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| water tank grounding | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Wed Jul 28th, 2010 03:12 pm |
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1st Post |
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suki Member
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I was curious if the tank in my new,uninstalled American water heater was isolated electrically from the gas connection. It is not, which means that the tank will always be at ground potential even if the water lines are connected with insulated dielectrics. The question is whether, in an ideal world, there is any advantage to have the water tank "float" electrically since in a real world this seems to be impossible.
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| Posted: Wed Jul 28th, 2010 04:21 pm |
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2nd Post |
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eleent Member 
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Hello: The answer is that the gas line is conductive through to the tank. I'd consider grounding/bonding to the gas line (if it's steel) to prevent any stray current from wanting to visit your water heater. Have a look at my answer at the end of your post "dielectric unions". It may cover this question in part. I'd think of the bits of equipment by their intended use. Dielectrics are to prevent galvanic corrosion. Grounding/bonding is to prevent/control stray currents. They do wind up with some functional overlap, affecting each other. But, both correctly installed will give you a good system  Yours, Larry
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| Posted: Wed Jul 28th, 2010 07:36 pm |
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3rd Post |
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suki Member
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Can I infer that it would a good idea to run the same 6 guage copper jumper wire between the hot and cold lines and connecting it to the steel gas supply pipe?
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| Posted: Wed Jul 28th, 2010 09:40 pm |
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4th Post |
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eleent Member
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Hello and yes. I'm not sure what code says for certain regarding bonding wire size, but a little overkill now and then is perfectly OK  This bonding/grounding thing does seem to be a source of confusion: http://www.mikeholt.com/mojonewsarchive/GB-HTML/HTML/Grounding-vs-Bonding~20040121.htmYours, Larry
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