[AT] grounds

Michael Miller sweetcorn70 at hotmail.com
Mon Dec 17 05:09:04 PST 2007


Dudley,

Google "Stray Current".

I may be wrong, but what I understand about this phenominon(sp?) 
specifically deals with stray current lowering production on dairy farms.   
IIRC, one way to prevent it is to have everything grounded in one place with 
one rod.  If you have two ground rods in your farm stead it can allow stray 
voltage.   In most cases it isn't enough to hurt you but one reason it is a 
bad thing on dairy farms is because the cows can pick up a lot lower voltage 
than us, so they get shocked and we don't know what is going on.

Sorry I can't explain more but I am in no way an electrical engineer :-D

Mike


>From: "Dudley Rupert" <drupert at premier1.net>
>Reply-To: Antique tractor email discussion group 
><at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: Re: [AT] grounds
>Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 01:20:04 -0800
>
>Warren,
>
>I am not suggesting at all that you doubt your' friend but I am curious as
>to what his reasoning would be for advising you not to connect the sub 
>panel
>in your' shop to its' own ground rod ... or at least this is what I think I
>hear you saying.
>
>
>I wired the house I am living in with 400 amp service (this is more like
>commercial than the typical residential service) and then ran 3-wire 240
>from the house down to the barn and put a 100 amp sub panel there with the
>ground lug connected to a ground rod (and, of course, to the neutral wire
>from the house panel).  This was permitted/inspected but it was thirty 
>years
>ago so maybe something has changed since then.
>
>
>I did redo the main entry service to my daughter and SIL's place this past
>summer.  The main house has the 325 amp service coming in from the road.  I
>don't know if the 325 amp service is available all across the country or 
>not
>but for little more $$ than it costs for a 200 amp service (particularly if
>you've got dad providing the labor for coffee/sandwich/cookies) you've got
>closer to a 400 amp service than 200.  Their guesthouse, shop and barn each
>has its' own sub panel and grounding rod and is serviced by 3-wire 240 from
>the main house.  This was permitted/inspected as well but as I wasn't there
>when the inspector came I can't say for sure that he would have even looked
>at the service to/at the "out buildings" as I applied only to change the
>main entry service.
>
>
>I can think of three or four other inspected services I've done where I've
>installed a sub panel/grounding rod (in addition to the main service) but
>none within the past ten years so that bit of history/memory is of no help.
>My copy/edition of the NEC is thirty or more years old so it's of no help
>either.  In conclusion I guess I've just been trying to give a bit of my
>thinking as to why I am wondering at what your' friend told you regarding
>not installing the ground rod at your' shop but I am most likely the one
>that's got some new learning to do.
>
>Dudley
>Snohomish, Washington
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of Mogrits
>Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 10:24 PM
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>Subject: [AT] grounds
>
>This is all anecdotal but nevertheless:
>
>I have a 10kw briggs powered generator with a grounding lug on the 
>generator
>housing. When I use the genset to power the house I connect the houseground
>to the generator by a copper wire I leave connected and coiled up just 
>below
>the house service.
>
>When I built my shop a few hundred feet from the house and wanted to power
>it from the house service instead of a separate meter I asked my electrical
>engineer friend about installing a ground rod and he advised me to NOT
>separately ground the building. He says the ground should come from the 
>same
>source as the power, so I ran four-wire mobilehome service cable up to the
>shop.
>
>Warren
>No virus found in this outgoing message.
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>11:29 AM
>
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