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Re: [TowerTalk] bonding to AC power box or inside fuse panel?

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] bonding to AC power box or inside fuse panel?
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:19:20 -0800
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 1/21/2013 11:06 PM, Jeff Blaine wrote:
OK, some practical considerations then.

If I bond to the power meter on the exterior, they have what looks like a plastic conduit running down into the ground below grade.

You don't do ANYTHING at the power meter -- that's the Power Company's stuff. You bond to your ENTRY panel -- that is, the first thing on YOUR side of the meter.

And on the inside, I can pull the panels off and get to the mains feed ground line. Got to be careful. Or is it enough to connect to the breaker box casing? The connection between the casing and the "bus bar" for the ground is not what I would call lightning nuclear duty safe.

The electrical enclosure is required by code to be quite solidly bonded. If you care to go into the box, you can bond to the ground bus inside the panel. Just make sure you're really making contact with the panel, that there's no paint in the way. You could also bond to the wire coming from the ground rod(s), but the enclosure is better.

Also, don't assume (makes an ass of you and me) that the electrical contractor did it right. The turkey who wired my home in CA made a total mess of grounding. Everything you can think of was wrong. Study the Power and Grounding piece on my website, then do a serious inspection of it. If you're lucky, you won't have to take your shoes off to count the problems. I wasn't that lucky.

73, Jim K9YC
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