I know it looks a mess

[bren guzzi]

It looks a mess at the moment... But we aren't finished yet. :eek:

Stringing in Wales ... These are the "before pictures, " We will jumper it tomorrow and I will post the " after pics ".

I promise it will look better when we are done, :D

[reppy007]

Ive seen grounds like that before:nightmare:......seems like a hundred years ago.

[T-Man]

Those are some Blue skies, nice weather. Those pictures make the landscape look flat as Indiana. . . . ;)

[bren guzzi]

Interesting how those grounds are connected. Looks like a 3 into 1 setup.
We ain't got nothing like that here. Is all that grounded to a Ground Rod Bren?

They look to be about 2/0 grounds.

REALLY Short poles too! Love that "Double Johnny Ball" Guy!

Your dead right swampy. Three into one. They then go four copper rods connected together .

And T man. It's sunny ( for us ) but its only 12 degrees at the moment. :eek:...

Here's two pics .
The three to one connection ... The old hoist we got for a few days.

We sorted the mess on that pole. But didn't get the chance to photo it..... I will get a pic tomorrow if possible.

[Lineman North Florida]

Was working up in Baltimore the first time I saw a set of grounds like that, BG&E crews had some of them, but they were installed on the system neutral instead of a driven ground rod.

[bren guzzi]

Was working up in Baltimore the first time I saw a set of grounds like that, BG&E crews had some of them, but they were installed on the system neutral instead of a driven ground rod.

We Have no neutral to earth onto... :( They used to use three rods ( earth cluster ) Now it's a four rod earth cluster .... Pic of a three rod... ( the old type )

[Pootnaigle]

Umm them grond rods dont look long enough to get much in the way of a ground to me we always sunk em bout atleast5 ft deep.

[Rob]

May as well use a screwdriver!

[bren guzzi]

May as well use a screwdriver!
If you drive 4 copper rods imto the ground. And space them 3 foot apart .
Recon that's better than +ne rod in 5 foot.

[Rob]

Generally speaking the deeper you drive the rod the better the Ohm readings would be... We have had to go 75 feet in some cases to get good readings.

[bren guzzi]

Generally speaking the deeper you drive the rod the better the Ohm readings would be... We have had to go 75 feet in some cases to get good readings.

We aren't trying to " create a neutral"

It's a drain earth to protect against induced current ... It's a brand new line ...ain't even connected either end. And some bits aren't even built yet...

[Pootnaigle]

umm i bleve if you ever had a fault on them thangs it wud blow em rite outta the groundor blow alla dirt around em plum way away from em

[bren guzzi]

umm i bleve if you ever had a fault on them thangs it wud blow em rite outta the groundor blow alla dirt around em plum way away from em

Sorry Poot but it won't blow outta the ground....
They protect against any current on our system. Our lines are built with protection ... These grounds will activate the trip... They simulate a dead short. Which in turn stops the auto re close from re activating ...... I was involved when I worked for the national grid in testing " grounds " .. These four spike grounds are more than adequate... I was actually at the research centre in the uk when the boffins were testing grounds...

We tried to simulate the very worst case scenario that could occur while applying grounds.

We actually placed a ground inches from a line and hit the line with a simulated lightning strike. ( million volts ) ... The research department could produce these voltages with massive capacitors.

They filmed a couple of horror movies there. Frankenstein types., and used the simulated lightening as special effects in the laboratory scenes....

The facility was used by the national grid to perfect live line training for us... We were working on 400,000 kva lines from the helicopter at the time... So we got involved in some testing of equipment and procedures...

So trust me on this... Our earths" grounds " are more than capable of doing the job they are designed to do.. ( with a very large margin of safety )

[bren guzzi]

If ya wanna check out where I used to work ... And a bit of what we did. Check out this video.
Especially the last bit.. Spent hours in that chair... :eek:

And we used to test grounds,,, They got us in coz none of the boffins liked heights.

http://youtu.be/NUkBB7q1H1E

[Pootnaigle]

Ummm my concern wud be AHERE IN THE PROXIMITY they were placed I cann see em maybe doin the job a good distaNCE AWAY FROM THE SUB,,,,, bUT WITH ALLA THEavailable fault current close to the station I wud still bettcha they wud be blown plum outta the ground

[T-Man]

Over here Bren, we should look for 10 ohms of resistance on a ground rod. Now back in 1970 I had a foreman make me measure the ohms, and connect rods together till I got a good 10 ohm reading. I believe Poot and the rest of these Yanks (I say yanks to separate us from the likes of Bren not north or south :D) are talking the way we get trained to do it. Now a short circuit is good to trip protection and a ground is good to get current back to the source. At a long distance from the source fault current may not rise to the tripping point and you'll get some soil turned to glass at the very least.

[rob8210]

Here in Ontario, most utilities require 2/0 copper grounds connected to the system neutral when available . To a temporary ground probe if no neutral is available , or out in the rural . I firmly believe a piece of #6 would trip out a circuit, but it might burn up in the process. I have no doubt that under heavy fault current conditions a ground probe could be blown out of the ground. Even a temporary ground probe only goes in the ground a foot or so. Then the type of ground involved could be a problem. Doing something is better than nothing, at least with all 3 phases tied together a circuit will trip, unless they are all the same phase.

[reppy007]

Here in houston,Ive never seen anyone ohm a ground rod,not the utility guys and not the contractors.So around 24 years I aint seen it done.....But....Ive seen it done in Flordia....even if a ground rod wasnt measuring the ohms that was wanted they would tag it to where they wanted it to be.....some places wanted 7 or 8 ground rods driven .....but I aint seen that done either.

[Pootnaigle]

Umm I bleve induced voltage and fault current are 2 different aminals.Fault current will n I have seen it blow chunks rite out of cement where the outriggers made contact when the truck frame was energized with 13.2it also blew out all the truck tires thru the steel belts innem.& got sum of the cement under em aswell

[lewy]

Yes I agree the 2 are different, I noticed they used live line clamps for grounding which are only rated for 200 amps, which would be fine for induction, but not fault current. We have to use proper grounding clamps that are designed for fault current. I also think there should be a pole band even if you are only dealing with induction.