Effects of Electrical Currents and Bonding Requirements in Buildings

Bonding of electrical equipment plays a crucial role in maintaining the same potential among metal parts likely to be energized. Voltage rises on equipment can be harmful as they induce currents through the human body, the magnitude of which varies depending on a number of factors. This paper seeks to clarify, by exploring the effects of currents passing through the human body, as per IEC standard, and introducing the concept of extraneous-conductive-part, the bonding requirements of "dead" metal parts in order to limit the consequences of electrocution. To this purpose, a novel criterion to adopt in order to decide whether a conductive "dead" object must be bonded or not is provided