Re: why ground an alarm panel.

["autonut843" <hmjunk31415@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here is a story that mentions the importance of bonding the ground rods
together, the size of that wire, why it sounds like it goes against the
NEC, etc.
It is called "Getting your ground down to earth"
from
Disaster Recovery Journal.
http://www.drj.com/drworld/content/w1_100.htm


(the following looks like it may sound like I'm arguing.  I'm not.  I
am just trying to get to the meaning of 'best'.    )
Thank you Robert for your response to this and others that you have
provided in months/years past.  Very appreciated.)   :-)  :-)  :-)
Robert, I had a question.  You mentioned in an earlier post on this
thread.
> that is not the best place to earth your panel.  The
> best method is to connect it to the building's common earth ground

If someone was putting an alarm in a house from, say, the 1950's that
had no ground originally and had various electrical upgrades over the
years, I can understand the cause for concern and reasoning for running
a copper wire from the alarm panel directly to the common earth ground.
 I assume their logic would be, 'The outlet *may* be properly grounded
but since I just don't know for sure and since I'm running wires all
over the house anyway, I might as well connect this earth ground
terminal on the alarm panel correctly to the building's common earth
ground."  That totally makes sense.

If someone was putting an alarm in a house that was less than 5 years
old that was built to code and properly inspected and they have
absolutely no reason to believe that anything was done wrong.  Why not
just use the ground at the outlet?
I'm not arguing, I just don't understand why that won't be completely
adequate?

To make it even more certain.
If someone were putting an alarm in a new construction house and the
walls were all still open and the installer could physically see and
test that the ground on that piece of Romex is connected to the buss
bar in the breaker panel which is connected to the buss bar in the
meter which is connected to the ground rod.  Wouldn't that be more than
adequate?

Again, I'm not arguing, I'm just trying to make sure I understand what
you are getting at.  Thanks again for your well thought out responses.



And while I'm at it, (hypothetical situation.  This is probably more a
code question than anything.) if it were an install in a house from the
'50's and you run the new dedicated wire from the panel screw to the
building's common earth ground.   What gauge wire should that be?  The
Ademco manual didn't specify as far as I could see.
Would the wire need it's own new ground rod, bonded to the other(s)?
If there is only one ground rod can I clamp my wire on using a new
clamp?  Or can I just loosen the existing clamp and stick my wire in
it?
If there are multiple rods (a big one for power, a small one for phone,
a small one for CATV) all bonded together does it matter which one I
clamp to?

Thanks all, this has been very interesting to read and learn from.