Grounding Thoughts

[Mark Bartlett]

Hello I have watched the grounding myths video where they talk about ground rods are not what people think and I have known this for years and finally some one has brought the truth forward . However there is a another factor That I am learning That I want to pass along that no one has factored in that I discovered when I was in the American Boating and Yachting council (ABYC) corrosion
certification class they put on .

In the ground resistance testing video of Mikes they did the measurements however they didn't take into the fact of moisture content in the soil and the salinity of the soil , These two play a big part of resistance that you end up with also the deeper the ground rod goes in the more moisture content in the soil. Try putting salt water around ground rod and see what happens. Also mineral content may also play a part in this as you put dissimilar metals in the ground together and ad moisture and salt it also changes
the resistance and amps. I have not tried this myself but I bet you go to the driest part of Nevada desert and ck the amps and resistance there will probably be little or none at all.

 

[user 100]

Hello I have watched the grounding myths video where they talk about ground rods are not what people think and I have known this for years and finally some one has brought the truth forward . However there is a another factor That I am learning That I want to pass along that no one has factored in that I discovered when I was in the American Boating and Yachting council (ABYC) corrosion
certification class they put on .

In the ground resistance testing video of Mikes they did the measurements however they didn't take into the fact of moisture content in the soil and the salinity of the soil , These two play a big part of resistance that you end up with also the deeper the ground rod goes in the more moisture content in the soil. Try putting salt water around ground rod and see what happens. Also mineral content may also play a part in this as you put dissimilar metals in the ground together and ad moisture and salt it also changes
the resistance and amps. I have not tried this myself but I bet you go to the driest part of Nevada desert and ck the amps and resistance there will probably be little or none at all.

Actually this very thing has been debated here quite frequently and there was a fairly recent thread that referenced ground rod resistance. While mineral content and moisture will lower resistance to some degree, there most likely won't be any real benefit will it comes to fault clearing and protection from shock (maybe why Holt didn't bother taking those soil samples?)- as the earth is not a suitable return path for current.