Ground Rod Demonstration

[kwired]

My Dad did it too. He made us stand on the porch, then let us come out after he disconnected.

I also remember the wiring he did in the house.

We had such probe assembly when I was a kid. I remember picking up worms while it was still plugged in. Closer you got to the probe the more likely you would get shocked. Makes sense though now that I understand electrical better then I did then.

 

[kwired]

Hello,

I would like to preform a demonstration for my class for our grounding and bonding section. I am curious if anyone has taken a ground rod , separate from the buildings grounding system, and hooked it to 120V(off a breaker). This was mentioned in Mike Holts grounding and bonding myths lesson. I am using this is illustrate the concept of current using the ground to complete a circuit . I want to know if anyone has done this and what safety protocols you put in place to ensure the experiment was conducted safely .

Thanks.

I think an isolated source like ungrounded transformer secondary or even a portable generator with no neutral to frame bond would increase safety to some degree for such demonstrations.

Additional thing to demonstrate is to place some probes at various locations to connect to voltmeters to show the voltage gradient that will be around your rod(s).

 

[JPinVA]

Hello,

I would like to preform a demonstration for my class for our grounding and bonding section. I am curious if anyone has taken a ground rod , separate from the buildings grounding system, and hooked it to 120V(off a breaker). This was mentioned in Mike Holts grounding and bonding myths lesson. I am using this is illustrate the concept of current using the ground to complete a circuit . I want to know if anyone has done this and what safety protocols you put in place to ensure the experiment was conducted safely .

Thanks.

Just make sure everyone in your class is standing at attention with legs and feet together, and not touching one another. j/k. Beyond my expertise, other than to not do it.

Do not do this (OK I did try it in my own house). Hooked the GEC from the rod directly to a 20 amp breaker and turned it in. If I remember correctly when I measured current with an Amprobe it read 4 amps.

Yeah, try that on a 320/400 dual panel with GEC taps.

 

[sameguy]

I hate to say this but we do it to get night crawlers to the surface for fish bait.

Me too!
We still have a switch in the garage that when you touch the plate screw you get a shock!
So, we didn't touch the screw, life was so much simpler back then.