Speaker 2: What's up, everybody.
Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of Let's Ask Paul, the podcast
where you get to ask me Paul Abernathy anything you
want about the National Electrical Code of course, all things
electrically related. So this episode today, I want to get
this out of the way. This episode today is sponsored
by Electrical Code Academy directly and that is for our
retail products. So if you want shirts, hats, anything from
aster electricians, Journeyman electricians, customized products, engraved products, all those
good things, do me a favor, go over to fasttrackssystem
dot com. Course, the link will be down in the
description and over there you'll see we have a shop
and in that shop we have some really cool products.
And if you don't see something that you want, let
us know. We'll make sure we get it. And there
are some products that can be customized. So if you
want to have something customized, check it out. Just go
again over to fast tracks. That's t R a X
by the way system dot com. All right, check it out. Okay,
with that said, let's go on and get into today's topic.
So I have a couple of questions that we're asked today.
Hopefully we can bring some additional clarity to these questions
and get that answered for you. Right, let's see what
we got first of the on the agenda today. Okay,
So the first one says, Hey, Paul, former fast track
student here, had a question on two fifty one zero
four a metal water piping systems. I guess systems means
both cold and hot. I've always just bonded the cold
side and never had a problem. Recently was called out
by a city inspector here in San Antonio for not
bonding the hot water pipe.
Speaker 2: Okay, and that's where you left the question off.
Speaker 1: So what we're gonna do is, again, if you've got
your codebooks. If not, pause this audio podcast, grab your codebook.
We're gonna be looking at the codebook. I'm gonna be
breaking it down for you, explaining what we mean as
far as the NEC is by system. For example, small
little piece of pipe from the point of entry to
let's say, which is over to PVC right there at
the beginning as it comes in the house.
Speaker 2: Is not a system.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's just a small portion of facilitate from the
underground coming in to the actual system that's going all
through the house, which may be PVC so in this case,
not sounds like it's copper everywhere so or something of
that nature. So just remember when we say system, we're
talking about the system of the building, not a small segment.
So if I had little pieces of metal piping somewhere,
that wouldn't constitute a system. Right, Get that out of
the way first, and then well, of course we'll go
look at the code. Okay, So you've got your codebooks,
and as I said, we're going to migrate to two
fifty one zero four A, and we're in the twenty
twenty three edition of the NEC one because I know it,
he said, San Antonio, So that is Texas. So they
are definitely on the twenty twenty three. But remember, folks,
in future, if you're se ME requests, please let me
know what edition of the NEC you're working out of,
because there are changes from cycle to cycle, and we
want to make sure that the information that I give
you is the most accurate for where you're writing your
question from. It just so happens this one, San Antonio, Texas,
So I understand what's being asked here. And in this case,
it wouldn't change anything at all on the application because
that has not changed in cycles. So again, whether you're
in the twenty seventeen, twenty twenty, or twenty twenty three,
this information is going to be the same.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So two fifty one zero four, which is titled Bonding
of piping Systems and Exposed structural Metal. Now we're not
going to be dealing with the exposed structural metal in
this question. We're going to deal with the metal water piping.
So under a it says the metal water piping system
shall be bonded as you're acquired in two fifty one
zero four, A one, A two, or A three. Okay,
so the metal water piping system A one. It says
metal water piping system installed in or attached to a
building or structure shall be bonded to any of the following.
Of course, it gives you a list four different items.
Speaker 2: Here. You can bond it.
Speaker 1: To the service equipment enclosure, so if you knew that
or not, but you can go straight from that metal
water pipe system and run it back to what we
run it all the way back to the service equipment
enclosure and of course sizing of these you get the instructions.
Speaker 2: After the four list items.
Speaker 1: Okay, talking about table two fifty one, zero, two c one, YadA, YadA, YadA.
You get all that, but at this point, let's just
focus on the act that's being asked in the question.
Speaker 2: All right, so.
Speaker 1: You get the second location that could you you could
take a metal water piping system two and be compliance
with the bonding is take it to the grounded conductor
at the service at the service, not a remote distribution
at the service. The third is you could take it
to the grinding electrode conductor for that service provided is
a sufficient size. So as long as its size meets
the requirements for the bonding jumper that's later in the
after item number four, then you could do that. And
then of course the fourth item is one or more
grinding electrodes used if the grounding electrode conductor or bonding
jumper to the grounding electrode is of sufficient size. Okay,
so you have multiple options here to bond that metal
water piping system. Now the question was raised, do you
do the cold water at the hut water well. That's
going to entirely depend on the continuity of your connection.
In other words, if you have a cold water pipe
and it goes to a water heater and then it
goes through a dielectric union over too, So there is
no intimate connection between the metal piping on the cold
water side as it is on the hot water side.
Then you would have to jumper those two together. You
wouldn't just stop it bonding the cold if you're not
also making a connection to the warm side. Remember now
that warm side of the water heater is going out
in the system, the water piping system to the hot
side of all your fausets and whatnot, no different than
the cold side is. And so in many cases you
may in your system somewhere have this intimacy of the
piping system through a manifold, through something that connects both
the hot and cold together, so that basically forget that
it's hot and cold. It's the metal water piping side
system regardless of being hot or cold. Now, if you
can't ensure that there is some type of continuity or
unity between the cold side and the hot side, then
what most people do is they will just do it
at the most convenient location. If that system happens to
be a metal water piping system, then they'll just go
to the cold water pipe and then jump over to
the hot water pipe and be done.
Speaker 2: With it.
Speaker 1: That way, you don't have to worry about whether or
not this is taking place at any of the falsets
or anywhere else in the system, right because you can
get into those arguments with the inspector and they're like,
prove it. So rather than get into the weeds of that,
just do it right there.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Some people say, well, what if it's PVC and all
I have is stub ups of copper pipe for example,
hot and cold? Do I have to bond those? Absolutely not.
Those little pieces do not constitute a piping system right now.
If you don't believe me, then one of the things
you can do is again it's kind of like getting
an informal interpretation, is it goes into detail in Link now.
Link is a product by NFPA. Years ago we did PDFs,
they're gone now now we use Link. I love it
better than using PDFs. People might think it's not as convenient,
but I think it is because basically I've got Link
on everything, my home computer, my phones, my tablets. You
pay for the annual subscription and you take it anywhere
with You can't get any better than that, and you're
helping support NFPA, And so they're the ones that'll bring
all this information together and publish it for your ease
of being able to have access to it. That's you know,
they got to get paid for that. So now if
you look at the enhanced content, it says very clearly,
and I'm going to read this to you now at
the end, this is no different interpretation than I may
have that somebody else may have. But when you get
somebody that's been doing this for thirty eight plus years
and you get NFPA and we agree on something, then
there's a high probability that it's accurate. So here's what
it says. It says bonding a metal water piping system
is not the same as using the metal water piping
system as a grounding electrode. That is very true. Remember,
the water piping system, whether it's running on the side
of the building, outside on the building, or comes into
the building, or it's running through the building, is not
the same as the metal water piping that may be
out in the ground that qualifies ten feet or more
in contact with you Earth two fifty fifty two A one.
There's a big difference between that right in what we're
dealing with when it comes to a metal water piping system, right,
big difference.
Speaker 2: So this is a bonding requirement. So if you have PVC,
then you ignore this.
Speaker 1: If you have little pieces of metal that's interposed, okay,
and interposed if you've heard that word means that you
could have plastic, then you put in metal and then
it changes back over to plastic. The link of run
was plastic, but you interposed metal by putting it in
the plastic run.
Speaker 2: Okay, So think of it that way.
Speaker 1: That small portion, that small isolated section, okay, is not
going to constitute a water piping system, and it's not
required to be subject to the requirements of two fifty
one zero four A. Those isolated sections are not a
metal water piping system. A metal water piping system would
be a complete metal water piping systems. My mom's old house,
my mom and dad's house that had galvanized piping, that
was a metal water piping system. Today you can get
some that are all copper. That's a metal water piping system.
PVC is not. The fittings. May they be metal, that
is not constitute a metal water piping system. And obviously
you don't bond to PVC, although you'd be surprised at
what I see on social media when people try to
bond TVC for some god awful reason. But no, you
don't have to go running around the house trying to
bond small isolated sections in your water piping system that
may be metal. It's the system in totality, okay, now,
and any bonding jumper through the water piping system is
all those sizes based on two fifty one zero two
C one is not required to be larger than three
copper or two point fifty aluminum or copper cloud aluminum
if you choose to use that. So we do have
sizing instructions. We're given those in two fifty one zero
two A one underneath that. So at the end of
the day, No, you don't run around and bond all
these isolated metal piping parts that are in a piping system. Okay,
if it's PVC and you just have some isolated metal pieces,
don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: It's not a deal, not a big deal.
Speaker 1: If it's all copper, then you have to bond the
water piping systems. So the key for you in answering
your question is if you're going to cold water, you
have to be assured that the hot side is also bonded.
Now you can do that with a continuity tester. You
can show the inspector this continuity test all those type
of things. If you have the hot water side and
it's all copper, let's say, and you have the hot
water side right next to the cold water, and you're
already going to be bonding the cold water, dude, it
might be just in your best interest to just keep
on running it through that clamp and go over and
put another clamp on the hot water.
Speaker 2: That way, you don't have.
Speaker 1: To worry because remember, the water piping system constitutes not
just the cold side, but the hot side as well.
And again going to the cold side, if you're relying
on it to simply go through the water heater, then
there's a high probability that the hot side is not
intimate with the cold side. So unless it's becoming intimate
through fixtures on the plumbing, and you'd have to verify that.
I tell people, look, it may or may not. I
don't really get into the makeup of all the different
types of fixtures, the plumbing fixtures, the manifolds.
Speaker 2: I don't get into that. I'm not a plumber.
Speaker 1: As an electrician, I can only do what I think,
and my thought is if it's all metal and I'm
going to the cold water, if the hot water is
right there, you bet your ass, I'm gonna jump over
to it.
Speaker 2: And in that way I.
Speaker 1: Remove any question from anybody for compliance to two fifty
one zero four A. I'm just getting it out of
the way. As I tell people all the time, you do,
you boo. But at the end of the day, I
have to know at some point that there is another
intimate connection somewhere on that metal order piping system that's
going to make my direct connection to both the hot
and cold water sides irrelevant. And the only way to
do that is to show it, don't assume it, and
if you're in doubt, then work it out, and that
means going and run it to both. All right, hopefully
I've answered your question now. The reason you may have
gotten away with it before because maybe the inspector knows
that there was an intimate contact somewhere. There's redundancy somewhere
that maybe it's through the manifolds or through the fixtures
itself or something, and they're assuming that, I guess, and
they're not giving you a problem. The problem is you
ran into an inspector who says, show me, and again,
every jurisdiction is a little different. San Antonio is a
bit presnickty. So you know what I would just you know,
I'd say, okay, well, I've never had to do it
anywhere else. If you can show continuity from one side
to the other, and easy to do this right there
at the location. Just take your probe and continuity and
touch one to the cold water pipe and one to
the hot and if it rings out, then you know
somewhere in the system they're intimate. If it's not, then
it went in doubt. Bond it out. Dude, I made
that up right on the fly, went in doubt, bonded out.
Speaker 2: How do you like that?
Speaker 1: All right? Hopefully answered that question for you. But again
remember small little sections of metal piping in a plastic
system does not constitute you having to bond all these
damn little parts. Okay, let's get that out of the way.
And if you don't believe me again, just go to
link that's put out by n FPA, and then the
enhanced content basically tells you that word for word. All right,
what's the next question for today? Let's see here it says, Hey, Paul,
been listening to your podcasts and watching your videos for years.
I decided to get my license, and now I need
to know how to study the way that you study.
What advice can you give me? Okay, folks, on the
prospect of the fact that this is going to sound
let's see here like a commercial, you know, one of
those things. I am going to say what I always say.
No matter who you use to study the National Metrical Code,
you can waste a shitload of time by simply thumbing
through the NEC and thinking that you're studying what's going
to be on the exam when you really have no
clue what is going to be on an exam. So
the only way to raise your odds of success, which
ultimately you will be successful even if you're studying on
your own, it just takes you multiple attempts, frustration, probably
a lot more money than necessary. God sakes, folks, do
not do these cram courses that you pay one thousand
bucks for a weekend or something like it. God's sakes,
please don't do that. You can spend a third of
that and truly learn the and since our courses don't
expire when it comes to the twenty twenty or the
twenty twenty three. It's almost like you always have a
consultant in your pocket because of our new fast Tracks
Interact feature that we have on our on our products.
Say it's only available on the twenty twenty and twenty
twenty three products, but look, I encourage you to get
a structured study plan, something that's going to at the
least walk you through units from the beginning, giving you
a little bit of history of the NEC.
Speaker 2: And when we say.
Speaker 1: Front matter, we mean the front couple pages of the NEEC.
Understanding that what code cycles, of why they've went to
three year cycles, they didn't always be that way, Learning
a little bit about the history of NFPA, a little
bit about the history of the NEEC, because you never
know what's going to be on an exam. So we
take you from the beginning and we walk you through
nineteen units. We give you competency reviews to check yourself.
If you struggle with these reviews, you need to stop
dropping baby right back into the program again and reread
the material. At any point there's something you don't understand
or it's not clear, then use the fast Tracks Interact feature.
Cut and paste it right in there, take a picture
of it if you want screen capture, PLoP it in
there and you will get an answer from me. Uh
and maybe other students will chime in as well, so
that you all can learn together. That's the beautiful thing
about our Fast Tracks Interact feature course. You can always
go to Paul Abernathy dot com and send us an
email as well. If you're in the twenty seventeen editions
of our programs. That's the only way you can interact
with us that way. They don't have fast Tracks Interact
on the twenty seventeen products. But at the end of
the day, you really need a structured program to truly
learn the NEC, whether it's mine or somebody else's. The
first question you you'd be asking is is this a
structured plan? Do you systematically walk me through the beginning
of the NEC all the way to the most impertinent
articles that I need to be aware of for exam
prep and along the way do you teach me calculations?
Will I be able to do a single family dwelling
whether it's a standard or optional method?
Speaker 2: What about a multifamily dwelling?
Speaker 1: Well I learned how to do a commercial building does
your program walk me through those steps? Do they have
forms that have code references on them so that as
I'm working the examples, I can fill in the blanks
and read the code references and go in and out
of the codebook, into the course material, into the codebook.
Speaker 2: Does your program have that?
Speaker 1: If they say no, you need to run and check
out our fast tracks program. It was designed. It is
a unique system. We're not recreating the wheel here. It's
code is code. You've heard me say this over and
over again. Code is code, but we do it in
a specific way and we support it in a specific
way so that you not only get the answers you
need from us, but also you have a more palatable
way to learn a very dry.
Speaker 2: Subject, which is the code. It's dry.
Speaker 1: We try to give you ways, good graphics to be
able to learn that process. Anyway, folks, that's all I've
got today. Hopefully I answers your question. Good luck no
matter who you're using. And again, we also have database
questions if you just want questions to supplement a program
that you may already have. Maybe just need some questions
now to hone your skills because you've already been through
a program we got you covered. We got that as well.
And maybe you want something that covers a wider gammut.
Maybe you're already licensed and you just want to have
a consultant in your pocket. Well that's our mastering the
NEC program. It's like having a consultant right in your pocket.
It now also has the fast tracks Interact feature. So again,
beautiful thing. You can learn the NEC code with me,
and I am here to teach you the NEC.
Speaker 2: All right, folks, all.
Speaker 1: Right till next time, Stay safe, God bless and again,
if you need anything, all you got to do is
go to Paul Abernathy dot com, submit your question and
I would do my best to get an answer for you.
Speaker 2: Take care, God bless both askeball booth both asking basketball
Speaker 1: No thing bo