A new way to assure that the ground rod is set deep enough

[William J. Decker]

Originally Posted by Greg Fretwell

A little more gee whiz info
I checked the ground current on every pole with a transformer going up the street towards the feed end. The current at my house was .47, roughly the same as what my overhead drop neutral measured with the service disconnect OFF (so I am not paying for that current).
The pole grounds are cruising in the .6a range until I got up close to the feed and I got a 1.80 and a 2.97 at the first transformer. This is a 4ga instead of the normal 8ga so I am guessing FPL expected more current for some reason. It is a "busy" pole. The 180 was a little surprising but the pole before it was .2 so that ground may be bad.

I have pictures

I don't really have a good way to check GEC current since I have 2 panels with 2 GECs and a pool. That is definately my biggest electrode, connected by about a dozen EGCs. (2 underwater lights, 3 pumps, 3 heaters, a control box and a bunch of bell boxes bolted to my screen cage). Current has too many paths to measure, hence checking the neutral on the drop with the SD off.

It would appear that there is a vast difference between "best practices" (i.e., the NEC) and what actually is done in the field by local power companies.

Go figure

Our power company (ComEd, a division of Excelon) gets away with murder all the time. What about them installing the service drop cables over a garage roof deck, with the cables being only 6'6" (my eye level) over the center of the deck! I see this all the time and call it out. The power company says it is OK.

Reality has a way of slapping us in the face.

If the POCO ain't following "the right way", who will?

[Greg Fretwell]

I just spoke to a guy over on ECN and he says wiring transformers L/N on the primary is standard practice in Northern Virginia too.

I still say a certain percentage of all of this current is going to get back to the distribution station via the dirt. It can't work any other way. Based on my measurements this seems to be fairly evenly divided at about a half an amp per ground electrode on this leg. The only thing that would be interesting is to check the same thing on a dry time. We had almost 2" of rain last night (and it has been raining for a week) so the ground rods should be about as good as they get today. Our drought index is 185 now. It gets up to 800. (a measure of the lack of moisture in the dirt)

[jtedesco1]

Originally Posted by wdecker

Saw this in a phased inspection. No need to actually "drive" the ground rod, just "backfill" around it.

Comments?

Read these articles

[Speedy Petey]

I don't read articles about things, written by folks who are trying to sell me those things.
That's called advertising.

[jtedesco1]

Originally Posted by Speedy Petey

I don't read articles about things, written by folks who are trying to sell me those things.
That's called advertising.

No wonder then, you are missing lots of good technical information.

You read the code, and lots of the material in it is based upon products, and Annex A.

Knowledge is power!

In this Section: Electrical circuit-interrupters

Tamper-resistant electrical receptacles

Electrical safety in the home

Product recalls & counterfeiting warnings
Electrical product recalls and counterfeit warnings issued by reputable third-party agencies