ELECTRICAL GROUNDING Over the years on many many various Tractor Board postings concerning general home n farm AC wiring, I’ve observed a common misunderstanding regarding “grounding” n ground rods etc. which I hope to correct in the interest of safety education and am posting this all over the place. First of all, it’s the service NEUTRAL that gets bonded to Mother Earth via made grounds like rods driven into the earth or metallic water or gas pipes etc. Out at the electrical pole the Neutrals (if a Y service) on the high voltage primary side are tied to Mother Earth,,,,, the Neutrals on the low voltage (120/240) secondary side of the transformer also get bonded to Mother Earth,,,,, ,,,and finally at the electrical service entrance meter base or the main service entrance panelboard or even up on the riser, its again the Neutral that gets tied to Mother Earth. That’s to keep the services n the grid etc. at one single common voltage reference which Mother Earth provides, albeit not perfect. So what about the equipment safety ground, the bare/green GROUNDING conductor that is used on three wire appliances and is wired to the outer metal cases on an electric drill or skill saw etc., isn’t it “grounded” ??? Well, it is, but just because at the main service entrance the Neutral Buss and the Safety Equipment Ground Busses are bonded together, therefore, the safety equipment Ground is also tied to Mother earth but nottttt tt for reasons some might think. Since the Neutral conductor is an ordinary current conducting path which happens to be grounded, it’s referred to as a GROUNDED CONDUCTOR while the safety equipment ground (green/bare) is referred to as a GROUNDING CONDUCTOR. The sole purpose of the third wire safety equipment green/bare ground is not so that circuit is tied to Mother Earth n all those ground rods n water pipes, buttttt ttt it’s to provide a dedicated low impedance return current path back to the Neutral (Remember at the panel Neutral and Ground busses are bonded together) in case of a fault (like a hot wire gets shorted to the drill case) so the breaker trips de-energizing the circuit and you don’t die hanging onto the drill. I hear people talking about driving more ground rods and making sure that drill case or appliance or stove etc. is bonded to Mother Earth thinking that alone somehow makes it safe, while its NOT any bond to earth that can save their life, it’s the drill case or stove being bonded to Neutral back at the panel that’s critical. The safety equipment green/bare ground wire is tied to the drills case so if there’s short there’s a dedicated current return path back to the panel to trip the breaker. If you had a drill with a metal case and only a two wire circuit serving it with no third equipment grounding conductor and say you drove a ground rod and attached it to the drills case, you think that would save your life if a hot wire got shorted to the drill case NOOOOO OOOOO OOOOO OOO YOU DIEEEEE EEEEE. The reason is the earth (depends on moisture n mineral content etc. etc.) is a poor high resistance conductor so there wouldn’t be enough return current back to the panel to trip a 20 amp circuit breaker buttttt ttttt tt it only take like 50 milliamps through your old ticker to kill you which that short can continue to supply since there’s no low impedance return current path (like the equipment ground) to trip the breaker. Sooooo ooo it’s the Neutrals that get tied to Mother Earth and driving rods into the earth to “ground” that equipment grounding conductor isn’t the thing, it’s the fact that it’s bonded to the Neutral and provides a current path back to the panel in case of a short/fault to trip the breaker n save your life that’s important. Clear as mud lol John T Nordhoff, retired Electrical Engineer in Indiana
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