Disclaimer, I'm a farmer performing my own electrical work, installing a new 200 amp service myself. If that means I'm not involved in the electrical field, please delete the post. I know that 1 5/8" x 8ft. ground rod for a GE is only sufficient if the resistance is proven to be 25 ohms or less. Otherwise, you are to install a second GE at minimum 6ft. away from the first. I've heard ideal spacing of GE's is twice the distance of the length of the GE. But, I've also heard if you can get the resistance even lower, that is preferred. My question is, with no test equipment, but wanting to have the best service possible, could anyone give any ballpark figures of how many GE's I would need to hit a reasonably low resistance in silt/clay soil with no rocks and the soil a foot down is damp almost all of the time? I'm not opposed to driving 5+ GE's @ 16ft. apart if it makes it a better system, but I don't want to spend the money if the opinion of attempting to go above and beyond the minimum required by NEC in this instance is unmerited. Thanks!
