bonding metal street light poles

[iwire]

Re: bonding metal street light poles

Mark me down in the not officially but functionally group.

However 20' of rebar in a pole base would not be that unusual. Four 6' verticals and a few hoops around them and your well into 30'.

The deal killer IMO is it would not all be located in the bottom of the base.

 

[pierre]

Re: bonding metal street light poles

George
Not officially. An electrode is an electrode. Concrete encased metallic items will make an electrode, and IMO, will act very similarly to most other concrete encased electrodes. The performance of an light pole electrode may not be as effective as a large and deeper building footing, but I would bet that it would be more effective than a driven rod.

 

[George Stolz]

Re: bonding metal street light poles

Guilty confession: I have a habit of driving ground rods 4' into the soil in a 4' base, with the ground rod being just below the surface of the concrete. I attach a #6 to this, and stub it up with the conduit in the center.

This really doesn't accomplish much.

I was told to do this by a master electrician who's no longer with the company, whose knowledge I questioned but whose signature on my paycheck I couldn't deny.

Maybe I'll quit wasting ground rods.

 

[iwire]

Re: bonding metal street light poles

George we still get job specifications that require more or less what you describe.

Once the guys missed it on the plans, I was sent out to 'fix' the problem. I used about a 5/8" x 30" bit in the hammer drill to drill a hole from the center down at an angle to underground beside the poles. I stuffed a 6 AWG CU in the hole attached one end to the rod the other to the pole. The engineer was happy we got paid and a bunch more useless ground rods got installed.