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Earthing

Earthing 2.6
:Grounding system 2.6.1
One of the key factors in any electrical protection scheme is grounding. If any acceptable measure of
.safety is to be attend, correct grounding design and application must be followed
:A grounding system to be totally effective, must satisfy the following conditions
a) provide low impedance path to ground for personnel and equipment protection and effective circuit
.relaying
.b) withstand and dissipate repeated fault and surge current
c) provide correction allowance or correction resistance to various soil chemicals to ensure continuous
.performance during life of the equipment being protected
.d) provide rugged mechanical properties for easy driving with minimum effort and rod damage
In any discussion of grounding, the question always asked is (how in low resistance should a ground be)
in general ,a low earthing resistance means high earth fault currents but low overvoltages during fault
condition. it is difficult to determine this ohms. the lower the ground resistance ,the safer the grounding.
further, for protection of the personal and equipment, it is worth the effort to aim for a ground resistance
.of less than one ohms
Home Grounding System
If you have ever opened an electrical outlet box, you probably discovered that there were three wires
attached to the receptacle such as one black, one white and one bare copper or green. Both the white wire
(the grounded conductor) and the green/bare wire (the equipment grounding conductor) are electrically
tied together at the main electrical service entrance. The white wire is designated to carry current as it
returns to the source(utility company's transformer).
The Equipment Grounding Conductors under normal conditions carry NO current. The only time they
carry current is under abnormal conditions when an electrical appliance or piece of electrical equipment
is faulty and has become a potential shock or fire hazard. Under a fault condition the grounding
conductor that is connected to the outer shell or sheet metal of the equipment or appliance must be able to
provide a very low resistance path back to the source of the power(utility company's transformer) so that
enough current will flow causing a breaker or fuse to open the circuit and automatically disconnect the
hazard from the system.
It is NOT the purpose of this equipment grounding system to send current through the ground. Sending
equipment fault currents through the earth can be a fatal misunderstanding of how a grounding system
works. For the most part, the only time you intentially send current into the earth is during a lightning
strike or line surge due to a nearby lightning strike.
For the breaker or fuse to operate the path of an equipment fault must be much more direct than sending
it through the earth back to the transformer. In a romex (non-metallic sheathed cable) system there is a
bare conductor. In a conduit/raceway system the metal of the conduit or raceway provides the path.

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Figure .2
It might help with understanding the grounding system to think of it as having two components, each
with distinct functions. The below ground portion (cold water, ground rod etc) and the above ground
equipment grounding system.

:EARTH AND SAFETY 2.6.2

Now let us look at the other half of the ground connecting system, the earthing itself. The area of the
contact between the earth and the ground rod must be sufficient so that resistance of the current path into
and through the earth will be within the allowable limits of a particular application. The resistance of the
earth path must be relatively low and must remain reasonably constant throughout the year.
To understand why the earth resistance must be low we need to apply ohm's law E=I*R

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