Where did grounding myths come from?

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kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
So I googled why do we drive ground rods and I come across an electrical company in Maryland that claims its so that unwanted current travels to the ground to protect us from getting shocked in the event current is on a metal object ..equipment pipes etc.
This helps to confuse the whole purpose.
If bonding is the effective ground fault path for safety. Then the ground must be to bond the earth. Just kidding.

That is essentially the purpose of a grounding electrode. No guarantees you will get a low resistance path through earth though, and the reason earth paths are not allowed by NEC to serve in place of equipment grounding conductors or bonding jumpers.
 

romex jockey

Senior Member
Location
Vermont
Occupation
electrician
Theory on the rocks please, shaken not stirred!

Theory on the rocks please, shaken not stirred!

So it would appear that our 'myths' hail from the fact that most of us are used to narrow parameters of electricity physics, as well as an NEC that (to my knowledge) does not consider the earth a conductor until mother earth is in a bad mood.....Meanwhile there's no earthworms to be found for fishermen under SWER lines, and you're all reading this via wireless internet....:)

Is it too early to pop a cold one?

~RJ~
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
So it would appear that our 'myths' hail from the fact that most of us are used to narrow parameters of electricity physics, as well as an NEC that (to my knowledge) does not consider the earth a conductor until mother earth is in a bad mood.....Meanwhile there's no earthworms to be found for fishermen under SWER lines, and you're all reading this via wireless internet....:)

Is it too early to pop a cold one?

~RJ~
Define wireless internet, I bet even though I have wireless to my router and happen to have wireless from home to next level on the provider network - I bet some of my data transmission (send or receive) just to see content of this site goes through "wires" somewhere:happyyes:

I do have "wires" between my router and the "wireless" provider's equipment on my end of things.
 

romex jockey

Senior Member
Location
Vermont
Occupation
electrician
Define wireless internet, I bet even though I have wireless to my router and happen to have wireless from home to next level on the provider network - I bet some of my data transmission (send or receive) just to see content of this site goes through "wires" somewhere:happyyes:

I do have "wires" between my router and the "wireless" provider's equipment on my end of things.

h*ll if i know Kwired, i'm an electrician I do 'wires' ....if it operates w/o wires i figure that Tesla guys in town again......~RJ~
 

mbrooke

Batteries Included
Location
United States
Occupation
Technician
You are WRONG! This is what time life books says about it:


Yup, typical. I have electrician/EE books from the 70s that say the same thing. It was so prevalent :happysad:



I always wondered what they told apprentices if they asked why would current take the path of a smaller wire than the service neutral.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
You are WRONG! This is what time life books says about it:

somebody is wrong, I vote for lifetime books:happyyes:

They got part of it right, then further explanation was wrong reasons why said "protection" works.

They may be correct if we were dealing with over 1000 volts though
 

mbrooke

Batteries Included
Location
United States
Occupation
Technician
somebody is wrong, I vote for lifetime books:happyyes:

They got part of it right, then further explanation was wrong reasons why said "protection" works.

They may be correct if we were dealing with over 1000 volts though

Or a TT earthed system. But even with systems over 1000 volts you still need an effective ground fault current path outside of relaying capable of seeing it. Most fused over head lines only trip half the time when the phase missies the MGN.
 
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