Am I Even Grounded?

Рет қаралды 1,854

2 жыл бұрын

Пікірлер: 27

@travishodges5179 2 жыл бұрын

It was common in old houses to have the ground wire come from the distribution box inside to a main water line and gas line, since the entrance water lines were copper they made a good ground. But time destroys everything, many frozen pipes were replaced with plastic over the years.

@prestonjmathis 2 жыл бұрын

At that time you probably have a cold water bond. Adding a ground rod and bonding it to your main panel would be a good idea. Over they years with repairs cold water bonds can become separated by pex or pvc making it ineffective. Look in your main panel for a #6 or #4 bare copper wire landed on the ground/neutral bar.

@BeeneEnergy 2 жыл бұрын

Oh I didn’t think about that! Yes I have copper pipes. I’ll check for the wire you mention. The only thing that might be tricky is I have two panels in the house that feed off my meter. I’ll check both to see what there is to see.

@Sylvan_dB 2 жыл бұрын

Exactly. A copper or steel water pipe for utility water is probably your ground. Also your ground might be connected to rebar in your foundation. External inspection isn't useful. Open the panel (and be careful because the main lugs are usually always live and very exposed in 1970s panels). Also agree with adding a ground rod. Wire to the same bus in the panel as the original (keep the original as well) with #6 or #4. I'd also recommend putting in two ground rods at least 10 feet apart and keep the wire continuous from the panel to both rods.

@prestonjmathis 2 жыл бұрын

@@BeeneEnergy looks like you have a 400 amp service. You should have 2 main panels then. Not a main panel and a sub panel. Both panels should have a ground neutral bond and be bonded to cold water and possibly uffer(rebar ground) ground rod is much better than cold water bond. Sometimes they run jumper does the ground between both panels.

@BeeneEnergy 2 жыл бұрын

@@Sylvan_dB I don’t know if it matters but my house was originally fed by a well on site. But it’s definitely copper pipes so grounding to that makes sense. I’m on a crawl space so if it’s running to a pipe I should be able to inspect it! If I dare crawl down there, I avoid crawling in my 18” crawl space…

@BeeneEnergy 2 жыл бұрын

@@prestonjmathis Yep it’s 320a service. Good eye. I have a 200a and 125a panel. And multiple sub panels off the 200a panel. I’ll check both when I’m home later. I know I need to unbond ground/neutral from an existing sub panel. Haven’t made it to that item on the todo list yet though.

@tinysolarshack9615 2 жыл бұрын

If that conduit was your ground, perhaps electrolysis ate/ corroded your coupling.

@65BAJA 2 жыл бұрын

Can't you open the panel and see what the ground is connected to?

@BradCagle 2 жыл бұрын

I seem to recall a water pipe being used in many houses

@SuperWhizy 2 жыл бұрын

As a non-electrician with a lot of electrician friends, I would check the main service disconnect downstream of the meter can; typically considered the "Main" panel, with everything else sub-servient to it. Per NEC, this is the only location where there should be a bond between the neutral bus and the ground conductor; you should see two thick gauge conductors mating the same point inside this main panel, with the other two power legs connected to a big knife switch. I doubt very highly that the 2.5" galvanized conduit is serving as the ground; that would be very unorthodox even for a hack like me. The 10' ground rods are driven a good distance into the earth with a tiny stubout above the ground. It looks like you've got pavers that raises the walkway a bit, perhaps it's buried.

@DIYwithBatteries 2 жыл бұрын

Is it really necessary that using so much salt ;) I didn't believed in these things until I get a little vibration when I touch cooler lol

@CynicEidolon 2 жыл бұрын

Open your panel. Is there a large equipment grounding conductor in there on some buss? Then you're grounded. They could have run appropriate AWG wire anywhere and driven the ground rod before they even poured your exterior slabs. Grounding is not a MUST have but it can alleviate some safety issues.

@liamwelsh5565 2 жыл бұрын

Grounding is a must have. Without it, you're house isn't safe at all. Any electrical component that is metal such as your panel, lights, plugs, etc. should be bonded to ground. If it's not and there is a short, that piece of metal is now live and can shock someone or start a fire due to high resistance which causes heat. If it is bonded, then the breaker will trip.

@CynicEidolon 2 жыл бұрын

@@liamwelsh5565 Thanks for explaining what's most obvious. I really appreciate the amount of effort you put into something so apparent. My point is, although it's not the safest way route, systems operate ungrounded everyday! I've replaced so much knob and tube it's not even fun to think about.

@dangoras9152 2 жыл бұрын

Brother u better get that fixed there should have a grouding bar in the ground .... Check by ur gas meter there should be one there...

@BeeneEnergy 2 жыл бұрын

Nope no gas meter, this house is all electric. Never had gas. Not even propane! The reason for the 320a service i suspect.

@SiriusSolar 2 жыл бұрын

the concept of grounding is hard for me to justify. I'm off grid and no one's forcing me to ground anything. my off-grid friends supposedly grounded properly, even their solar panel frames are grounded. seems like a bright idea to me to stick a ground rod from the ground all the way up to the roof and put it right there next to a valuable part of your power system! you may as well call it a lightning strike rod because that's exactly what happens to both of my friends who did this. they got hit by lightning which fried everything. well not everything. the batteries were good but the BMS was toast. inverter charge controller fried! when I was in a permitted rental house we got hit by lightning. it came right through the room I was standing in and vaporized my DSL modem. grounded things attract lightning.!!!

@benjones8977 2 жыл бұрын

I do not believe you should have a lightning rod all the way to your roof. Have a Lightning rod to the ground and have a copper wire going from your panels to your lightning rod. Next ground all your off grid equipment to another lightning rod.

@SetitesTechAdventures 2 жыл бұрын

You are talking about a lightning rod. It sounds like it did what it was supposed to but the rods path to ground was not low enough impedance. Maybe bond it to it's own separate ground, or a better line to ground. Deeper lightning rod. Anything conductive attracts lightning. The lightning rod is just there to motivate it to go somewhere safe by offering it a path of least resistance into the dirt.

@cec4 2 жыл бұрын

lighting rods work by dissipating charge difference from the ground and clouds preventing a large build up striking your house, they are not ment to attract lighting. same way an anti static wrist band thats connected to ground keeps you from biulding up static charge when working on electronics, i believe sci show did a great video explaining it, rather cool i recommend checking it out

@cec4 2 жыл бұрын

theres also some great channels on here that go into explaining proper grounding and why and why houses are meant to have one main ground point, sandy no exact names come to mind since i found them on some algorithm recommendation bindge

@SiriusSolar 2 жыл бұрын

@@cec4 well maybe now that I'm talking about grounding those algorithms will present themselves to me. Or they'll show me some hippy dippy 10-toed socks.