lighiting poles ground rod

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Re: lighiting poles ground rod

hurk,
what if we take the money spent on the present ground rod installation and spend it on a "gizmo" that would warn the owner that he had an open neutral. a small alarm device that mounts under the meter can and flashes and also has an audible beeping sound. the guys who are now making ground rods could be retrained to build the "gizmos" -- the suppliers would make more money off the "gizmos" -- the contractors wouldn't loose money on the ground rod install because now they would have to install the "gizmo"----hay---- everybody is happy and we accomplished something!!!!!!!
 
Re: lighiting poles ground rod

The fact is that nobody really knows why we install ground rods. It is obvious that they will not clear a line to ground fault if they are not also bonded to the neutral. It is also fairly obvious that they will not protect the premises from a direct lightning strike. Will they help? Maybe. Will they help in the event of a "nearby" lightning strike? Maybe. Is this something that needs further investigation? Probably. Is it as important as trying to figure out how to eliminate or minimize stray current? I don't think so. There is still an awful lot that we don't fully understand. IMHO it appers that 99% of the time a ground rod is installed as a feel good measure and probably adds very little to safety.
 
Re: lighiting poles ground rod

I just went on an insurance estimate today on damage done by a remote direct strike, The point of attachment was the power lines about a block down the street, it jumped to the phone trunk line, then came down the phone drop blowing apart the de-mark box, it followed two phone lines to the opposite corner of the house to an old de-mark box then followed a single phone line that ran along the bottom of the siding close to a chain link fence pole, there it jumped to the fence pole. The only evidence of any arcing was only at a few phone jacks in the path between the two de-mark box's in-which both were destroyed. And only two phones were damaged connected to these two jacks, But there was enough of a surge in the service side to cause many other failures of electronics, TV's, computer, GFCI receptacles, smoke detectors, even light bulbs. I Crawled the attic and crawl space,camera fished the walls and even merggered each circuit. Not one wire failure. Not even a sense of an arc anywhere. This could have been because the damage was on the electrical side was a "near by strike magnetic field inducement of over voltage/" But not enough to break down any insulation. Very similar to many I have seen where the POA was a tree close by the building.
The funny thing was at the first de-mark box was a 6" long #10 grounding wire that connected to the service meter can which had the GEC to two rod GE's 8' apart. also the service panel which was just inside had a GEC to the copper water main right below it, not over 3' long. and it still choose to go all the way to the other side of the house to get to the chain link fence through just the small phone wires.
 
Re: lighiting poles ground rod

With all the technology today wouldn't be nice if they started making light poles with plastic. Chancesthat we wouldn't be taking about this so much.
Bye now,
Jim
 
Re: lighiting poles ground rod

Jim,
With all the technology today wouldn't be nice if they started making light poles with plastic.
Click to expand...
The last roadway lighting poles that I installed were fiberglass.
Don
 
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