Earth Electrodes Part 1

Earth electrodes - earth rods, couplers, covers, other types of electrodes, step potential, dangers with farm animals.

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[TD.SteveArcs]

In the event of a ground fault where you know or suspect the ground to be energised (downed power line etc) live earth, they actually teach you to shuffle your feet keeping them close together as to not create a high potential difference between one foot and the other

[stevecoatesdotnet]

Top marks for the cow illustration :).

[Graham_Langley]

Had a nice example of the effect of current flowing through the ground many years ago during a thunderstorm. My BiL and I were sheltering from a thunderstorm sitting next to each other under an awning pitched on thin soil over chalk. We were both on metal chairs but he had is hand on another one and got a real jolt when lightning stuck the ground ten yards or so away. I felt nothing.

[bdf]

Being British, I prefer British terminology to Merkin terminology. Even so, I've just realized the Merkin terminology is future-proofed. When Muskie gets to Mars he just needs a grounding rod. When us Brits get to Mars we'll be unable to decide whether to rewrite all the books and re-label all the equipment so we have Mars rods or if we continue to call them earth rods on Mars, leading to great confusion.

[MS-yydh]

It would be great if you could produce a video on installation of domestic underground mains cables to a shed or outdoor lighting - relevant, regulations, safety issues, etc. I am sure many would be interested.

[philipallen]

some older sparks will remember the problems we had with overlaping step potentials when rods were commonly used on properties in conjunction with voltage operated elcbs .one set of regs calls it sympathy tripping a house with a fault 3 doors down would trip the one 3 doors up but it was a step forward to electrical safety, interesting video john thanks

[seanmcneill]

Hi John work as an electrician in Ireland we use a galvanised earth box about 6" square with lid and 20 mm entery hole..Very robust. Thanks for all your knowledge.

[firsteerr]

im glad you did this, there are a LOT of videos of electricians putting rods in but they dont seem to have calculated how many they need they seem to think one is enough when it may well not be

[muzikman]

Fantastic stuff JW, love it, I'm sure a lot of electricians need Earth rods/Electrodes de-mystifying. Thanks for your hard work explaining this stuff. I never took into account potential difference between livestock's front and rear feet..lol..opened my eyes for sure. :-) looking forward to EP:2

[johnschlesinger]

It would be interesting to discuss the advantage of installing an earth electrode on pme systems. Some supply authorities will not give a pme connection in a basement location unless an earthed mesh is installed under the floor.

[paulshephard]

Great stuff JW. Your lectures are very informative and much appreciated. Thank you!

[jamesmauer]

Interesting video John. I'd never thought about the potential danger of the energized earth around the electrode during fault conditions.

[tamtgirl]

i watched the power company install a pole transformer once. they power-hammered 3 9 foot lengths of ground rod in all joined together, i guess they REALLY wanted that thing grounded! lol

[richardwash]

Very interesting JW, looking forward to the next installment. 👍

[ursodermatt]

there we go: in australia they are quite happy letting the earth rod sticking out over the surface.

[_a.z]

Hi, can you talk about temporary earthing with generators?

[mysockC]

Never really give much thought to these until the grounding fails. Had that happen and also had the remaining ground wiring in the house become live with mains AC. Needless to say found out pretty quick there was an issue when metal knobs and enclosures would arc to your fingers when you touch them.

[crazygeorgelincoln]

Remembering a tom Nagy vid of installing a rod into the pavement outside a house. Do not recall if he put a little sticker with his name on it.

[iankerr]

Hi John (and all who read this). I remember approx 4yrs ago that a dog in Greenock/Gourock that died after lifting it's leg at lit bollard to pee died (I was a wheel known Company that had been installing the earth rod, probably road navvi, not spark that carried out the wiring, hence the poor dog suffered

[fieldsofomagh]

Lively topic and a relevant one as regards safety for everyone.