Re: Building foundation. Trying to locate ground rod

On Sep 11, 1:36 am, bigjcw1...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
What would be the simplest way to ground my whole house from
lightning and other electrical mishaps. Or how to tell if it already is.

Lightning seeks earth ground. If conducted to earth via wrong
paths, then you have damage. Which incoming paths are you trying to
protect? 1) Lightning strike to your chimney? 2) Lightning strike to
utility wires out on the street - a direct strike to household
appliances? 3) Lightning that enters from earth ground on one side
of the house, passes through household appliances destructively, then
continues out other side of house back to earth?

Earthing for first above problem is called Franklin lightning rods.
A rod properly installed above that chimney would connect lightning to
earth without damage. Earthing provides chimney protection. Same
protection for an antenna. That antenna must have its own dedicated
connection to earth, or an earthed lightning rod protruding above that
antenna. How effective is that protection? Quality of the earthing
AND how that earthing connection is made determines whether lightning
will earth via the lightning rod or will find a better earthing
connectcion via something else.

A lightning strike to utility wires (second problem) means each wire
entering a building must be earthed where wire enters the building.
For example, one of three AC wires must be earthed directly to meet
code - for human safety. Inspect that earthing. A bare copper 6 AWG
wire must connect from breaker box to an earthing electrode that is
best 'less than 10 feet' away. No sharp bends. Ground wire routed
separated from other wires. No splices. Not inside metallic
conduit. And not over the top of the foundation and down to an
earthing electrode. That wire must be shorter and with less bends:
directly through foundation and down to that earthing electrode.

Only some requirements are required by code for human safety -
understood by all electricians. Some requirements for lightning
protection must exceed code requirements - such as no sharp bends,
separated from other wires, and 'less than 10 feet'. IOW that ground
wire must meet code for human safety, and must exceed code to earth
lightning (transistor safety)

To avoid the third problem, all incoming utilities must be earthed
to same earthing electrode. IOW all utilities must enter the building
at a same location. If your utilities are widely separated, then one
solution uses a buried wire encircling the building so that all
utilities connect to a common ground system:
http://www.cinergy.com/surge/ttip08.htm

Even better is when that earthing electrode completely encircles the
building or if an earthing electrode was installed when footings are
poured (Ufer ground). Why do we install superior grounds? Because
earthing defines quality of surge protection; a surge protector is
only as effective as its earthing.

Solutions provided for three different lightning paths. Only
component always required for surge protection is earth ground. Are
both wires for telephone or the other two AC electric wires earthed?
Ground those wires directly and get no electric or phone service.
Earthing is provided by a 'whole house' protector. During a surge,
those ungrounded phone wires are connected directly to earth by the
protector. A surge dumped into earth via a 'whole house' protector
will not wander inside the house seeking destructive paths through
appliances.

Another with an agenda will say anything to avoid that fact. But his
own citation says exactly what a protector does. On page 17 (of 24)
in
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/practiceguides/surgesfnl.pdf
A very important point to keep in mind is that your
surge protector will work by diverting the surges to
ground. The best surge protection in the world can
be useless if grounding is not done properly.


On page 6 (Adobe page 8 of 24):
You cannot really suppress a surge altogether, nor
"arrest" it. What these protective devices do is
neither suppress nor arrest a surge, but simply
divert it to ground, where it can do no harm. So
a name that makes sense would be "surge diverter"
but it was not picked. So, for the rest of this
booklet, we will stick to the most popular "surge
protector".


The 'whole house' protector (when properly earthed) is so effective
as to be used in all high reliability facilities. Responsible
solutions don't waste money on ineffective solutions such as 'miracle'
plug-in devices. That dedicated earthing wire is essential. Telco
even installs an effective (earthed) protector on your telephone line,
for free. Find the NID box (where their wires meet yours). Inside is
a 'whole house' protector. But the protector is only as effective as
its earth ground. Is a ground wire from the NID 'less than 10 feet'
to the same earth ground used by cable and AC electric?

A protector does not stop or absorb lightning as some will claim.
Surge energy must be shunted / diverted / connected / bonded / clamped
to earth. Earth is where the energy is dissipated harmlessly. A
protector is simply a connecting device to protection. Protection is
the single point earth ground.

How do you verify your protection system? Follow those bare copper
ground wires from breaker box to find the earthing electrode. Follow
the TV cable before it enters to find a 'less than 10 feet' from cable
to earth ground. Follow a green or gray wire from telco NID to that
earthing electrode. This single point earth ground is a 'secondary'
protection system.

Also inspect your 'primary' protection system:
http://www.tvtower.com/fpl.html
Utilities must install earthing especially at AC electric
transformer. Just another earth ground essential to household
protection.

Other grounding for human safety was described by volts500 in
"Grounding Rod Info" on 12 July 2003 at:
http://tinyurl.com/hkjq


.

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