Can I Bend the Rods on My Soil Tester So I Can Read From Above

A primal component of safety and protection for your business and/or home's electric organization is proper grounding.  For this reason, one or more ground rods are required on your property past the National Electrical Code (NEC) and local building codes. Footing rods are simple and inexpensive but are crucial to protecting your electrical equipment and appliances, and therefore must not be neglected.

What is a ground rod?

A ground rod is ordinarily located very close to your main electrical service panel and is often made of copper or copper coated steel. They're approximately ½" in diameter and eight to 10 feet in length. It must exist electrically tied to your main service console to provide an approved ground connection.

If a single ground has a resistance of 25 ohms or less, edifice codes let it to exist used as the only grounding device.  If the resistance of a ground rod is greater than 25 ohms, at to the lowest degree one additional ground rod is required.

Footing rods are uncomplicated and cheap just are crucial to protecting your electric equipment and appliances.

Inspecting your footing rod

Ground rods and their connections to your business or home'southward electrical system may be damaged over time and must exist properly maintained.  Causes of damage include corrosion, freeze/thaw cycles, landscaping equipment or devil-may-care installation of grounds for other equipment, such as cablevision Telly, security systems or generators.

A visual check of grounding can exist done by inspecting the wire that connects the electrical panel near the meter to the ground rod.  Typically, this is a copper wire about one/iv″ in diameter and tin can be seen going down into the soil.  Below the surface, the wire is connected to ane or more ground rods. The tops of the ground rods are typically below the surface and may non exist like shooting fish in a barrel to inspect. However, sometimes ground rods extend a few inches above the surface, making it easy to audit the connexion.

In some cases, problems with footing rods are easy to see.  Rods that are not fully installed may extend a foot or more than in a higher place the surface of the soil.  This reduces the effectiveness of the footing.  Ground rods that are aptitude over, have disconnected wires or are severely corroded must exist replaced.  Ground rods that are installed in rocky or dry soil should exist checked to make sure they still have a low resistance.  If soil conditions change due to drainage or other factors that bear on soil wet, a ground rod that was acceptable at the time of installation may no longer meet approved requirements.

Unfortunately, nosotros have no control over how well your electric panel is grounded. If you do not provide proper grounding in accordance with the NEC, there is no way to mitigate electrical impairment that may occur across your electric panel. If you have concerns about your business or home grounding, contact a licensed electrical contractor.

Protection against power surges

Among the diverse situations that may occur on your electrical system, the near mutual are high voltage surges, and harm or loss of one of the Service Conductors.

• High voltage surges are often acquired by lightning strikes on or most power lines. In addition, voltage spikes can occur when large appliances or heavy machinery at nearby locations are switched on or off.  Proper grounding provides stability to your domicile's electrical system and reduces the impact of these surges.
• Should a tree branch autumn, or a car hit a pole, the service wire from the utility system to your home may exist disrupted. Proper grounding of your domicile and business is of import to eliminate or minimize the possible damage.  With insufficient grounding, varying voltages in the home may cause damage to motorized appliances due to nether voltage or damage to electronics equally a result of overvoltage.

Another critical issue relative to sensitive electronic equipment is the proper installation and performance of Surge Protective Devices (SPD). The all-time surge protection equipment is much less effective without a properly installed and maintained grounding system. The SPD works by shunting damaging electrical surges away from your sensitive electronics to ground and they demand the all-time possible ground to work properly.

Therefore, it is necessary you take and need to maintain a NEC lawmaking-canonical basis organisation every bit office of your electrical system.

This weblog'southward creation originated from Peninsula Light Co.'southward grounding blog which can be establish here .

Can I Bend the Rods on My Soil Tester So I Can Read From Above

Source: https://empoweringmichigan.com/ground-rods-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-protect-your-electrical-equipment-and-appliances/

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