For what it's worth, in my house (CT), when I had my service upgraded, they installed two grounding rods next to the panel, and *also* ran a grounding wire from the panel to the water entrance (meter), on the other side of the house, with jumpers leading over the meter.
Also, the water line under the street, feeding my neighbor's house, rotted out and started leaking in multiple places in less than a year after it was installed.. i asked the water company people why that had happened and they said it was likely due to an electrical fault at that house dumping too much current into the pipe, accelerating corrosion. They replaced that section of pipe with plastic, which I guess is one solution. Strange stuff.
It's still going. It's kind of like a smoke alarm, ideally you never find out how it works. In the two years I've had it, it has caught one leak, but it wasn't a plumbing problem: in addition to the main unit, I also have a couple of water sensors. One is on the floor next to the boiler and hot water tank. A couple of months ago, it went off, and sure enough, there was a small puddle on the floor. But the water was from outside. An old unused chimney had developed some cracks and the rain was coming in through it. I do get a plumbing check alert almost every day. It closes the valve for 10 minutes and monitors the pressure. Mine shows it usually slowly drops around 8 psi which "could indicate a small leak". I'm pretty confident this is something like a shower valve or other fixture that doesn't close perfectly, but it'd be a bit of a hassle to track down, so I'm basically ignoring this message. Other than that, we get the occasional false alarm, but they're good ones: for example, running the sprinklers at an unusual time, or leaving the kitchen sink on a trickle to defrost something. It sends a couple of warning messages and then (because I have it set to automatic) if you don't stop it, it'll turn the water off. That has only happened once, when I wasn't paying attention to my phone, and it's very easy to turn it back on with the app. I don't mind a very rare false positive in exchange for the peace of mind that it would take care of it if something bad actually happened. Hope that answers your question.
If it's pex on both sides, there's nothing to bond -- attaching a wire between two pieces of plastic won't do anything. But I'm neither a plumber nor electrician, so I'd recommend consulting with a professional.
But you still have 3.5A flowing through that piece of #6 copper wire. Something(s) in your house is connected between "hot" and "ground". Or you have a "bootleg" ground connection at an outlet. A bootleg ground is where someone connected the white terminal of a receptacle to the green screw of an outlet, to fool a three light outlet tester, into reading correctly. Done to fool home inspections
My house was built in 1950 and has decades of inaccessible, incorrect, and mysterious DIY and cheap contractor work. So yes, there is some minor leakage current somewhere. And until I can find the Mikey Pipes of electricians, I probably have to live with it.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Did that end up correcting your flickering lights?
Yes.
How much did that guy charge you?
For what it's worth, in my house (CT), when I had my service upgraded, they installed two grounding rods next to the panel, and *also* ran a grounding wire from the panel to the water entrance (meter), on the other side of the house, with jumpers leading over the meter.
Also, the water line under the street, feeding my neighbor's house, rotted out and started leaking in multiple places in less than a year after it was installed.. i asked the water company people why that had happened and they said it was likely due to an electrical fault at that house dumping too much current into the pipe, accelerating corrosion. They replaced that section of pipe with plastic, which I guess is one solution. Strange stuff.
I took another look and it’s possible that ground wire does in fact run all the way to the panel.
Hey buddy. How is the -phynn system going?
It's still going. It's kind of like a smoke alarm, ideally you never find out how it works.
In the two years I've had it, it has caught one leak, but it wasn't a plumbing problem: in addition to the main unit, I also have a couple of water sensors. One is on the floor next to the boiler and hot water tank. A couple of months ago, it went off, and sure enough, there was a small puddle on the floor. But the water was from outside. An old unused chimney had developed some cracks and the rain was coming in through it.
I do get a plumbing check alert almost every day. It closes the valve for 10 minutes and monitors the pressure. Mine shows it usually slowly drops around 8 psi which "could indicate a small leak". I'm pretty confident this is something like a shower valve or other fixture that doesn't close perfectly, but it'd be a bit of a hassle to track down, so I'm basically ignoring this message.
Other than that, we get the occasional false alarm, but they're good ones: for example, running the sprinklers at an unusual time, or leaving the kitchen sink on a trickle to defrost something. It sends a couple of warning messages and then (because I have it set to automatic) if you don't stop it, it'll turn the water off. That has only happened once, when I wasn't paying attention to my phone, and it's very easy to turn it back on with the app. I don't mind a very rare false positive in exchange for the peace of mind that it would take care of it if something bad actually happened.
Hope that answers your question.
@@ChrisMasto thanks for the info. I’m building new home. If my main line is pex do I need to do the grounding?
If it's pex on both sides, there's nothing to bond -- attaching a wire between two pieces of plastic won't do anything. But I'm neither a plumber nor electrician, so I'd recommend consulting with a professional.
@@ChrisMasto ok. Just to clarify, the clamps you used on the copper pipe are copper as well? Like metal?
@@Tworth23 Yes, they are metal. How would they do the job of making an electrical connection otherwise? www.homedepot.com/s/bonding%20clamp
But you still have 3.5A flowing through that piece of #6 copper wire. Something(s) in your house is connected between "hot" and "ground". Or you have a "bootleg" ground connection at an outlet. A bootleg ground is where someone connected the white terminal of a receptacle to the green screw of an outlet, to fool a three light outlet tester, into reading correctly. Done to fool home inspections
My house was built in 1950 and has decades of inaccessible, incorrect, and mysterious DIY and cheap contractor work. So yes, there is some minor leakage current somewhere. And until I can find the Mikey Pipes of electricians, I probably have to live with it.
Eevblog meter! :D
Mikey pipes sent me.