That humid day in a crawlspace almost cost me my license

I was swapping out an old panel in a house over in Maplewood last July. The homeowner said it was just a simple 200 amp upgrade, nothing wild. I got down in the crawlspace to run the new feed, and it was dripping wet down there, humidity was brutal. I didn't check the existing grounding electrode conductor close enough because I was rushing to get out of the damp. Turns out the old GEC was corroded almost all the way through at the clamp, and I just landed my new wire on top of it without verifying. When I powered up, the whole system was floating, and I got a nasty tingle off the panel cover. Shut everything down, redid the ground with a new rod and clamp, and tested it. That tingle could have been a dead customer or a house fire. Has anyone else had a grounding failure sneak up on them in a wet space?

2 comments

2 Comments

evan_jenkins3d ago

So you got a tingle off a panel cover and now you're acting like you dodged a bullet that would've blown up the whole block? Look, I'm not saying bad grounds aren't a problem, but you caught it, fixed it, and nobody died. Homeowners get mild shocks from leaky appliances all the time and don't even notice. You're making it sound like you almost caused a catastrophe when really you just learned to double check a connection in a wet space. Quit dramatizing a routine screw up.

wyattc763d agoTop Commenter

Actually @evan_jenkins you're off on one thing - those "mild shocks" from leaky appliances can absolutely kill people under the right conditions. A bad ground in a wet panel is way more dangerous than a tiny tingle suggests, especially if someone's touching something grounded nearby. The drama is that this guy caught a real hazard before it turned into something worse, not that he dodged a fireball.