Also, ensure that your water pipes are also attached to your grounding system. The welded connection is more corrosion resistant than the mechanical clamp conection. Welding your ground wire to your ground rods is best (for example, with a product such as CadWeld's One Shot), but "Acorn" clamps are acceptable to use. While sharp bends do not increase the DC resistance, it does increase the high frequency impedance.Īs far as a suggestion, for a "normal" house, I'd use solid #4 copper to two 8 foot long copper-plated ground rods which are placed 16 feet apart, and driven so that they are completely underground. The 0.4 ohm/thousand feet figure is only valid at DC (zero frequency). This is because lightning is a very high frequency signal, and the wire's impedance increases with frequency. For the best lightning protection, your grounding wires should not have any sharp bends. But, it will somewhat reduce the effectiveness of your system during a lightning storm. #6 gauge solid copper is approx 0.4 ohm/thousand feet, so having a run of thirty feet will add minimal extra resistance (about 0.008 ohm). According to a Fluke brochure, you should try to have a ground to earth resistance of less than 25 ohms, or less than 5 ohms for sensitive electrical equipment. #What gauge wire use to connect to ground rod code#The electrical code states that with one ground rod, it must have a maximum resistance of 25 ohms to the earth. So, what resistance to ground should you want? The smaller, the better. Having a good ground connection will reduce the noise that your equipment has to deal with. The power lines have a lot of "noise" on them. Many radio antennas use the ground to help transmit their signals. With the grounding system properly connected, the ground will pull the neutral closer to 0 V, reducing the risk of shock. Older appliances will connect their chassis to neutral, causing their chassis to hold 120V. #What gauge wire use to connect to ground rod full#If the neutral going to your house is disconnected and you don't have a ground to neutral bond in your main panel, both prongs of each electric outlet in your house will have the full line voltage on it. Having a good ground will maximize the power transfer out of your house. Surge suppressors will try to shunt the voltage to the neutral or ground line. When lightning strikes near your house, it energizes your electrical lines. This means that you can't shock yourself by holding an appliance in one hand and touching the earth with your feet. Make the voltage of the land around your house be at approximately the same voltage as your power line neutral.The grounding system serves a few different purposes: Of course, shorter is better.Īluminum cable is permissible with larger minimum sizes, though I'd avoid it due its corrosion properties. The NEC doesn't specify a limit as to the maximum length. #6 cable cable will always satisfy the sizing requirement, though in some cases larger is desirable. The NEC code specifies that a solid copper wire used to connect to a ground rod must be at least either #6 or #8 gauge (depending on the size of your electrical service cable). This answer is mostly based on the United States electrical system, and the answer may vary depending on where you are.
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