100 Days of the 2026 NEC Changes Day 76: 555.13 Bonding

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-14

[00:00:01][music] [music] Hey everybody, welcome back to the 100 days of the 2026 code changes. We're uh 75% of the way through, so nice job sticking around for all this. Let's talk about 555.13 in this video and and what I think is a very important change and u quite frankly I I think what the code used to require was actually unsafe. I think it required you to make a relatively safe installation unsafe by doing what the code said. So fortunately they uh they fixed a very real problem in this code section. So let's take a look and uh and see what panel 7 did.

[00:00:52]Article 555, marinas, boaty yards, floating buildings, docking facilities.

[00:00:55]555.13 bonding. The bonding requirements of this article were clarified. All right.

[00:01:02]So, all non-current carrying metal parts that are likely to become energized must be connected to the equipment grounding conductor of the feeder or branch circuit. Period. A copper conductor no smaller than 8 gauge must be used. All right. So, it it's easy to show new text on my slides because I can just make it yellow and add an underline. Uh, but it's a little bit tough to show text that was removed. I can show, you know, I can show the words and, you know, have a strike through through them. But this whole section really got revamped. It used to say that all metal parts in contact with the water had to be bonded.

[00:01:43]Well, that is preposterous. and and not only bonded, not just bonded to each other, right? Cuz that's one thing, but bonded and ultimately connected to the utility neutral.

[00:01:55]So, anything that was touching the water, take the ladder, right? This ladder is just sitting here not hurting anybody, right? It's not likely to become energized. It's just metal ladder going down in the water. The code used to say, "Hey, I want you to take a wire from the utility neutral and connect it to that ladder. That way, if the water ever becomes energized and you touch the ladder, you will die." [laughter] Right?

[00:02:22]Plain and simple. What the code used to require was unsafe. And they fixed it.

[00:02:28]Now, we're saying, "Okay, it's not everything that's touching the water.

[00:02:33]It's all non-current carrying metal parts that are likely to become energized.

[00:02:39]Those have to be connected to the equipment grounding conductor of the feeder or branch circuit.

[00:02:45]Okay. Oh, and the problem I have with this is a copper conductor no smaller than 8 gauge must be used. Okay. Well, here's the thing. If it's equipment likely to become energized, that's defined in article 100. And article 100 says things that are likely to become energized uh that's when uh uh conductor insulation would uh failing would energize it. Right? So if it's in contact with electrical equipment then it is likely to become energized because if the wire insulation failed it would energize it. Right? So if it's equipment supplied by electricity then basically it needs to be connected to the feeder or or uh branch circuit panel board. It said it has to be an eight gauge conductor, which again I think is a little bit problematic because this metal box is a prime example of a piece of equipment that's likely to become energized. Right? That is a non-current carrying metal object. And if the insulation inside of that box, if it failed and energized the box, that that would energize it. So it has to be connected to the branch circuit or feeder equipment panel board.

[00:03:55]My problem is it already is right. It has an equipment grounding conductor bonding the box. So why does it have to be 8 gauge? I mean really the the the wire the equipment ground has to be 8 gauge. I think this section still needs some work but at least they're not requiring me to make a safe installation unsafe anymore. Um, I look, I I'm not in the business of telling people what to do, but if I was an inspector and my jurisdiction was under the 2020 or the 2023 NEC, I would completely ignore the bonding requirements of those and read this one instead because I think what we were requiring to do in the past was actually creating a safety issue. So, uh, good job at panel 7. It's a lot better than it was. I still think there's some work to be done, right? And I I don't see any reason why I would need to run an 8 gauge equipment grounding conductor to bond that metal box when it's already bonded to a 12- gauge equipment grounding conductor. Uh but again, at least we're not requiring people to, you know, requiring people to energize stuff and put it in the water essentially. So, all right, there you go. 555.13.

[00:05:07]I think they did some really nice work on the next video. Well, we'll talk about it then. All right. Be safe out there, everybody. And uh hope to see you next time.