ 4 in. × 2 in.). The busbar shall be securely fastened and shall be installed in an accessible location. Connections shall be made by a listed connector or by the exothermic welding process.
(4) Where aluminum busbars are used, the installation shall comply with 250.64(A)

hcecalaska

i guess one other violation you could note is that if they are using both of the #14s twisted to the #6gnd it is against nec to parallel smaller then a 1/0

rshackleford

looks good to me.

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whatley posse

rshackfleford

firemike

You'd think he would have at least put a wire nut on it...

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-Mike-

HallisseyDesign

Saving money!

firemike

Your absolutely right, 5 cents is 5 cents, just think how much not using wirenuts can save over the years. $$$$$$

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-Mike-