So you have no electrical background what so ever?
Oh but I do, since 1960 actually. A... 5 years USAF nuclear weapons maintenance which was very HIGH in electrical grounding (a lot of high explosives), 6 months building moblie homes doing all the wiring of fixtures and receptacles and then final testing of the entire home (for shorts with 1000 vac), a few years as a power company ground hand and lineman in new line construction and replacement with maintenance of existing power lines and service drops (very HIGH on grounding again), 5 years in electronic troubleshooting and 20 years of well pump work not to mention decades as a homeowner wiring this'n that but...
Now you're just blowin' smoke. Talk about what you've decided to educate me on, here's another copy:
(you) Where to start educating you on your post....
I think I will start with this comment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary Slusser
the pump doesn't require grounding because it is usually very well grounded in the water in the well. But it doesn't hurt unless the ground wire is broken and you are used to make it.[/quote]
(you)This comment scares the hell out of me, A pump without a low impedance path back to the service will NEVER trip the breaker, the earth is NOT a low impedance path. Your gonna kill someone. (end of your original quote)
Tell me this, if in troubleshooting a no water call on a well with a 2 wire (no ground wire) submersible pump, and at the top of the casing you undo the wire nuts and check the cable wires back to the switch and all's well but, checking the casing to the drop cable wires to the pump you find a short
TO GROUND.
How do you explain that? Is that magic or is the pump and cable that is under water grounded some how? And yes, it may not have popped the breaker but tell me where is all the danger unless you're stuck on stupid and fooling around out at the casing not knowing what you're doing with the power on tripping around reading your code book.
What does that short to ground mean to you if not that the electrical cable or motor windings are in contact with the water in the well or the metal casing?
Answer that and we can go on with my education.
And if you think people are going to dig up their yards to add a ground wire to an existing well, you're on something. And actually I don't know of anywhere that their existing well is not grandfathered to the OLD no ground required codes in force when the well was originally done. They will go with a new 2 wire non grounded pump because there is no way to add a ground wire back to the house.
Now I could add the ground to the drop cable from the pump pigtail to the top of the casing and attach it there BUT, will that pop the breaker if there's another short to ground? (that's a test of [/b]your[/b] grounding knowledge sparky)
The Nec is mandatory if your state has accepted it and adopted it. with the exception of state amendments.
Yeah I know that and that's why I don't reply as if codes cover everywhere in the US as you obviously seem to believe the NEC or CT codes do.
BTW, in case you don't take my test above, you can't build find or design a better GROUND than a metal well casing, and trust me, all groundwater (that's what is in a water well) will conduct electricity to ground.
Question, are you saying that the metal casing is not the same ground as the electric company's meter base, or the power company pole or tower ground or the ground rod ground many houses have or the metal water line ground the NEC requires or the ground used back at the electric generation plant?