Ground a gas meter?

13 years ago

I am selling my home and the buyer had an inspector come and look at the house. In his notes he said the gas meter needed to be grounded.

None of the homes in my neighborhood have grounds on the gas meters. We are fed underground by plastic pipe. The plastic pipe joins to a metal pipe at the meter and from there on throughout the house the gas line is cast iron pipe.

As far as I can see there is no other grounding of the gas lines other than indirect grounding where the cast iron pipe is attached to various appliances.

The ground wires I do see going to the copper rod in the ground are attached to my breaker box, the telephone access box and the cable TV access box.

So do I get this gas meter grounded (and alert the HOA for the other homes) or suggest the inspector brush up on his electrical code?

Featured Answer

Ron Natalie

13 years ago

First off, the inspector is not completely right. Grounding and Bonding is one of the more involved sections of the electrical code. Things like gas piping don't get "grounded" they get "bonded."

The meter itself isn't required to be grounded or bonded. The question is whether the interior gas piping should be bonded. Gas piping is only required to be bonded if it is "likely to become energized." That determination is made by the local jurisdiction providing the permits/inspections NOT some presale home inspector who lacks any credentials for making that determination.

Your best bet would be to make an inquiry to the local jurisdiction if you want the true answer though sometimes the local gas company will be more responsive in guidance.

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Comments (6)

wirenut1110
13 years ago
The gas lines are grounded through the EGC of the appliance, if electric.
If any of the interior piping is done with CSST(corrugated stainless steel tubing), then the piping needs to be bonded to the GEC at the point before it enters the house with a #6.
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icucwec
Original Author
13 years ago
Appliances the gas goes to are two furnaces, a water heater and a fireplace. They are all fed by black pipe.

The feed from the street to the house is plastic, with the attached tracer wire coming out of the ground by the meter. The inspector said the tracer wire was a ground and should be connected to the meter (idiot)!
Ron Natalie
13 years ago
He is an idiot. The only provision that wire is for is to help the utility locators find it when preparing for excavation.

I disagree with Wirenut. Black pipe or corregated, there's still no strict provision to ***BOND NOT GROUND*** the pipe.
wirenut1110
13 years ago
Fuel Gas Code: 7.13.2 CSST. CSST gas piping systems shall be bonded to the electrical service grounding electrode system at the point where the gas service enters the building. The bonding jumper shall not be smaller than 6 AWG copper wire or equivalent.

Also, The equipment grounding conductor for the circuit that is likely to energize the piping shall be permitted to serve as the bonding means. The points of attachment of the bonding jumper(s) shall be accessible.

This post was edited by wirenut1110 on Wed, Jun 26, 13 at 15:42
toxcrusadr
13 years ago
I would ask the local building permit office. When we bought our (almost new) house the inspector questioned the location of the hot water heater exhaust vent, we called the City and they said it met code. End of problem.