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Re: [TCML] Grounding Coil to Water Pipe



Since were on the topic of using copper (water) pipes for grounding a coil, here's my story; I wanted to move my coil out of the garage, and decided to use a hose bib on the side of the house about 2 feet above ground of 3/4 inch copper pipe. It had been painted over, so I diligently sanded it to a bright finish, and purchased a strong clamp to terminate my ground cable (more on that later). I delayed about about 3 months before deciding to use it, but decided to do some measurements today. I ran a wire from my current ground in the garage to the external hose bit pipe, and measured the resistance..6.7 megs! I couldn't believe my eyes. My present ground was about .6 ohms. Boy, was I glad I did'nt hook up the coil first. Can you imagine sparks jumping of the inner copper pipe to whatever looked like a path to ground? How about a fire? The cable I fabricated consisted of r shielded cables (11) feet long containing 3 #12 stranded wires hooked in parallel for low Z. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. How do you spell ASSume?
Dan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Mastroianni" <joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 3:35 PM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Grounding Coil to Water Pipe



Re: Pounding in ground rods -

As I mentioned I'm using a separate 8' ground rod just for my coil. (Connecting to it via stranded jumper cable wire I salvaged from an old set of Sears Jumper Cables)

Here in NoCal in the hills the soil is very rocky, so I was worried about being able to pound in a ground rod at all.

I have a Bosch electric SDS rotary hammer I use for home upgrade and repair - mostly for drilling holes in big rocks to run wires, or to crack rocks when I'm trying to sink a fence post, or to demo stubborn parts of my house. They actually sell a ground rod pounder attachment for the thing.

The thing was worthless in getting the rod past (or through) the rocks. Yes, I got 11 slams a second. But the rod never moved.

I switched to my 8lb sledge, and first I had to stand on a ladder to get any sort of angle on the thing. But it got through the rocks, and down to the point where there was only about 3" showing.

My arms were somewhat useless for the rest of the day, afterward. But arm power beat the SDS jackhammer.

Cheers,
Joe




On 9/1/2010 6:29 AM, Brandon Hendershot wrote:
Alright,
Briefly returning to the initial subject;
So what I've learned is that it's a very bad idea to ground to the water pipe partialy because it may be connected to the "green wire ground" at the water heater. Also because the underground pipes may convert to non/conductive PVC piping, destroying any ground potential. BUT, assuming that the electrical system doesn't comply with code and doesn't connect back to safety ground at the water heater, and that the pipe leading underground doesn't switch over to PVC, I *could* get a solid ground connection without pounding down a new pipe or frying any in home electronics?
Thanks Guys,
Brandon_______________________________________________
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