Quote Originally Posted by Denis54
What is the pupose of "bonding"?

What are the dangers associated with an "unbounded" pool?

My pool shed is located 30 feet from my pool. Does that decrease potential danger?

Does SWG increase any potential dangers associated with an "unbounded" pool?

My pool whas constructed 20 years ago. I really do not remember if all conductive materials were connected with a wire but I never had any problem in the past.
Bonding makes sure that all conductive materials that a swimmer might contact are at the same voltage. With electricity, it's not the voltage that hurts you, it is touching two points that are at different voltages which causes current to flow through your body.

An example of what bonding can protect from:
You place an AC powered radio on the concrete deck of the unbonded pool. Splashing around causes the deck and radio to become wet. Now the deck is at 115VAC. A swimmer starts to climb out of the pool with a hand on the metal ladder. They are electrocuted when they contact both the wet deck and the ladder at the same time. If the pool had been properly bonded, the rebar in the deck and the ladder would have been wired together, so the ladder and the deck (and even the water in the pool) would have both been at 115VAC, so no electrocution.

Bonding probably most often benefits by preventing stray voltage related minor shocks when touching the deck or ladder.

The big issue with bonding the pool equipment is that the pool itself will often/usually/sometimes/who knows be grounded by it's own contact with the earth, but often the water will be at an unknown voltage because it isn't in contact with anything conductive. If a fault occurs at the pump or heater etc., the water can become energized at a different voltage than the deck.

All of these scenarios are pretty rare, and other safety equipment like GFCIs and common sense should be the first line of defense, but there are real world examples of people being killed by rare events in pools with unbonded equipment. One that impressed me was a lifeguard in contact with an improperly replaced lifeguard stand who was electrocuted when a trackhoe working nearby contacted a power line with its boom. No way could the pool operator have controlled what happened, and the voltage of the earth was raised to several thousand volts in the area.

I would say that the long distance to the pool shed actually increases the danger, in that the earth in the area of the pool is more likely to be at a different voltage than that at the service entrance.