Need help with grounding rod, please.

[Nightcrawler®]

LOL! What if there is not a concrete footing? As always, local code trumps NEC. Some locations require a Ufer in conjunction with a ground rod; vertical. One must remember that all soil is not equal. It not only goes left-right, forward and back, in all directions from a 2-D perspective, it also goes up and down. The soil on the surface might be horrible for obtaining an Earth bond, but 6' down you might find an excellent strata to accomplish the task.

I've seen locations where the maximum depth allowed is 8' because this depth was approaching an aquifer (some places are even down to ~6'). It was impossible to get the soil to provide less than 30 ohms at 6' increments between ground rods. Needless to say, the cost of that project went up drastically.

[Nightcrawler®]

Ground rings are tedious to install, and with modern copper prices, very expensive, too. They are usually installed with engineered soil, but this may vary by location. I imagine Florida is quite the PITA to get effective Earth bond. I also know that there are some areas, in Florida, where a bare neutral is not allowed in a metallic conduit.

Same in certain regions of Nevada, California, and Arkansas. Some places do not allow bare wires sharing a conduit with live wires, period. Some places really don't have a true, local authority managing certain things. Sometimes it is scary going into Bubbaville. Electrical code enforcement is not necessarily universal. Arkansas adopts each new release of code without a blink. California, well, they like to wait awhile. IIRC, they were still on the 1993 book in 2002, or had just adopted 1996. I know for a fact that 1993 was still the gospel in 1999.

So, as a caveat. Check your location's addendums and adoption policies in regards to code enforcement and localized modifications. For instance, in Alameda, Ca, it is required to have the meter of a service drop/feed be a minimum of 75" (IIRC)in areas where there is a walkway or foot traffic adjacent and parallel to the meter installation. This is the only place I have ran into this restriction, but...

[Nightcrawler®]

Yep, ground systems are not only for fault current. I imagine that in modern times a Ufer like system, coupled with a ground ring, is used.

[micky]

Are you saying there is code for a burglar alarm rod, even though burglar alarms are not required?

At any rate, this was bought at a professional burglar-alarm only wholesale store, I didn't ask for a cheap one, I'm sure it was the only one they sold, at least for homes, and I'm sure whatever they sold met any code in effect at the time.

Just a guess on your part.

I know this ng. If someone says white, the next person says black. And vice versa. When I found an extender for my lightbulb so it would fit in a temporary socket I was using, an extender that had been in my father's electric parts box probably since before I was born, which I finally had a chance to use, six people replied, none favorably. The objections were ridiculous. I didn't say anything then, but this reminds me.

[bud--]

A rod for burglar alarms is not in the NEC.

In you want all earthing electrodes connected into a single system with one connection back into the house.

Isolated rods can be at a far different potential (thousands of volts) than the rest of the electrical system during an "event". The same principle is why Dufas puts surge protectors at pad mounted a/c compressors.

IMHO isolated rods are likely to increase damage.

[trader4]

Wooosh!

[trader4]

A better ground would usually be the grounding system for the building. That could consist of a Ufer, metal water pipe running underground, ground rod/rods, etc. In new installations if you're going to rely on ground rods, there is almost always more than one. Also, if you do use a seperate ground rod to ground something, per code, it's supposed to be bonded back to the building ground system, not left on it's own.

[notbob]

Two yrs ago, CO and KS were 90% "exceptional drought". Even during the vicious flooding in upper central CO, this year, that one little spot down in SE CO remained severly drought stricken. Squirt guns, indeed. ;)

nb

[dpb]

Even though central/eastern KS got record accumulations thru August this year when it did begin the High Plains areas are still, while not quite as bad as a year ago, in serious hurt...we're in that corner of D3 in SW KS that is out of D4 but just barely...

[micky]

That's not what the instructions said. Who am I supposed to believe, you or the instructions from the manufacturer?

BTW, it did last 20 years before it smoked to death.

[gfretwell]

Does the manufacturer warranty against lightning damage?

Most don't.

Bear in mind, if yours blows up, they get to sell you a new one.

[Andy]

NIB 5/PACK ERICO, INC 615880UPC 5/8X8FT COPPER GROUNDING ROD

US $240.95

240/5 = $48 each

Not exactly "penny roll money".

Andy