What is the minimum AWG for bonding backbone conductors?

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What is the minimum AWG for bonding backbone conductors?

Bonding backbone conductors provide a low-impedance path that ties all metal parts of the telecom and building grounding system to one point, so any fault or lightning surge doesn’t create dangerous voltage differences between enclosures and equipment. The size must be large enough to carry fault current long enough for protective devices to interrupt it without wires heating up excessively. In typical BICSI guidance, 6 AWG copper is the smallest size that reliably meets that requirement for bonding backbones. Larger sizes like 4 AWG or 2 AWG would work and are acceptable, but they aren’t the minimum. A smaller size such as 8 AWG would not meet the minimum requirement, so 6 AWG is the correct choice.

Bonding backbone conductors provide a low-impedance path that ties all metal parts of the telecom and building grounding system to one point, so any fault or lightning surge doesn’t create dangerous voltage differences between enclosures and equipment. The size must be large enough to carry fault current long enough for protective devices to interrupt it without wires heating up excessively. In typical BICSI guidance, 6 AWG copper is the smallest size that reliably meets that requirement for bonding backbones. Larger sizes like 4 AWG or 2 AWG would work and are acceptable, but they aren’t the minimum. A smaller size such as 8 AWG would not meet the minimum requirement, so 6 AWG is the correct choice.

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