Superb video, thank you so much. Just what I needed to know for our new server location. Is the 6AWG for the main bonding line, what AWG is for the actual equipment? Thanks
Thanks Live Free! Indeed, this is exactly the sort of thing you would want to do in a commercial business where you are using a structured cabling system and telecom rooms. There is a blog that goes with the video here: www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/commercial-bonding-and-grounding-of-ethernet-cable-systems.
Interesting! I may have just learned this information from you at precisely the right time! Does this sort of grounding apply to even a simple small business PoE security camera and network setup? Such as with a switch, router, patch panel, etc?
Hello again Kraus! I may have answered your question in my other comment, but in this case perhaps not. It depends on the equipment you are installing and just how small of an installation we are talking about. If you are making use of a telecommunication room/closet and have racks, cable tray, ladder rack, etc. then YES you would proceed like any other commercial installation and bond/ground according to the rules. You may need to consult your local code inspector and licensed electrician to find out the best way of proceeding.
Don, if your using one of those clamp on ground earth resistance tester meters, to test your grounding/bonding connections what should your reading be for a good connection...?? I have not used one of those in years and cant remember. Thanks..>!!
@@trueCABLE Thank you sir..! You guys should really look into becoming a BICSI ATF. KC would be the perfect central location for folks in the Midwest vs going all the way to Tampa. You already provide a wealth of good educational information for FREE, becoming a BICSI ATF could perhaps provide an additional revenue stream for the company.
@@Eric-qx1kx Hello Eric! You are thinking just like I am thinking. trueCABLE hopes to launch a "University" of sorts in the future, but the form and format are still TBD. I like where your head is at! Sometime in the next year or so, we will come up with something. BICSI ATF in KC would be a great idea.
@@trueCABLE You could do an independent BICSI Boot Camp for those who just want to go and take the test, without paying the exorbitant fees for their class....but they probably would not appreciate that competition.....lol. Its tricky because manufacture training/certification does not hold the same weight in the industry as BICSI, even the FOA or Fluke cert, which I have both, is great training but the cert itself does not appear to be worth much from my experience....only BICSI, thats all employers seem to care about.
Hi Don, love the informative videos you put out. Hoping you can help me out with something. Im thinking of re-doing my networking setup in my home by removing my existing Cat5 cables and pulling in new shielded Cat6A cables. im planning on getting a new modular patch panel with shielded keystone jacks. i understand that i will need to properly terminate the shielded cables to the patch panel and then properly bond everything to the rack bus bar which will be bonded to the ground in my mains. My question is, will i need to change the wall plates in all my rooms with ones that also have a shielded keystone in them and then plug in my desktop and smart TVs etc with shielded ethernet cables. i read somewhere that this is not advisable to do so in case the shielded keystone in the rooms come in contact with another ground and create a ground loop and/or act as an antenna. would appreciate your professional input on this. thanks
Hello Jahanzeb! Great questions. You should use shielded keystones at both ends of the solid copper runs and shielded patch cords all around. This increases the number of paths to the SAME ground and provides additional robustness for your shielded Ethernet installation. The only time you need to worry about ground loops is when you have two actual points of ground (as in, two completely separate AC mains or the use of multiple ground rods that are not bonded together). In other words, if this is all installed in the same structure and you don't have multiple electrical meters attached to your house then you don't need to worry. There is a quite a bit of misinformation floating around about multiple bonds and that concept getting confused with multiple grounds, and those are two different things. Keep these great questions coming!
Man, I am so sorry for asking another question, but I'm here at Home Depot and they've never heard of "fire retardant paint," though they seem to sell it in 5- gallon buckets for around $350. They also don't have "fire rated plywood" (that they know of) but they do have pressure-treated plywood. That the same thing? I feel like Hank Hill looking for the hardware department. I just need to paint a 4x8 sheet, not a whole building. I know this has nothing really to do with your products, but could you tell me (or provide a link so I can read up about these standards on my own?) about what type of plywood and paint to use, and where to find it? I'd be much obliged! I thought this would be an easy find! Thanks!
Hey Don, hopefully you see this follow-up comment before you spend time answering the previous one. Get this... A guy walked in front of me while on my SECOND trip to home depot (because the first guy sold me incorrect stuff for mounting the rack to the cinder block wall).. (he was grungy, tattoos, long beard, baseball cap, hoodie), and he heard me talking about grounding and bonding to a salesperson... fire retardant plywood, paint, etc... and he starts spouting off ALL the answers I was looking for. Hah! Told me the lumber yard to get the stuff. So, nevermind! Sorry for buggin' ya! Thanks again for making these videos. They're tremendously helpful.
Fire-rated plywood and pressure-treated plywood are not the same. Home Depot lists the correct product on their website, but they don't seem to actually carry it in stock. In my experience, your best bet is to order through a large local full-service lumber yard. I recently worked on a project in Steamboat Springs Colorado, and the local lumber yard was able to provide fire-rated plywood, while the big box stores hundreds of miles away could not. If I remember correctly, it was still a special-order item. Glad to hear you were able to get to the correct items!
@@krausshusha2694 Also when you paint the plywood leave one of the fire retardant logos available for the inspector to see that the wood is the correct plywood used.
Hi, I know this isn't related to this video but I'm hoping you can help me out. I plan on having a new metal building built to use as a welding and machine shop and want to run network cable from the office to some of the computers running the cnc machines and some wireless access points. I plan on using shielded Cat6 cable (obviously with shielded connectors), but I don't know what else needs to be shielded. I've seen shielded patch panels but do they make shielded switches? Do I have to get shielded ports on my machines and devices? I'm basically just a "hobbiest" when it comes to networking and have zero knowledge when it comes to shielded cables other than your videos for terminating them, so any advice would be great. Thank you
Hello! If you use shielded cable your accessories should also be shielded (keystones, patch panel, RJ45s, etc.) As for how to bond all of your equipment to ground, the shielded hardware like patch panels should already have a green ground wire to attach to a source that can be used to drain off ESD and EMI to ground. Often this green ground wire is then attached to a metal rack frame and the metal rack frame is also bonded to ground to continue the path. If your switches use three prong AC power plugs and have metal switch ports then bonding will take place through the switch itself as well. If the switches are consumer grade with a DC power adapter then the bonding must take place BEFORE the switch.
Also, sorry, just thought of another question. Is 6AWG standard regardless of the size of the building it's being installed to? Or is that just for large warehouses like you're at? Or can you use a smaller gauge wire for tiny lightning strikes? ;) You bet I better be bent about building the best bonding busbar 'n rack-bonding busbar a bodacious bustling business can bear, brother!
Hello Kraus! 6AWG is the MINIMUM REQUIRED wire gauge for any commercially zoned bonding and grounding of a structured cabling system and is good to 100ft. You could consider it "standard". That said even thicker bonding conductors may be required in your installation depending on the length the bonding conductor must run. Resistance increases with distance and that requires thicker copper to compensate. This upsizing does not happen in the TR (Telecom Room) as everything is within 100ft but it can will happen when the TR is located hundreds of feet from the EF (Entrance Facility). A great example is where everything in a TR can is bonded using 6AWG, but then you must bond the SBB (Secondary Bus Bar) in the TR with the PBB (Primary Bus Bar) in the EF and that EF happens to be a couple hundred feet away. The conductor that connects the SBB in the TR to the PBB in EF is known as the TBB (Telecommunication Bonding Backbone).
at 8:50, that ground wire looks small...it runs to the busbar in the server room? but you have 6 awg wire in the server room? Can you please do a more detailed write up of this with diagrams and pictures please. Thanks
Hello! The bonding conductor at 8:50 is 6AWG. In the TR 6AWG is also used. This video, like most others that we shoot, has a detailed companion blog found in our Cable Academy. You can find the blog here, with far more written detail and still photos: www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/commercial-bonding-and-grounding-of-ethernet-cable-systems. Hope this helps!
What if you had an I-beam near the rack, could you have just run the ground wire there, grind off any paint and bond to the building steel itself, rather than running to the electrical panel....??
Hello Eric! That is a great question. Here is what ANSI/TIA 607-D says about it: Section 6.3.6.1: "When structural metal is bonded to the building's grounding electrode system it may be used in place of a TBB, a BBC, or both. Before using structural metal in place of a TBB or BBC, building plans (including as-builts as applicable) and specifications shall be reviewed to ensure the structural metal is electrically continuous or can be made so.....Concrete reinforcing steel shall not be used in place of a BBC or TBC." In addition, 2 point resistance tests should be performed to ensure continuity and proper resistance. BBC=Backbone bonding conductor and TBC=Telecommunications Bonding Conductor. So, in short, YES you can do this but you have to be sure you know what you are doing and that it is a valid bonding method for your particular installation. As an aside, structural steel is often used for bonding in buildings but that is typically in addition to, not instead of, the usual bonding method to AC ground using actual copper conductors and bus bars. This helps equalize the bonding system and increases effectiveness. I hope that helps!
@@trueCABLE Thanks Don! One of these days I need to buy a copy of the actual standards, the ITSIMM and/or TDMM is not really enough....however, I'll have to sell one of my organs on the black market first as the price of the TIA Standards...yikes....ridiculous!!
I'm guessing because the rack isn't a great conductor. It's steel, which doesn't conduct as well as copper, and is thin and could burn through if there was a serious electrical issue.
You do. But the floor isn’t a good ground, you must ground to electrical service since some of the “static” on the rack might be unused voltage from the equipment which is higher in potential voltage and must take a ground path back to the transformer unless you have a dedicated ground for TelCo because the existing ground is too “hot” but that’s another scenario entirely. Also grounding outside peripherals such as cameras and APs is not the same thing. Those won’t receive a power surge from outside to their circuits but instead will channel static down the outer wire back to the switch. This low potential voltage can be drained literally anywhere even structural iron of a building thru a passive surge protector. One of these would drain the static from a shielded cable to ground and would blow its internals like a fuse if more than 80v passes thru it but the conductors themselves aren’t grounded. There is way more nuance to this but this is the not so short and simple. Hopefully it helps. If not check out electricians university channel and look for videos in regards to bonding. This stuff is slightly above the average purview of a low voltage tech.
Hello Henry! No. The rack is isolated from ground if it is bolted to your floor. ESD and power faults would have little or no low resistance path to drain off to. Bonding your equipment to the rack is a great idea but it does you no good if the rack itself is not properly bonded. The 3 prong plugs in the rack equipment are not enough in a commercial installation.
It's refreshing to hear someone use the term "bonding" correctly.
excellent video! Very detailed and well done, thank you
Thank you! Glad we could help!
Superb video, thank you so much. Just what I needed to know for our new server location. Is the 6AWG for the main bonding line, what AWG is for the actual equipment? Thanks
Thanks Live Free! Indeed, this is exactly the sort of thing you would want to do in a commercial business where you are using a structured cabling system and telecom rooms. There is a blog that goes with the video here: www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/commercial-bonding-and-grounding-of-ethernet-cable-systems.
Good video guys !! Sharing this !!
Thanks for sharing and following along!!
Interesting! I may have just learned this information from you at precisely the right time! Does this sort of grounding apply to even a simple small business PoE security camera and network setup? Such as with a switch, router, patch panel, etc?
Hello again Kraus! I may have answered your question in my other comment, but in this case perhaps not. It depends on the equipment you are installing and just how small of an installation we are talking about. If you are making use of a telecommunication room/closet and have racks, cable tray, ladder rack, etc. then YES you would proceed like any other commercial installation and bond/ground according to the rules. You may need to consult your local code inspector and licensed electrician to find out the best way of proceeding.
Don, if your using one of those clamp on ground earth resistance tester meters, to test your grounding/bonding connections what should your reading be for a good connection...?? I have not used one of those in years and cant remember. Thanks..>!!
Hello Eric! Your reading should be 0.1 ohm (100 milliohm).
@@trueCABLE Thank you sir..! You guys should really look into becoming a BICSI ATF. KC would be the perfect central location for folks in the Midwest vs going all the way to Tampa. You already provide a wealth of good educational information for FREE, becoming a BICSI ATF could perhaps provide an additional revenue stream for the company.
@@Eric-qx1kx Hello Eric! You are thinking just like I am thinking. trueCABLE hopes to launch a "University" of sorts in the future, but the form and format are still TBD. I like where your head is at! Sometime in the next year or so, we will come up with something. BICSI ATF in KC would be a great idea.
@@trueCABLE You could do an independent BICSI Boot Camp for those who just want to go and take the test, without paying the exorbitant fees for their class....but they probably would not appreciate that competition.....lol. Its tricky because manufacture training/certification does not hold the same weight in the industry as BICSI, even the FOA or Fluke cert, which I have both, is great training but the cert itself does not appear to be worth much from my experience....only BICSI, thats all employers seem to care about.
Hi Don, love the informative videos you put out. Hoping you can help me out with something. Im thinking of re-doing my networking setup in my home by removing my existing Cat5 cables and pulling in new shielded Cat6A cables. im planning on getting a new modular patch panel with shielded keystone jacks. i understand that i will need to properly terminate the shielded cables to the patch panel and then properly bond everything to the rack bus bar which will be bonded to the ground in my mains.
My question is, will i need to change the wall plates in all my rooms with ones that also have a shielded keystone in them and then plug in my desktop and smart TVs etc with shielded ethernet cables. i read somewhere that this is not advisable to do so in case the shielded keystone in the rooms come in contact with another ground and create a ground loop and/or act as an antenna. would appreciate your professional input on this. thanks
Hello Jahanzeb! Great questions. You should use shielded keystones at both ends of the solid copper runs and shielded patch cords all around. This increases the number of paths to the SAME ground and provides additional robustness for your shielded Ethernet installation. The only time you need to worry about ground loops is when you have two actual points of ground (as in, two completely separate AC mains or the use of multiple ground rods that are not bonded together). In other words, if this is all installed in the same structure and you don't have multiple electrical meters attached to your house then you don't need to worry. There is a quite a bit of misinformation floating around about multiple bonds and that concept getting confused with multiple grounds, and those are two different things. Keep these great questions coming!
@@trueCABLE Thanks for clearing that up Don. I was getting super confused with all the conflicting information out there. Cheers!
Man, I am so sorry for asking another question, but I'm here at Home Depot and they've never heard of "fire retardant paint," though they seem to sell it in 5- gallon buckets for around $350. They also don't have "fire rated plywood" (that they know of) but they do have pressure-treated plywood. That the same thing? I feel like Hank Hill looking for the hardware department. I just need to paint a 4x8 sheet, not a whole building.
I know this has nothing really to do with your products, but could you tell me (or provide a link so I can read up about these standards on my own?) about what type of plywood and paint to use, and where to find it? I'd be much obliged! I thought this would be an easy find! Thanks!
Hey Don, hopefully you see this follow-up comment before you spend time answering the previous one.
Get this... A guy walked in front of me while on my SECOND trip to home depot (because the first guy sold me incorrect stuff for mounting the rack to the cinder block wall).. (he was grungy, tattoos, long beard, baseball cap, hoodie), and he heard me talking about grounding and bonding to a salesperson... fire retardant plywood, paint, etc... and he starts spouting off ALL the answers I was looking for. Hah! Told me the lumber yard to get the stuff. So, nevermind! Sorry for buggin' ya!
Thanks again for making these videos. They're tremendously helpful.
Fire-rated plywood and pressure-treated plywood are not the same. Home Depot lists the correct product on their website, but they don't seem to actually carry it in stock. In my experience, your best bet is to order through a large local full-service lumber yard. I recently worked on a project in Steamboat Springs Colorado, and the local lumber yard was able to provide fire-rated plywood, while the big box stores hundreds of miles away could not. If I remember correctly, it was still a special-order item. Glad to hear you were able to get to the correct items!
@@krausshusha2694 Also when you paint the plywood leave one of the fire retardant logos available for the inspector to see that the wood is the correct plywood used.
Hi, I know this isn't related to this video but I'm hoping you can help me out. I plan on having a new metal building built to use as a welding and machine shop and want to run network cable from the office to some of the computers running the cnc machines and some wireless access points. I plan on using shielded Cat6 cable (obviously with shielded connectors), but I don't know what else needs to be shielded. I've seen shielded patch panels but do they make shielded switches? Do I have to get shielded ports on my machines and devices? I'm basically just a "hobbiest" when it comes to networking and have zero knowledge when it comes to shielded cables other than your videos for terminating them, so any advice would be great. Thank you
Hello! If you use shielded cable your accessories should also be shielded (keystones, patch panel, RJ45s, etc.) As for how to bond all of your equipment to ground, the shielded hardware like patch panels should already have a green ground wire to attach to a source that can be used to drain off ESD and EMI to ground. Often this green ground wire is then attached to a metal rack frame and the metal rack frame is also bonded to ground to continue the path. If your switches use three prong AC power plugs and have metal switch ports then bonding will take place through the switch itself as well. If the switches are consumer grade with a DC power adapter then the bonding must take place BEFORE the switch.
Also, sorry, just thought of another question. Is 6AWG standard regardless of the size of the building it's being installed to? Or is that just for large warehouses like you're at? Or can you use a smaller gauge wire for tiny lightning strikes? ;)
You bet I better be bent about building the best bonding busbar 'n rack-bonding busbar a bodacious bustling business can bear, brother!
Hello Kraus! 6AWG is the MINIMUM REQUIRED wire gauge for any commercially zoned bonding and grounding of a structured cabling system and is good to 100ft. You could consider it "standard". That said even thicker bonding conductors may be required in your installation depending on the length the bonding conductor must run. Resistance increases with distance and that requires thicker copper to compensate. This upsizing does not happen in the TR (Telecom Room) as everything is within 100ft but it can will happen when the TR is located hundreds of feet from the EF (Entrance Facility). A great example is where everything in a TR can is bonded using 6AWG, but then you must bond the SBB (Secondary Bus Bar) in the TR with the PBB (Primary Bus Bar) in the EF and that EF happens to be a couple hundred feet away. The conductor that connects the SBB in the TR to the PBB in EF is known as the TBB (Telecommunication Bonding Backbone).
at 8:50, that ground wire looks small...it runs to the busbar in the server room? but you have 6 awg wire in the server room? Can you please do a more detailed write up of this with diagrams and pictures please. Thanks
Hello! The bonding conductor at 8:50 is 6AWG. In the TR 6AWG is also used. This video, like most others that we shoot, has a detailed companion blog found in our Cable Academy. You can find the blog here, with far more written detail and still photos: www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/commercial-bonding-and-grounding-of-ethernet-cable-systems. Hope this helps!
What if you had an I-beam near the rack, could you have just run the ground wire there, grind off any paint and bond to the building steel itself, rather than running to the electrical panel....??
Hello Eric! That is a great question. Here is what ANSI/TIA 607-D says about it: Section 6.3.6.1: "When structural metal is bonded to the building's grounding electrode system it may be used in place of a TBB, a BBC, or both. Before using structural metal in place of a TBB or BBC, building plans (including as-builts as applicable) and specifications shall be reviewed to ensure the structural metal is electrically continuous or can be made so.....Concrete reinforcing steel shall not be used in place of a BBC or TBC." In addition, 2 point resistance tests should be performed to ensure continuity and proper resistance. BBC=Backbone bonding conductor and TBC=Telecommunications Bonding Conductor. So, in short, YES you can do this but you have to be sure you know what you are doing and that it is a valid bonding method for your particular installation. As an aside, structural steel is often used for bonding in buildings but that is typically in addition to, not instead of, the usual bonding method to AC ground using actual copper conductors and bus bars. This helps equalize the bonding system and increases effectiveness. I hope that helps!
@@trueCABLE Thanks Don! One of these days I need to buy a copy of the actual standards, the ITSIMM and/or TDMM is not really enough....however, I'll have to sell one of my organs on the black market first as the price of the TIA Standards...yikes....ridiculous!!
@@Eric-qx1kx Hello Eric! You are welcome. Yeah, the TIA standards are very pricey.
Why cant you just ground everything to your rack? Its metal and bolted to the floor.
I'm guessing because the rack isn't a great conductor. It's steel, which doesn't conduct as well as copper, and is thin and could burn through if there was a serious electrical issue.
You do. But the floor isn’t a good ground, you must ground to electrical service since some of the “static” on the rack might be unused voltage from the equipment which is higher in potential voltage and must take a ground path back to the transformer unless you have a dedicated ground for TelCo because the existing ground is too “hot” but that’s another scenario entirely. Also grounding outside peripherals such as cameras and APs is not the same thing. Those won’t receive a power surge from outside to their circuits but instead will channel static down the outer wire back to the switch. This low potential voltage can be drained literally anywhere even structural iron of a building thru a passive surge protector. One of these would drain the static from a shielded cable to ground and would blow its internals like a fuse if more than 80v passes thru it but the conductors themselves aren’t grounded. There is way more nuance to this but this is the not so short and simple. Hopefully it helps. If not check out electricians university channel and look for videos in regards to bonding. This stuff is slightly above the average purview of a low voltage tech.
Hello Henry! No. The rack is isolated from ground if it is bolted to your floor. ESD and power faults would have little or no low resistance path to drain off to. Bonding your equipment to the rack is a great idea but it does you no good if the rack itself is not properly bonded. The 3 prong plugs in the rack equipment are not enough in a commercial installation.