Made GE Placement In Close Quarters

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grandpapastu

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My residence is supplied by a dual metered 120/240 1PH 300A Service. The Grounding Electrode System includes two 10' copper-clad ground rods driven 11' apart at 80 degree angles (nearly straight down).
Is the effectiveness of my grounding electrode system helped or hindered at all by it's vicinity to my neighbors GE System - which is only 6' vertically.
 
Re: Made GE Placement In Close Quarters

the ground rod location and actually the ground rod itself are near useless as we are finding out in the industry today. it ends up being a high resistance path in most cases back to the power source which makes it useless to clear a fault -- but now it is considered a device that neutralizes or equalizes potentials on the network.
 
Re: Made GE Placement In Close Quarters

I would not go as far as saying 'useless' myself.
It is just that any knowing one would not even consider the facilitating operation of an overcurent and short circuit protection device a function of the GE system.
Yet, at once and at the same time it is true by the facts of the real case history just presented that overcurrent protection devices are not effectively wired in series or parallel with the GE system unless in the case of a lost neutral.

In such a case of a lost neutral all the current supplied by a (MBO panel for example) may route through the 12 AWG equipment grounding conductor back to the frame of the dishwasher, back to source catching the house on fire while all the time current across each of the branch circuits was well low enough so as not to trip the CB.
 
Re: Made GE Placement In Close Quarters

What I was shooting for was:
looking at the 'Soares' Fifth Edition:
An electrode driven into the earth of uniform resistivity radiates current in all directions. (Earth Shells)
The earth shell nearest the electrode naturally has the smallest surface area and offers the greatest resistance. The next earth shell is somewhat larger in area and offers less restance, and so on.
So, of course we want to drive our ground rods as far away from each other as posssible/practical until inclusion of additonal earth shells does not effect significantly (in my case of the 10' rods - no less than 10' apart).
The vicinity of my neighbors system is of no consequese at all. It is a seperate circuit entirely although supplied by the same transformer.
Sincerely thank you very much for any added input.
 
Re: Made GE Placement In Close Quarters

For two ground rods the most effective distance is double the length, for 2 ten foot rods it would be 20 ft.
 
Re: Made GE Placement In Close Quarters

grandee,
your neighbor's ground rods in a normal setup are in parallel with yours and connected to the same common return path back to the power company's transformer that is common to your service and your neighbor's!

the original idea of the ground rod was to have a parallel path back to the power source in case the primary return path was lost! this would stablize the voltage between the the two phases during a loss of the primary return path! what happens today, and we see more and more problems when this occurs because of pvc systems, is damage from unbalanced loading with high resistive return paths....
 
Re: Made GE Placement In Close Quarters

The reason we have the ground rod, and now the two ground rods is to keep the electrician in good shape. Even if he uses an electric buster, those things are heavy to lift up to the top of the rod. It has been proven in testing labs that exercise is beneficial to your health.
 
Re: Made GE Placement In Close Quarters

CharlieTuna:
Thanks for the good answer to the original question.
My neighbor's GE system and mine are in parallel.
This parallel circuit does present a lowered resistance back to the common source for both services.
 
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