This channel is gold standard information. No nonsense, plain talking and useful info delivered in an easy to understand way. You Sir are the guy I wished lived next door.

There's a feeling you get watching John and that feeling is trust

You are the last person in the world who I would expect to be the proud owner of two trampolines.

Hi John, I am positive that your video has relieved the stress and tension of anybody who was worrying about how to get an effective earth! Always good to have options!

It's wonderful to see the great John Ward getting to grips with the ConduDisc. Everyone at Earthing Services recognises his expertise and applauds all of the knowledge sharing that he does; just like many in the e5 Group John Ward has worked tirelessly to improve safety in the electrical sector and this is a further demonstration of that. Nobody at Earthing Services was involved in the preparation, planning or implementation of this install. As JW says this is not a complete installation, just a demonstration of the product, and as such the performance is not reflective of a real world installation. JW points out that this is not to depth or properly compacted. Simply backfilling a ConduDisc is a bit like laying an earth rod in an excavation as it does not sufficiently reduce contact resistance. For example a driven earth rod is forced into the ground assuring low contact resistance which ultimately benefits discharging electricity as it is easier for the energy to pass from one medium to another. Providing this comparable resistance for a ConduDisc requires compression. A great case study of this is shown here: (www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6772877222358466560/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(activity%3A6772877222358466560%2C6773253548340764672 )) In this instance the ConduDisc was nearly 400 Ohms when installed, but through compression it got down to 75 Ohms. Most people aren't as heavily equipped as FM Services Group in terms of vibrating compression tools, but Liberty Charge elects for its staff using their body weight to compress, which will certainly accelerating resettlement of excavated material as seen here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hd6Bl82qv7HJYYk.html Furthermore at this point it's unclear what the ground profile is, without a soil resistivity survey that could be speculative. Our short overview here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ecibeclzzL6ciX0.html demonstrates how influential soil resistivity can be. Afterall gold is an excellent conductor but if you put it in a block of rubber it will not discharge electrical current. Here we may be seeing the earth rod having penetrated an optimal layer of soil resistivity which has enhanced its performance. As much as the ConduDisc has a contact surface area equivalent to a 3m rod, if it's in a more resistant layer then its performance will be impacted. Finally it is worth saying this, the reason that there is a marketplace is to enable people to make a choice of what suits them. The ConduDisc will not deteriorate like the earth rod, it is easy to install, safer to install and it will likely outlast the item it is protecting. All we would say is if you are using one get it compressed, it will improve performance with no extra cost! Thanks again JW for having a go with the product and we look forward to his next adventures! A final point, JW you clearly look after your testing equipment to a truly admirable standard, not the bird's nest of testing cables so often seen!

Glad to see it in action after your excellent discussion on the products on E5 podcast.

Only John would announce it's now a month later, but for the sake of continuity wear a red shirt and jumper again. Great 👍

As there was no pause in the sentence before or after the moment 'weeks later' popped up on the screen, I LAUGHED. Unintentionally adorable. I've no idea how I got here and I've no idea what an earth rod is, but I'm thoroughly intrigued. :)

Could well imagine this "rod" being a "a get out of jail card" in urban areas. Highlight of the video for me though was John, s retesting of a conventional rod sank 18 months ago and finding it's resistance had increased by a third!!!!

Looking forward to seeing the results once you do the proper installation of the disc.

Love your videos JW

Nice review, will be curious to see the results of the next test. This is something I can imagine getting better with time as the earth compacts in density around the disc. Obviously moisture will play a part, but overall I think age will benefit this. Would be interested to see a followup if you keep it installed in the other location, after it has sat for a year or so.

Nice video, interesting product, never knew its existence!

John, On your next test, since you are going to use some concrete, you might try to put some #6 bare copper in some concrete in direct contact with earth and see how it performs. In the US it is #4 cu. 20’-0” long typically in a footing.

Could you do a video about earthing gensets? On some outdoor events I've seen generators grounded properly. Other times I've seen no ground rod and the genset on a trailer with (rubber) tyres as aped to a skid mounted geni plonked directly on the ground. What Is the proper protocol?

I love you JW :-) thanks for more education!

It’s an interesting idea. I remember back in the day people would often bury a old copper hot water tank for a Earth although they have quite a scrap value today.

Thanks for your video John. To get a good reading on this disk you will probably have to bury it at a depth of around 2 to 3 feet down and then compact it in. That's a lot of digging and work to do, not much of a time saver really. It's easy if the ground is soft but then a stake would be easy to drive in soft ground also. Digging such a large hole in compacted ground with possible rocks or large stones would be harder than driving a stake. As far as avoiding services is concerned, I don't think there is much improvement as most services are buried around 2 feet down around a property so it would still be difficult to find a suitable place to bury the disk.

Hi John, great video. With this being closer to the surface do you have any increased concerns over step voltages?

Interesting Mr Ward... I actually quite like the idea..obviously high resistance above 200 ohms due to shallow bury in the ground and its normally deeper but i get the idea..if you do another test with it at its proper depth i would be interested to see the reading.. I just hope they make the price reasonable.

@john ward, can you have too many earth rods? One on house , another one hot tub, EV etc and all linked through wiring?

Hmmm, I think I'll use one of these to replace the seriously janky rod we currently have. We need to do some work on the drains near to the rod so it makes perfect sense. Thanks John.

Tries to record video. Mother Nature: “I’m going to rain on this man’s parade.”

The important question is how many Kv did the microphone withstand before being "eliminated"?

Two trampolines. Do you do tricks where you jump from one to the other?

After burning a copy of this, I have now put the ConduDisc onto my DVD drive and pressed play. Much better than the original DVD format.. Drive is squashed a bit though.

Good to know these discs exist anyway. They look useful. What's the price? I can't see anyone selling these yet.

What possible advantage does this have (apart as you said not spiking or cutting something) over burying anything else conductive in the ground, such as say a aluminium trash can lid or other lump of (non corrosive) metal? Looks like a (probably expensive) solution looking for a problem to me.

Wonder if there are any limits on soil conductivity? While the surface area is similar, the small footprint vs. a long ground rod could be an issue in poorly conducting soils.

Hmm, really nice in theory, but I'm worried that's make it easier for people to half arse it and not bury it deep enough. With an electrode you have to drive it at least so deep to stop it sticking out. Top layers of soil are going to be much more seasonal than the lower layers with regards to moisture and ice. With an electrode, the soil around the top may dry out , but the lower bit will still likely be damp. If the soil around this dries out...*all* the soil in contact with the electrode will be dry, potentially increasing the resistance by an order of magnitude. Is there regulation on the minimum depth of an earthing electrode?

One question I would ask how would you achieve compliance with the regs as to the earth being continuous with no breaks or joints in the run?

Interesting. Might spook people going forwards if not accessible for maintenance though! Also isn't 13mm too small for a buried earthing conductor?

I'm thinking of testing the earth/ground resistance between my house and my neighbor's. The electrical panels are connected to the city water supply lines, so in theory the resistance should be very low, since the water distribution to each house is a massive grid from the street, but it ends if the water line switches to plastic somewhere underground.

Here's a marketing / product idea - a generator 'table'. Consisting of a 'table' with a 2" lip all around it. You stand your generator in the 'tray' table top - the table having 4 legs made of 22mm copper tubing open at both ends with no feet. The weight of the vibrating generator 'quietly' tapping the legs further into the ground - while, in the 'tray' you add a good inch deep of water. The water runs down the copper tube legs making the groud wet - aids sinking in the legs and electrical conductivity. Earth your generator to the table ;)

I do not find any where or very much info on how these or the conductive concrete can actually be purchased.

Rock on Johnny!

Can this be used in place of ground rods for lightning protection on a 200a residential service? This is a question for the North American sparkies. For places where you can’t drive rods

So, you've got roughly 2 times more resistance with the ConduDisc. So what does that mean in a practical sense? What resistance is: ideal, good, & bad? What would be the practical difference between an ideal resistance & a good resistance?

Does a ground rod have to be vertical? Can it be installed horizontally? If so, how long and how deep would it have to be?

My house in Canada, built in the 1970's has a buried copper water main, which also serves as an electrical earth connection. Many modern homes no longer use copper mains and have to make use of earthing rods.

perhaps adding small spikes about six, in a bracket on the disc would help conductivity, driven about 4 inches in the soil, stepping or hammering on a center plate attached to the disc.

were can I get condudisc and conducrete from? cheers

...I have never worked with or on a TT system. Can someone explain how the max zs result can comply with the max zs permitted on a given circuit please?

Is this a UK available item? Are they available with a 16mm equivalent wire?

What no salt water 💦😄 Just to say I did new electrodes on a couple of terrace houses. First job required three three foot extension rods to get below 200 ohms which needed a sledgehammer. I imagine the first set of deep rods improved next door reading which only required a single rod . The electrodes were only about 4 meters apart from each other . It would be interesting to see if the same thing is going on here

The shallow depth of the ConduDisc means it will be sensitive to the level of moisture of the ground which will vary wildly over the year whilst the earth rod will be close to or ideally into the water table. I know which one I'd prefer.

I always find it amazing how in some countries you have to be so careful about possible cables or pipes not belonging to you being buried under your property...

Is the megger tool better than fluke ?

it would very interesting to know what it cost JW.

Audio isn't as bad as you make out ;) at least it isn't the camera mic

Hi is this Condu earth disc allowed and compliant with BS 7671?

Been out of the game many years but from memory I always assumed the a rod resistance had to be in the region of 30 Ohms or lower. I guess I was lucky in my day because mine, not that I did many just mainly out in the sticks cottages, were around 20 something Ohms.

Hi John, I know you must be a busy guy but if you see this comment (or anyone else for that matter) it'd be great to get some advice. In my kitchen I have an outlet for an electric cooker which is connected as a single circuit on the consumer unit with a 45A breaker. I want to have an on-demand electric water heater installed in the kitchen, this is a 9kW device which will also need a 45A spur. I have had an electrician who says he can run a spur from the consumer unit to another control unit in the kitchen for use with the heater. Another electrician has said the best thing to do would be to run a single 25mm² line from the main consumer unit to another consumer unit in the kitchen and then spur that off to the two control units. The later suggestion seems dodgy to me, I'm not an expert but I don't believe having a consumer unit in a kitchen would be a good idea and I'm not convinced having such a high current breaker (It'd need to be 90A surely? The main cut off fuse is only 100A) in the main unit is even possible.

In America, the now-preferred method of grounding (at least for residences) is the rebar in the concrete foundation. I'm curious as to what kind of reading you'll get on your next video through that concrete.

Good videos, very informative. But I keep wanting to say "Cheer Up!"

Looks interesting but how much do they cost as that is one of main things people to know I notice in comments people have asked but there's no price given they just reply with contact sales department which to me means there expensive.

Are you tired and bored of DVDs and rubbish on TV? Come and watch JW on ConduDisc *MUCH BETTER*

wow, that earthing services site plays four different videos at the same time automatically, what a mess. How much do these cost? It's definitely interesting.

But that removes the thrill of pounding a ground rod into an electric distribution cable or a high pressure gas line.

I think the Condudisc needs to be buried deeper, even just for a basic reading. The conductance from the top surface is fundamentally limited by the resistance of the top layer of dirt. Or put differently the perimeter area of the soil "disc" on top. Just burying it deeper would probably lower the measured resistance by at least 1/3. It would also be interesting to measure the resistance of that black material. Idea: put a sheet of al foil on the top and bottom and a weight on top to get the top to bottom resistance.

Just an Idea. John Have you not thought Doing a Live you tube Stream also taking Questions from all your Fans ? who watch your videos ?

Any idea how to actually get these? The only company I could find that claims to sell these in UK didn't even get back to me with a price.

Is it possible to get a lower read than that?

Has John got two sheds? Two sheds Jackson will not be pleased lol.

Interesting, are these sold in the U.K. or have you shipped it in ?

I wonder if that was inspired by the Hypnodisc, from Robot Wars 😄

how about Ufer ground system compared to conductive concrete you mentioned? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufer_ground

What concrete is not conductive ?

Old way was to bury a copper cylinder seems sensible as surface area very high when you add up internal and external surfaces.

I have seen 360 ohm when rod has hit rock after 500mm. So for me the jury is still out on this product.really not happy with value over 150 ohm as concern over surface fault voltage and unreliable tripping due to low fault current

Two trampolines in one yard? Someone is really overdoing it now...

Seem to be very difficult to buy. Only 2 suppliers that I could find & neither sell or even give the price via their web site. You can't ring up and order one either, you have to request a quote, which can take a while to arrive, then they insisted they had to create an account even though it was a one off purchase & to open the account they wanted my bank account details. The price at the moment is a bit eye watering (I was quoted just under £200 for a Condudisc Pro & £62 for Conducrete), even delivery is expensive (£80 from the 1st company £55 from the 2nd - yes that's just delivery - seems it has to come on a pallet). Oh and neither company mentioned the price was plus VAT in their quote... So those prices above exclude VAT

Hopefully the Army EOD team don't get called out to this one as JW has informed them in advance

Very informative, this is why I don't watching T.V!

👍💯

Hmm, I'm in the States & I've never seen nor heard of that thing!

For whatever it is worth, the first part (lapel mic?) was better for my ears...

Isn't the maximum for TT 200 ohms?

2 metres of #6 awg. Love it. Just like asking for 3 metres of 4"x2" wood 🤣

300 ohms and above !!! Miles too high than the recommended 200 ohms.. will be interesting to see how it performs in the next video👍

Should we be concerned that "weeks later" JW is still in the same clothes? Has he stood like Iron Man in that same spot for weeks before turning the camera back on? Maybe it's just the lockdown sloping about the house day pyjamas.

300 Ω is high, but better than no ground.

As a simple easy to install item this would have probably saved the life of a young boy electrocuted by an ornamental lamp post installed by a slovenly and tightfisted bar owner. The sunken steel post he probably assumed was enough to ground it properly.

I'm still waiting for someone to give me a valid reason for earthing a generator. Especially when it's not been connected to a building/wiring system, and only powering devices through extension leads.

I live in Austria and we would not allow anything more than 100 Ohms. 300 Ohms is way too high and poses a risk as the RCD would not trip fast enough! You would need to bury several of those "discs" to even get below 100.

An earthing product made by Murcia, the land of toy voltages and two pin plugs, No bloody way.

X-ray that microphone.

Hey John dont know if you seen my channel or know who I am yet? I would really like a cut out fuse or two for my collection, do have one or two I can buy from you mate .... Steve

Pretty disappointing results really. For c street cabinets etc it has be much lower...under 200. The disc has a large area of contact so I hoped it would do better. Maybe condu-crete with a copper mat would be much better.