Paul Ask Paul? What Up? What Up? Everybody? This is Paul
Abernathy. Welcome to another episode of Let's Ask Paul the Podcast where I,
Paul Abernathy, answer all of your pressing, electrically code related questions that are
submitted through our Let's Ask Paul podcast portal, and that's over at Paul abernathy
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there and submit your questions. By the way, we are changing our four
romats when it comes to our fast tracks. If you haven't heard, we
have a new show that's starting on June twenty eighth, and that new show
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whole new look, whole new theme. Everything's going to look totally different.
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All right, folks, let's get into the night's episode. I have a
question. It was submitted and it's kind of right up my alley. It's
talking about grounding and bonding, and so I thought it'd be great for this
episode. So if you're the individual that's submitted this, here you go,
We're gonna take care of it for you. All right. Here's what says
says Hi Paul. I have a question about a recent install I saw being
done at a softball field. The contractor ran one inch PBC conduit underground from
the shed where the remote distribution panel is at out to the new scoreboard.
PVC was run from the panel out the wall to a PVC LB, then
transferred to rigid metal conduit that went into the ground. Then it changed over
again to PVC sweeps was attached to the RMC and continued on underground. And
of course I'm sure that was done at the other end as well, and
we'll talk about that because a couple of the problems I have with that is
you typically don't transition from PVC LB to rigid metal conduit right the tapering of
the threads of rigid and how you do you? Also how are you doing
that? And again I don't know the details, but typically a PVC it's
smooth because it's glue. You glue the raceway into it. It's listed for
PVC. So what did they do they put that? Is, if there's
an adapter out there that's a PVC LB too, rigid. Okay, I'm
not sure there maybe is, but that's the first big red flag is transitioning
from a PVC LB which is listed for use with PVC, and now you're
using it with RMC and then you're ultimately changing over again to PVC to make
that long run. Okay, all right, So that's what's at stake here.
Now, what I can tell you so far is that nothing's because the
LB turned. Nothing said that that metal elbows that they're using rigid metal conduit
elbows. Nothing said that they're lower than eighteen inches blow grade, right,
So we don't have to worry about two fifty eighty six in number the exception
number three or anything like that for the eighteen inches. And because that doesn't
sound like that's in play. If you got your code book, make sure
you pause, right, definitely want to pause. And what you want to
do is you want to go look at two fifty dot and let me get
my mouth. So we're here and I got all new equipment here, so
struggle struggling with it a little bit. Two fifty dot eighty six if you
look at it, that is for other conductor enclosures and race ways, and
you have an allowance and exception number three, item number one that would allow
you to be able to not have to bond those metal raceways and things like
that. Okay, all right, but that doesn't sound like what's going on
here. That doesn't sound like what's going on here. So what we're going
to look at for the gentleman is we're going to be looking at at two
fifty dot four. Now, two fifty dot four is the general requirements.
Okay, these are to these What we're looking at here is these are the
prescriptive methods contained in two fifty shall be followed and complied with the performance requirements
of this section, which is section four. So throughout the code your have
prescriptive things you have to do. In two fifty, you have prescriptive things
telling you what to do, and in doing that you basically meet the performance
requirements that are here in two fifty dot four. So, well one we
want to look at Obviously, this is a grounded system. So if you
have your codebooks, we want to look at two fifty dot four. A
four and a three, Now a four and a three. A three is
bonding of electrical equipment, and then of course a four is bonding of electrically
conductive material and other equipments. So let's look at A three first. Okay.
So A three says, if you have your codebook and I'll read it
till you don't worry, it says bonding of electrical equipment. It says normally
non current currying conductive materials in closing electrical conductors, okay, or equipment or
forming part of such equipment shall be connected together and to the electrical supply source
in a manner that establishes an effective ground fault current path. Okay, So
we have to all metal parts that are non current curring. This is why
we bond everything together and things like that. And then of course A four
says bonding of electrical conductive material and other equipment says normally non current carrying electrical
conductive material and obviously that's what the rigid metal conduit is, normally non current
carrying, obviously, and it's that are likely to become energized. Well,
it's housing conductors. Okay, so if you know, we'll read the next
part of this question. But I'm just kind of giving you the scope period.
It is housing these conductors shall be connected together and to the electrical supply
source in a manner that establishes an effective ground current ground fault current path.
All right, So the bigger one for me is a three. I am
required, okay if the material isn't closing conductors, which these raceways are.
Okay, the metal raceway that we're talking about, the metal portion, which
is the RMC of this installation, it has to be connected to the electrical
supply source in a manner that establishes an effective ground fault current campad right.
Okay, Well it doesn't. It's floating, it's isolating, and obviously two
fifty eighty six doesn't come into play because it's not eighteen inches below grade.
Right, So that's a problem. So let's go on and read the rest
of this question and see if we didn't answer what they wanted. Here says
my question considering that section of RMC with PBC on either side, because that
RMC is not bonded, if the wire insulation gets damaged during the pull or
the insulation broke down over time, I think this could be a potential hazard
with your knowledge of article two fifty and I'm looking for more insight on what
the NBC has to say about this type of installation. Thanks, thanks God
bless. Okay, so here's the reality. You're absolutely right. What's going
to happen is you have a raceway that is exposed to people coming in contact
with it, you get a damaged conductor. It energizes that metal small portion
of RMC, and it's not going to clear it over current device. It's
not it's not bonded. So if they did that on that end, they
need to bond that those small portions of the RMC back to the source.
Right And in this case, if they're running, obviously they're gonna have an
equipment ground that runs with it, that runs into PBC running all the way,
they have to figure out how Obviously this is inside of the race way,
so they're gonna have to do bonding jumpers outside. And again I don't
know how far it comes from that panel down, but all I can say
is above ground. That's a poor choice to use regid metal conduit above ground
and try to connect it to a PVC LB. And now you've got a
metal component that, if it gets energized, is certainly not going to clear
a breaker. It's just going to stay hot until you come in contact with
it. Okay, So You're absolutely right that as a problem. So I
would cite to fifty dot four, A three and a four, and I'm
sure we could find other references in there. But that's again, it's about
as good as you need in order to be able to tell them they're doing
and doing a little something wrong if they need to look at that right.
So hopefully you got something out of that, folks. That was a great
one that was submitted, and it wasn't a long one. I guess it's
about ten or eleven minutes we did on that podcast, but nothing else that
that really we need to do for that one. That's about it for that.
So remember, folks, if you have any questions, just go over
to Paul Aberdey dot com. Feel free to submit and we will answer them
on a podcast, maybe even during the June twenty eighth launch of fast Tracks
Live, or in an email. Thanks again, folks, So next time,
stays safe, God bless as ask