I have recently put up a steel building for a horse barn, steel framework, steel siding, and sitting on 4"stone dust and 2ft of shale, to the West Virginia clay. The building is secured to the ground using six 4’ steel screw anchors (mobile home anchors) bolted to the metal frame and 6 4’ steel pins (looks like rebar fashioned into a common nail) hammered through the steel floor plates.
Near to where the barn sits is a 240v trailer connection (2 separate outlets-not used, belond to previous property owners) into the house panel which I plan on extending to a small load center in the barn. From that I plan on installing 6 lights (1 circuit) and 6 fan outlets (2 circuits).
Is this building sufficiently grounded and bonded, or do I need to install one (or more) copper rods to have an electrically safe building. If so, how long does it (they) need to be? Since the ground wire runs to the house panel, do I need to do anything additional to protect the house circuits? Does any of the above meet the requirement for lightning protection…fried horses don’t ride well.
Is there anything else I didn’t think of to ask or that I should do?
I would tell you that this is the wrong type of forum for those types of questions. There are many things you need to be aware of if you are planning on supplying power to the detached structure.
Many of the comments you made in your post show a lack of understanding of why we do bonding and why we install equipment grounding conductors versus why we install a grounding electrode system. You do not make a building “electrically” safe by installing a grounding electrode system…you make it safer from lightning causing a potential fire, transient voltages, higher voltage to low voltage imposed by service drop damage and so on…
You will need (4) conductors to your detached structure and terminate into a disconnection means…You will have(2) Ungrounded “hot” conductors (1) Grounded Conductor and (1) Equipment Ground Conductor…the equipment ground that is run with this feeder is to facilitate the operation of the overcurrent device that is protecting this remote system and associated feeder conductors.
Also remember that installing a properly done grounding electrode system is not the same as a lightning protection system…two different beasts for two different technical functions.
Remember lightning is all about proximity and nothing to do with the fact it is a metal building…and no…none of the items you are speaking off meet anything that would be considered a lightning protection system…
You have conductor type to think about…bury depth and so on. You have disconnection means to think about at the detached building and how you are going to establish a grounding electrode system in accordance with the National Electrical Code ( keep in mind…items you listed are not electrodes except for a ground rod ) and ground rods are 8’ in length typically…8’ is all you would need and if you are not able to show 25 ohms or less…install another one 6’ minimum away from the other…
As you can see…many things to think about and I have only scratched the surface.
Read NEC Art. 547 . This will help with some of your questions concerning ceiling fans, and light fixtures. GFCI protect all circuits where animals will be. Also make note of the importance of " Equipotential Plane". I know you didnt mention any concrete slabs, but be advised anyway.
Just more stuff to think about, and yes, like Paul said, just scratching the surface.