I would like to throw this out to you all. An issue I keep running into is what size bonding wire to use to bond the hot water pipes and the cold water pipes at the water heater. This can apply to other equipment such as water filters, softeners, and other similar equipment. I have gotten many different answers however there is only one in my code book. Here is the scenario:
You are wiring an 8 unit apartment building. The service is an 800 amps fed with a lateral service of 2 sets of 500mcm cables from the utility’s transformer to the building’s 800 amp disconnect. The disconnect feeds a meter stack that holds a meter and a 125 amp breaker for each unit. Each of those breakers feed a panel in each unit with a set of #2 wires and a #6 ground. The 800 amp service is grounded with a Ufer, a couple ground rods and a bare 2/0 going to the main water line.
The water system is supplied by a 4” steel water line from the city that is greter the 10 feet long. From there it is all copper throughout the building. Each unit is fed with a ¾” waterline that splits off to feed the cold water faucets and a line goes to feed the 4500 watt electric water heater. From the water heater, the hot water is then supplied throughout the unit to the hot water faucets. This is repeated in each unit so each unit has its own water heater and each water heater has dielectric fittings.
The questions:
1. Would you bond the hot and cold water lines together?
2. If so, what size of the bonding jumper would use to include the code reference?
3. If the dielectric fittings were not in the water heater, would you still bond the two together?
If this post looks familiar, I have posted this on other message boards. I feel that is an important area that is over looked and often misunderstood.
FYI the wire sizes are correct and they do meet code.
