# Cutting ground rods



## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

Who will admit to doing it? :whistling2:


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

I haven't bought 2 ground rods in a year now. I use the M12 bandsaw to cut a ground rod in half and drive each 4 footer in. I posted about it a while ago.

The trick is to make the cut on an angle so both have a point.


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## Dark Knight (Jan 6, 2016)

*sheepishly raises hand*


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

HackWork said:


> I haven't bought 2 ground rods in a year now. I use the M12 bandsaw to cut a ground rod in half and drive each 4 footer in. I posted about it a while ago.
> 
> The trick is to make the cut on an angle so both have a point.


Seriously? That is pure genius. :notworthy:


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

www.electriciantalk.com/f2/whats-better-than-one-8-foot-ground-rod-204474/


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

One week ago Saturday to be exact...........


Do I care? Hell no. Ground Rods are as effective as an arc fault circuit breaker is for series faults. I made a dimple in the center of the cut with a tek screw and then beat the end into a mushroom to make it look like I hammered the whole 8 ft of the rod in. Then I went to lunch at the Aloha diner. I had a BLT sandwich and fries.


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## flyboy (Jun 13, 2011)

MTW said:


> Who will admit to doing it? :whistling2:


I was driving a ground rod one evening in the dead of winter in upstate NY when the pointy end came back out of the ground behind me. 

I cut off the piece that came back out of the ground. :whistling2:

I thought about cutting the point off and putting an acorn on it instead of driving the utility required 2nd ground rod, but it was too close to the head.


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## Chris1971 (Dec 27, 2010)

MTW said:


> Who will admit to doing it? :whistling2:


:whistling2::laughing::whistling2:


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## trentonmakes (Mar 21, 2017)

MTW said:


> Who will admit to doing it? :whistling2:




Texting and Driving


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## Chris1971 (Dec 27, 2010)

MTW said:


> Who will admit to doing it? :whistling2:


Hack.:thumbup:


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## WPNortheast (Jun 4, 2017)

Yes but not since I began angling them..


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

Pfffffftttt.... Cut a rod? I install 4 just in case.


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

I've cut more than you have installed :laughing:

In the olden days, the sledge hammer was the only tool available to drive them and the hacksaw was the only tool to cut them :jester:

In modern times there has only been a few times where the 30 pound demo hammer wouldn't complete the job.


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## lighterup (Jun 14, 2013)

I load up a generator and use my Bosch hammer drill with
the homemade ground rod attachment I had welded for me.:thumbsup:

But ...gasp!..alas i admit it...I have indeed cut aground rod or two in 
my day.:drink:...that's one......:drink:and ahhh two....:vs_poop:
there I feel much much better now


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## JoeSparky (Mar 25, 2010)

I have never cut a ground rod and then beat the living piss out of the head to hide the saw marks :no::whistling2:


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

I doubt there is an electrician alive who hasn't done this on more than one occasion.


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## matt1124 (Aug 23, 2011)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KqOBBhRpnxE


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## circuitman1 (Mar 14, 2013)

up here in sc we have the good old slate rock, so when you hit it ,you either bend it or cut it off.:laughing::laughing::laughing:


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## glen1971 (Oct 10, 2012)

I 1/4'd one once, but that was because they were spec'd at 60'..

Due to the amount of unmarked underground services and their site rules, we had to hydrovac down 15'.. I tried to explain that 60' would be unattainable due to the open hole with no dirt touching the rod but no one could see the issue. We ordered 18 - 10' rods and couplings and started on the first one.. We brazed the first two together (also in their spec) and pounded them in 5' by hand - 20' rod minus 15'. Due to the hole, we needed to braze the next one on at ground height, so up in the manlift we went to start pounding. Well with 25' not in the ground (15' from before plus 10' rod) it wiggled and swayed like a palm tree in a hurricane.. The company they brought in to test the grid resistance watched what was going on and after 10 minutes of trying they saw that the rod wasn't going in any further so they tested it and it passed.. 5' in the ground, hacksawed it off a foot below grade and sold the client 12 rods not even in the ground and they were ok with it.. lol...


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

May have cut a few in half a few times.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

8' ground rod, bed a 90 on each end and scratch in the dirt. :thumbsup:


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

Did a job once where the spec called for 20' rods in a 50' triangle (aka "delta"), and it had to be certified by an independent authority to be at most 25 ohms. It wasn't... so the engineer said drive more rods (not for free, of course). After doing again at another spot, it still wasn't less than 25 ohms altogether. So, just for fun, we measured resistance of the ground wire that we installed in the nearest light pole base... 9 ohms:laughing:


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

I'm stuck in Ufer land.

Our 'soil' is such that every inspector knows that no-one can drive a ground rod.

So the jig is up.


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## PokeySmokey (Nov 14, 2017)

*Cutting Ground Rods.*



MTW said:


> Who will admit to doing it? :whistling2:


Why no bend the ground rod and bury it.

Done this many times and no complaints from inspection departments. This is common practice where the bed rock is less than 12 feet below the grade surface.

If you have to place more than 1 rod into the ground always start with the rod that will be the farthest away from the service entrance/transformer. This way you ben the ground rod towards the service entrance and place the next rod accordingly.


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

PokeySmokey said:


> Why no bend the ground rod and bury it.
> 
> Done this many times and no complaints from inspection departments. This is common practice where the bed rock is less than 12 feet below the grade surface.
> 
> If you have to place more than 1 rod into the ground always start with the rod that will be the farthest away from the service entrance/transformer. This way you ben the ground rod towards the service entrance and place the next rod accordingly.


If you're talking about legally bending one, it has to be, I think, 30" deep. Digging a 2.5 foot trench is about as easy as continuing to pound on the rod.


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## glen1971 (Oct 10, 2012)

RePhase277 said:


> If you're talking about legally bending one, it has to be, I think, 30" deep. Digging a 2.5 foot trench is about as easy as continuing to pound on the rod.


Not unless you got a trackhoe with a 2' bucket digging in the service.. :thumbup: Many pumpjacks have the rods installed this way, with a 30" 90 on the rods..


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

MTW said:


> Who will admit to doing it? :whistling2:


You guys are crazy, the grounding system is easily the most important part of wiring a house. I normally put a ground ring around the home with ground rods every 20 foot attached via exothermic welding. 
Shame on you for even thinking of cutting a ground rod. You have blood on your hands.


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## scotch (Oct 17, 2013)

Years ago an Electrical Inspector in the area I was working then used to carry an 15A Edison fuse holder c/w switch to test L - G on any panel instal for ground rod resistance.....we were close to USA border; so he always checked that our panels and NMD were marked CSA and not that cheap stuff from across the border ! Homeowners doing their own instals on a home permit ; and buying cheaper from across the border often had a surprise from that guy !


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## lighterup (Jun 14, 2013)

scotch said:


> Years ago an Electrical Inspector in the area I was working then used to carry an 15A Edison fuse holder c/w switch to test L - G on any panel instal for ground rod resistance.....we were close to USA border; so he always checked that our panels and NMD were marked CSA and not that cheap stuff from across the border ! Homeowners doing their own instals on a home permit ; and buying cheaper from across the border often had a surprise from that guy !


:sleep1::vs_unimpressed:

I'll be more impressed when you guys stop netting all
the Walleye.


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## FaultCurrent (May 13, 2014)

Cut the rod and use the stamped end with markings on jobs to be inspected. Use the lower half on jobs that won't. Beat the ends up with a hammer to make it look like was driven. No one will ever know.


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## Tonedeaf (Nov 26, 2012)

I never cut a rod....I've pulled many stuck ones out and re-driven.... a pipe wrench and sledge work great for extracting.

Grounds are pretty important bub's


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

Tonedeaf said:


> Grounds are pretty important bub's


A bolt of lightning or high voltage surge really doesn't care if the rod is 4 ft. or 8 ft..


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

I've shared this story before but, it's good enough to repeat.

One of my guys went out on his own for a couple years. He did a resi service change and for some reason, the POCO inspector was certain that he had cut one of the rods (he saw a piece of 1/2" copper in the trash pile)

He was shown the piece of pipe but still insisted. He was shown the 30# demo hammer and driver tool but he still insisted. 

He wanted two new rods driven but my guy refused. It would of been easy enough to do but he stood his ground. 

The inspector failed the job and POCO would not reenergize. The homeowners were put up in a nice hotel for a couple days while the inspectors arranged to have a line crew come out and yank the rods. 

I REALLY wish I could have been there. As the rods came out, with some sort of jacking device. My guy was being an smug ****er, standing there mocking with his tape measurer in hand, counting the feet as the rod came out. Sure as ****, 8'. 

The inspector then told his crew to pull the other one and the result was the same. The inspector told my guy he could put them back and laughter ensued. The linemen had to sledge them back in and reinstall the wire.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Tonedeaf said:


> Grounds are pretty important bub's


I've seen many discussions between people much smarter than you or me and the end result is always that the ground rods are silly.


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## matt1124 (Aug 23, 2011)

One of my parents rentals was built in the 50s. The tenant was having trouble with his cable modem resetting or being flaky. The cable co told him the house didn't have a ground rod, and that would fix the problem. I went over and drove (half) a rod, haven't heard anything else from them, still the same guy over there. I mention the age because that house is 2 wire system, as is the modem cord.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

matt1124 said:


> One of my parents rentals was built in the 50s. The tenant was having trouble with his cable modem resetting or being flaky. The cable co told him the house didn't have a ground rod, and that would fix the problem. I went over and drove (half) a rod, haven't heard anything else from them, still the same guy over there. I mention the age because that house is 2 wire system, as is the modem cord.


Most likely the issue was fixed by the CATV system being connected properly to the electrical system's ground. One of the reasons why we install intersystem bonding blocks on new houses and services, because CATV guys often can't find a proper way to bond the systems.


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## Tonedeaf (Nov 26, 2012)

RePhase277 said:


> A bolt of lightning or high voltage surge really doesn't care if the rod is 4 ft. or 8 ft..




The stupidity that comes out of some of you people....The Ground is the most important part. Electrocuting your customers is going to hurt your repeat business.


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

Tonedeaf said:


> The stupidity that comes out of some of you people....The Ground is the most important part. Electrocuting your customers is going to hurt your repeat business.


Yeah... the earth ground isn't for protection against electrocution. That's the equipment ground's job.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Tonedeaf said:


> The stupidity that comes out of some of you people....The Ground is the most important part. Electrocuting your customers is going to hurt your repeat business.


You are confusing different grounds and then calling the people trying to educate you stupid?


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## socket2ya (Oct 27, 2016)

I have an inspector and night school code instructor who insists that you can lay a ground rod down and bury it horizontally. He says were all dumb for driving down


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## lighterup (Jun 14, 2013)

I live in an area (great lakes) where there are some shallow (2-3' down)
solid granite rock beds . This is hit & miss in the gegraphical make up of 
our area.

Aside from hiring a geological study (which I'm obviously not doing ) I look
for clues when I go to bid a job. One of the tell tail signs is the houses 
foundation which usually only has a crawl space as very few in these areas
have full depth basements.

Addressing this with my NEC code instructor (the grounding guru )
he suggests that i use a 3/4" diameter 10' ridgid steel conduit , get threaded
caps to screw on the ends , fill it with water and bury as far as I can get
it down in depth , lay it sideways.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

socket2ya said:


> I have an inspector and night school code instructor who insists that you can lay a ground rod down and bury it horizontally. He says were all dumb for driving down


It can be laid in a 30" minimum depth ditch ONLY if you hit a rock bottom and not able to drive it fully in on a 45 degree angle.


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## lighterup (Jun 14, 2013)

HackWork said:


> It can be laid in a 30" minimum depth ditch ONLY if you hit a rock bottom and not able to drive it fully in on a 45 degree angle.


What if you don not have 30" ...only 24" ...what would you do?


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## socket2ya (Oct 27, 2016)

HackWork said:


> It can be laid in a 30" minimum depth ditch ONLY if you hit a rock bottom and not able to drive it fully in on a 45 degree angle.


That seems like a lot of work... unless there is already a service trench there that the rod can laid in. The rock bottom thing could be argued by the AHJ I suppose


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

lighterup said:


> What if you don not have 30" ...only 24" ...what would you do?


Find another spot I suppose.

I've had to run 70'+ of GEC snaked thru houses, up to the attic and back down on the other side of the house, just to get to a place where I could drive the rods. My issue isn't rock, it's that some houses have little to no dirt/grass around them. 

We gotta do what we gotta do.


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## Chris1971 (Dec 27, 2010)

220/221 said:


> I've shared this story before but, it's good enough to repeat.
> 
> One of my guys went out on his own for a couple years. He did a resi service change and for some reason, the POCO inspector was certain that he had cut one of the rods (he saw a piece of 1/2" copper in the trash pile)
> 
> ...


That I inspector should have been fired. What a POS!!!!!


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## readydave8 (Sep 20, 2009)

Tonedeaf said:


> The stupidity that comes out of some of you people....The Ground is the most important part. Electrocuting your customers is going to hurt your repeat business.


It may make you feel good to call someone stupid but is unlikely to change their minds


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## lighterup (Jun 14, 2013)

"you people"...racist!


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

RePhase277 said:


> Yeah... the earth ground isn't for protection against electrocution. That's the equipment ground's job.


If only people understood that, we wouldn't be wasting so much time and energy pounding worthless ground rods.


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

Tonedeaf said:


> Grounds are pretty important bub's


Grounds/grounding are very important. 

Ground rods, not so much.


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## PokeySmokey (Nov 14, 2017)

socket2ya said:


> I have an inspector and night school code instructor who insists that you can lay a ground rod down and bury it horizontally. He says were all dumb for driving down


 I suspect this inspector/code instructor is located in an area of soil with high moisture content all year around.

In areas where the Bed Rock is a few feet below the grade; you can set your grounds almost horizontal. In Ontario Canada 2 ground rods 10 feet (3 Metres) long must be located 10 feet (3 metres) apart connected to the main switch neutral bar with one continuous copper wire of the appropriate size to both ground rods.


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## PokeySmokey (Nov 14, 2017)

220/221 said:


> Grounds/grounding are very important.
> 
> Ground rods, not so much.


Defective or improperly installed service entrance ground systems (ground rods, underground copper water pipe in place of ground rods, etc) can be extremely dangerous.

This ground system ensures the Neutral Voltage stay very close to zero when measured from Neutral to Earth. (Neutral to Earth Bonding)

Most people including many electrician do not realize that under certain fault conditions the neutral voltage can raise to over 200 volts measured to ground. This usually due to broken neutral or loose neutral connection.

If the Main Service ground which is designed to keep the Neutral to Ground very close to zero volts is not installed properly there may be a condition called floating neutral where the neutral voltage can obtain dangerously high voltages.

I have repaired neutral to earth bonding many times where a home owner or handy man and sometimes a trades person has broken the grounding conductor from the Main Switch Neutral to the Ground Rods or underground copper water pipe. The problems are not always noticed immediately; sometimes not until months later.

Often a member of the household in in the kitchen and turn on or off a light switch while touching a faucet (Older installations did not have a safe distance from the kitchen sink for outlets and switches left alone GFCIs.)

The would receive a surprise electrical shock. The first few times they usually put it down to static electricity.

Then someone would get a more severe shock and I would get a call to check it out.

Most of the time it was due to a broken connection between the earthing device and the Service Entrance Neutral Bar.

I have measured voltages approaching 100 volts to the water pipes. When measuring this voltage have someone watch the metre or use a recording metre. Go around the home and turn on and off different appliances. If the voltage stays below 120 volts it is usually due to a broken connection between the earthing device and the Service Entrance Neutral Bar.

Usually a broken neutral will increase well above 120 volt at some point when the appliances are being turned on and off.

Another cause to be aware of is the bonding jumper across the water meter which could be in combination with a frayed NMD cable crossing over a water pipe.

Ran into many scenarios mentioned above plus more.

Grounding is very important all through the electrical system from Grounding to Earth to making sure all ground conductors are properly connected to Service Panels, Electrical Boxes, Bonding Bushings, and Electrical devices and appliances.

For the Nay Sayers who try to say the current is too low to do any harm; it only takes 1/10 ampere {0.1 ampere, 100 ma} (one tenth or one hundred milli-amperes) to kill a healthy human at 30 to 50 volts. 100 ma is easily attainable with all the above scenarios. 

Be safe do NOT shortcut any part of the Grounding System!!


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

Are they kicking members out of Mike Holt again? For a while it was routine around here to have guys who think a ground rod is helpful in opening a shorted circuit , when in fact it usually is no good for that at all. Now that there water pipe ground is a whole nother story , especially when it is copper and continuous to the nearby houses that have good neutral connections back to the transformer. 

But a ground rod with 25 ohms of resistance won't do anything to interrupt a fault on even a 15 amp 120 volt circuit, which - the above poster - who is aware of the 6-10 milliamp threshold for major body damage, knows is a whole lot of amps to contend with when it is you getting the shock from it. I'm glad we have better methods to ground circuits than those ancient lousy ground rods. They stink. Anyhow this house I cheated at had a side walk I drilled thru and drove the rod a bit more than half before it got stuck in some house size boulder down there in the lava someplace..... And it was stuck like only blue rock in Hawaii can stick a ground rod. I wasn't going to leave a 3 ft rod sticking out of the sidewalk near the meter, so out came the bandsaw. By the way the earth hereabouts is so acidic it eats ground rods away in thirty to forty years to zero , you can pull up the ones from the real old houses , and they only have 6 inches of rod left after the corrosion is finished with them.


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

socket2ya said:


> I have an inspector and night school code instructor who insists that you can lay a ground rod down and bury it horizontally. He says were all dumb for driving down


He's recreating a poor man's Ufer with this approach -- but it's too short to be a proper Ufer.

The original thinking behind ground rods was that they'd reach wet soil... in a cheap and quick way.

All the rest is pretty much the result of good marketing...

Meaning that they are over sold. And over credited. 

For in many areas, they are Hell to drive, and// or the soil is dry as a bone and operates as an insulator.

Ufers beat ground rods all to Hell... and in newly poured concrete footers or slabs they are virtually cost free... as rebar was going into the pour regardless.

&&&

Faults are cleared by the EGC. It took the longest time, but experience proved that you really do need a grounding conductor wherever a hot conductor could energize a piece of the structure -- even something as small as a switch yoke.

The GEC System protects (electronic) equipment and cures equipment malfunctions (signal quality)... which is why the Low Voltage crowd needs to bond with it. Solid state electronics are very polarity (bias) sensitive. 

It is not capable of 'curing' an open Service neutral. 

And no structure can withstand a lightning bolt because of its GEC System. The scheme is to hold the neutral conductor towards zero volts so that it's nearly a perfect equipotential plane with the surrounding soils -- so that it doesn't attract lightning bolts in the first place.

The GEC System can't cure voltage spikes, either. Surge suppressors cure them.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

There's not a whole lot of controversy that most surge protection devices rely on a low impedance ground. If you read the documentation for most of the better brand MOV-based SPDs, they emphasize the importance of a low impedance ground for good protection. 

I always want to see if the reality matches with the theory. In this case, I am satisfied that it does. 

I have heard that Florida has the worst surge damage problems in the country due to a combination of sandy soil with high impedance GES and a lot of lightning, but I couldn't verify that myself. 

I have had a few customers that had recurring surge damage to sensitive gear, that never had another problem once I beefed up the grounding. Could be a coincidence. 

In my area there are big tracts of extremely rocky soil. You can't plant a shrub without a big prybar, the ground is just all rocks from watermelon size to gang box size. If you hit one of the gang box sized rocks you're either hiring a hydra hammer or putting your shrub somewhere else. Over the years I have noticed that people in those super rocky areas have much worse surge problems. In some communities, where they're both on rocky soil and exposed to a lot of lightning, you'll find out that people unplug their TVs. They don't believe in SPDs, they say they don't work around there. I think it's really that nobody ever bothers to do a decent job with grounding in those areas.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

lighterup said:


> What if you don not have 30" ...only 24" ...what would you do?





HackWork said:


> Find another spot I suppose.
> 
> I've had to run 70'+ of GEC snaked thru houses, up to the attic and back down on the other side of the house, just to get to a place where I could drive the rods. My issue isn't rock, it's that some houses have little to no dirt/grass around them.
> 
> We gotta do what we gotta do.


I thought the ground ring was the way to go, although it is called a "ground _*ring*_ and the wording says "encircling" the building the interpretation of the actual intent is not to make a full circle around just to follow the contour / perimeter of the building. 

Really 20' of #2 buried in a little slit trench would be easy almost anywhere.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

PokeySmokey said:


> Defective or improperly installed service entrance ground systems (ground rods, underground copper water pipe in place of ground rods, etc) can be extremely dangerous.
> 
> This ground system ensures the Neutral Voltage stay very close to zero when measured from Neutral to Earth. (Neutral to Earth Bonding)
> 
> ...


Nice troll post.


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

HackWork said:


> It can be laid in a 30" minimum depth ditch ONLY if you hit a rock bottom and not able to drive it fully in on a 45 degree angle.


funny thing is, i seem to hit a rock almost every UG service ditch i'm in.....~CS~


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## Chris1971 (Dec 27, 2010)

MTW said:


> Nice troll post.


Thanks. I’m glad you enjoyed my post.


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

PokeySmokey said:


> Defective or improperly installed service entrance ground systems (ground rods, underground copper water pipe in place of ground rods, etc) can be extremely dangerous.
> 
> This ground system ensures the Neutral Voltage stay very close to zero when measured from Neutral to Earth. (Neutral to Earth Bonding)
> 
> ...


So, if you get an open neutral, it is somehow safer to have the electricity flowing through the water pipes, grounded appliances and everything thing else connected to the ground system?

I don't believe that the ground rod or user has anything to do with that scenario.

I don't think that any metallic piping systems should be bonded. Have you ever heard of a plumber being electrocuted while pulling out a water meter? It could happen very easily.


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

PokeySmokey said:


> Defective or improperly installed service entrance ground systems (ground rods, underground copper water pipe in place of ground rods, etc) can be extremely dangerous.
> 
> This ground system ensures the Neutral Voltage stay very close to zero when measured from Neutral to Earth. (Neutral to Earth Bonding)
> 
> ...


The voltage to earth is only stable in an open neutral situation if there is zero load on the system. 120 V loads that is. It is the current trying to return to the transformer through the ground rods that creates the hazard you speak of.


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## FaultCurrent (May 13, 2014)

Back in the 70's an Edison crew working in the backyard of a home accidentally dropped a live 13,200 volt line which fell on to one of the the disconnected 120/240 volt distribution lines near the transformer they were working on. 

All hell broke loose in the dozen or so homes that were supplied by this XFMR. This was in an old part of Alhambra, so many scenarios existed. Ungrounded homes fed by an old 60 amp service. Homes that had service changes that had a grounded service feeding the existing knob and tube wiring and and some remodeled and rewired homes that were done with appropriate grounding systems, including a ground rod. 

Different results were interesting. The ungrounded homes had one conductor raised to 13.2 KV above ground. Anything that was electronic, on of off was destroyed. A lady had a washing machine running and it went ballistic (she was the only injury when she tried to unplug it). Most circuits that had open contacts like light switches or motors not running escaped. The homes that were grounded suffered some form of damage at the service equipment. Their grounding electrode conductors got red hot. The newest homes suffered sporadic and unpredictable damage. 

SCE called every contractor in town to get the homes back up and running, I worked on 2 when I was a kid. Lot of speculation on how current flowed, but one thing was evident, the 13.2 KV traveled down the 120 leg and even though the neutral was ungrounded in some homes it was still grounded by the connections in the other homes. But since the system was grounded overall the voltage to ground was limited. 

Did the ground rods do anything?


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

I was adding pole lights in an existing large apartment complex and my hole driller sub drilled thru the primaries into the secondaries.

It was all blue staked (utilities located) except that one location. The POCO rep came out and gave a verbal OK after consulting his maps.

I hauled ass out to the site expecting to find chaos but the POCO was extremely nonchalant and accepted responsibility.

There wasn't nearly the damage I expected. There was a WHOLE lot of random and some consistent failures. I remember specifically that there some were blowouts on some washing machine receps/plugs. One appliance pigtail had the green wire exposed in a small loop right at the plug end. Crazy crap. 

Some surge protectors blew up and they did protect the electronic gear. Other stuff was unharmed. I'd find a random wire nut blown off in a smoke detector etc.

I thought they should have don a full inspection on the several buildings affected but they just address the issues that were reported.

Another time, a POCO crew dropped an overhead primary onto the secondary lines. Several blocks away, some conduit and an LB supplying a compressor blew apart. I have no idea how many other service calls were reported on that one. I just know that I was scratching my head wondering why it chose the path it did.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

Chris1971 said:


> Thanks. I’m glad you enjoyed my post.


:ban:


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## Chris1971 (Dec 27, 2010)

MTW said:


> :ban:


:stupid::stupid::stupid::stupid::stupid:


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