Discuss tips for making earth electrode in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

Reaction score
1
dear electricians, I am going to install 2 earth electrodes for a block of 4 apartments. can you please give me some tips on how to drill the hole for it and what diameter and length the hole shall be . also if you know any other tips that might help my installation please let me know. some photos will be highly appreciated ???. thanks everyone and stay safe ????
 
depends on where you are installing the rods.if it's soil, no drilling needed. if going through concrete first, drill a bit bigger than the size as the rod to allow for couplings.. SDS drill and a decent bit. once through the hard stuff, the rod will hammer in, home made tools to fit SDS on hammer only help. genreally a 5/8" rod assembly with couplers giving a total length of 10 ft. earth pits added once readings have been obtained.
 
Are you going to hammer in two separate earth rods or are you going to couple them together to make one long rod?

I usually dig the first meter or as deep as possible by hand to avoid hitting other services like water pipes, drains, MV or LV cabling, comms/fibre cables, gas pipes etc. Then hammer in the first 3.6m rod using a slide hammer. Then fit a threaded coupling and the second rod on top. If the rod impedance test is bad I go with a third rod if possible or install a separate rod about 10-15 meters away and link the two using bare copper wire.

I prefer a slide hammer because you get a feel for what the ground and the rod is doing as you hammer it in. If the ground is too much gravel or rocks I resort to an SDS Max jack hammer with a rod driver.

Once the rod is in I fill the hole I first dug with Bentonite.
[automerge]1584636893[/automerge]
I wouldn't normally drill a hole through concrete slab and hammer a rod in unless there's reliable and detailed 'as built' drawings available.
 
Any second rod should be at least the length of the first rod away from it, preferably two lengths, this is to prevent the second rod being inside the zone of influence of the first rod and giving a false resistance reading.
 
is that because the local cats will all come and pi$$ on it, keep it moist?
Bit off thread but that post jogged my memory of a mate of mine....who used to c&£p in his mums cats litter tray for a wind up......the poor woman never did work out how her little cat laid them that big! sorry op.....?, and sorry mods but it jogged my memory and made me laugh
 

Reply to tips for making earth electrode in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Electrical Forum

Welcome to the Electrical Forum at ElectriciansForums.net. The friendliest electrical forum online. General electrical questions and answers can be found in the electrical forum.
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock