Grounding Houses

[jimmy buffet]

who on here knows about grounding houses? is it nessesary, does it really do anything?. how deep do you have to go, frost line? where does it get hocked up to. any gauge, or a special cable. i have a metal pole next to the house, wanted to know if thats it. dont know how deep, just has nuts on the top. syicks out off the ground about 6 inches. cant find any ground in the house that leads outside. was told you need one. any help out there guys

Thanks
Jimmy

 

[ruffryder]

who on here knows about grounding houses? is it nessesary, does it really do anything?. how deep do you have to go, frost line? where does it get hocked up to. any gauge, or a special cable. i have a metal pole next to the house, wanted to know if thats it. dont know how deep, just has nuts on the top. syicks out off the ground about 6 inches. cant find any ground in the house that leads outside. was told you need one. any help out there guys

Thanks
Jimmy

In cities you normally ground to the incoming water line, and also put a 8 ft copper rod in the ground near to where your pedestal is mounted. Yes they are needed! Check your code for what is actually required though.

 

[jimmy buffet]

why, just for lightning, if i call they come snoooping around. who knows how many laws im breaking. just want to make sure its safe for the family. if its grounded by water line, why two. you said 8ft copper, pound it down in ground 8 ft, for real?? do i put wire to it, from where, to thew post or copper
thanks ruffyder

 

[niner49]

Why

What are you doing? a room addition? upgrading the existing panel?

if its existing electrical it should already be grounded if upgrading a box or adding another panel, the new load may require additional grounding or initial grounding depending on age of home.

If your just wondering why in general think of it like this...if circuits are grounded to the panel, what's the panel grounded to? hence the grounding rod.

This type of thread really makes me nervous a guy asks about the need for a grounding rod on a snowmobile thread! Be safe my friend!

 

[ouch]

who on here knows about grounding houses? is it nessesary, does it really do anything?. how deep do you have to go, frost line? where does it get hocked up to. any gauge, or a special cable. i have a metal pole next to the house, wanted to know if thats it. dont know how deep, just has nuts on the top. syicks out off the ground about 6 inches. cant find any ground in the house that leads outside. was told you need one. any help out there guys

Thanks
Jimmy

Yes needs to be grounded. Do a 8' ground rod pound down all but 3-6" run a #4 wite from the rod to the panel. also one from the panel to the water line (if its copper water line) or a wire from the panel to the rebar in the basement concrete. Be careful or hire someone..

 

[Snowizard]

Yes, like the others have posted, BUT, another thing the ground (Neutral) does is provide protection, and a electrical voltage reference for your 120-240 Volt appliances and devices.

Typically, electrical service to homes consists of a step-down transformer at the pole. The primary voltage is something around 7,200 volts. The transformer steps the voltage down to 240volts, center tapped. That yields two 120 volt runs, with a separate neutral (ground) wires to the house.

This is done to be able to have 240 volts available to run large loads like Range, water heater, pump, welder! but leaves 120 volts on either side of the netural.


(Trying not to confuse here.) Bottom line there needs to be a ground at the pole, AND a ground from the electrical breaker panel in the house.

If, for some strange reason, one ground end is damaged or disconnected, the system is still able to run as designed.
BUT if both grounds were inefective, then 240 volts COULD be applied to the 120 volt circuits, causing a lot of damage to anything plugged in.

Like others said, use a 8ft copper clad ground rod, and #4 copper to the neutral bar in the breaker panel.

 

[800 RMK]

My house got hit by lightning about 6 years ago. Not sure why or what happened, but did about 9 grand worth of damage. Just lucky i guess...............lol

 

[Ex-Member]

Neutral is still a current-carrying line... ground is there as a safety feature to prevent current over the chassis and through the lucky SOB who touches it.

An 8ft steel rod driven into the ground with a good clamp on it (not welded) works great if for whatever reason you can't get a good ground on a water line.

A bad ground can cause all kinds of weird behavior in electronics too.

 

[Motley Doo]

Our house was hit by lightning about 4 years ago, TV's, VCR's, most things were junk!

 

[montanasledder]

most places now require 2 8 foot ground rods, atleast 6 feet apart. run #6 solid bare copper wire, from the meter base ground to the ground rods

 

[jimmy buffet]

What are you doing? a room addition? upgrading the existing panel?

if its existing electrical it should already be grounded if upgrading a box or adding another panel, the new load may require additional grounding or initial grounding depending on age of home.

If your just wondering why in general think of it like this...if circuits are grounded to the panel, what's the panel grounded to? hence the grounding rod.

This type of thread really makes me nervous a guy asks about the need for a grounding rod on a snowmobile thread! Be safe my friend!

dude dont be made at me because your a niners fan

sorry, i asked hundreds, maybe thousands of people because maybe, just maybe a few might be a electrican on here, or someone who just knows

didnt want to call a service guy, pay for the call, and maybe get something done that was not needed.

 

[jimmy buffet]

thanks to all that helped.

heres was the deal

was doing yard work and planting flowers and bushes with the wife. (see lawn freaks thread) saw a metal rod next to the house with a clamp on the top, had two bolts and nuts but nothing to it. didnt know what it was but left it. sat, had a bbq and asked a friend and he told me it was a ground and something should be connected to it. but he wasnt sure either, only a pipefitter. didnt know if the house was regrounded somewhere else, was underground or what. house is 15 years old and i bought it about 4 years ago. house inspector didnt say anything about it, and nothing has been wrong yet. i will not mess with it and will call someone to check it out. didnt know.

thanks again to all that helped

Jimmy