grounding test

Status
Not open for further replies.

bphgravity

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Are you actually looking for something to use in the field or something like a circuit breaker test set used in a laboratory or bench test?
 

brian john

Senior Member
Location
Leesburg, VA
High current test set, check out AVO International or Phenix. They make test sets from several 1000 amps max current to 60,000 amps, cost range from $6,000.00-$50,000.00 plus miscellaneous cables and connectors.
 

Iraqelect

Member
I am on a US base in the theatre of operations, there is a lot of poor grounding. I was thinking of something that could be used to check for proper bonding on something like a water heater.

How about this;

Apply a load between ground and line. Test voltage under load. If voltage does not drop significantly the ground is good.
 

nakulak

Senior Member
when you are in a theatre of operations, the rules change.
I have found that the guys from (place favorite secret branch here) just use their available resources for testing the grounding. connect one alligator clip to his tongue, and the other . . .well, you get the idea.

seriously tho, good luck to you and be safe
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Iraqelect said:
I am on a US base in the theatre of operations, there is a lot of poor grounding. I was thinking of something that could be used to check for proper bonding on something like a water heater.

How about this;

Apply a load between ground and line. Test voltage under load. If voltage does not drop significantly the ground is good.

I would suggest the best answer is to just visually inspect the bonding connections. If they look to be made up correctly they probably are OK.

I don't know what you mean by poor grounding, especially when you than refer to bonding. Grounding is connecting the neutral wire to earth at the service point. Bonding is connecting the metallic non-current carrying items that have some potential to become energized to the green wire.

The test you suggest may or may not be meaningful, it also has substantial opportunity for injuring someone unintentionally. It also will not find such issues as grounds and neutrals connected at places other than the service point.
 
Last edited:

quogueelectric

Senior Member
Location
new york
fault simulator

fault simulator

Iraqelect said:
Does anyone know of a tool to simulate a fault and see if the breaker will open.
If you are running off generator power shorting things out generaly leads to badness are you experiencing electric shocks which you are trying to eliminate or are you having equipment problems??
 

Iraqelect

Member
I have been a member of this forum for quite a while. I only started a new account for more anonymity. I understand the effective ground-fault path per NEC art. 250. I am a civilian providing support for the military and I am in leadership role. I was trying to devolp some sort of test for the men to implement while doing preventative maintenace because explaining it simply is not working. I have workers from many different countrys. It also is not possible to verify the endless web of cables and the grounds inside of them. I have no way to tell if that ground wire goes to a useless ground rod or back to the system neutral as required. We are limited in materials and we often have to use what we have. Our cables rarely have a fifth wire in them so we use "external" ground (bond) wires.

Petersonra, I use the term ground(ing), generally. I have no idea why we refer to EGC's as grounds, but we do. Isn't NEC 250 titled "GROUNDING" when, in fact, it encompasses grounding and bonding.
 
Last edited:

Iraqelect

Member
quogueelectric said:
If you are running off generator power shorting things out generaly leads to badness are you experiencing electric shocks which you are trying to eliminate or are you having equipment problems??

There has been instances were a whole shower unit became energized and the like.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top