ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area burial depth - GEC

Rarely do I have a water line for a GE... Usually PVC or black plastic, sometimes I have copper pipe to bond to but not as a GE, but that's about it.

Two ground rods on about 15 to 25' of #4 bare solid Cu... Don't think we can get stranded bare here but I've used it in Wisconsin where we had to go to the water line and to two rods with an unspliced GEC...

Solid does stay put better once in place.

Virgil,

I'm not sure I understand this concept of "staying in place."

If you've properly secured this wire movement shouldn't be a problem. I get a lot of homeowners on this one & generally hand them some staples or straps so they can fix it. 250.64(B)

Can you get a delivery from State Electric? I know they carry stranded. I use stranded to keep out the kinks and it is a whole lot easier to pull through drilled holes in basement ceiling joists.

#4 is required here for a 200a service. Now what do you guys think about if you use conduit (for cosmetic purposes) bonding the conduit on each end to the wire to prevent it from becoming a choke if it was used.

Thanks, everyone. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who feels that this is one of those points of Code that are open to interpretation.

FWIW, I usually try to get the #4 down at least 12" deep, figuring that that'll keep it out of the way of a roto-tiller or lawn aerator.

Smurf, why use metallic conduit? Schedule 80 is the way to go. But if you do use IMC or GRC, bond it at BOTH ends.

Cliff