SignalTraffic Forums

64ragtop wrote: Since yours is mounted outside, you could just drive a ground spike in the ground right next to it (giving you an isolated ground). This would save you the hassle of getting a ground wire back to your main panel.

I'm not at all comfortable with that idea! It's safety depends on the length of the ground rod and your local ground conditions. If your ground rod doesn't happen to have a sufficiently low resistance to earth, you could still end up with a hot cabinet. Much better to have a proper continuous ground wire back to the panel or to a correctly wired outlet.

With our silca sand here in south Florida, a single typical ground rod could never be trusted to make an effective safety ground.

vaughnsimon wrote:

64ragtop wrote: Since yours is mounted outside, you could just drive a ground spike in the ground right next to it (giving you an isolated ground). This would save you the hassle of getting a ground wire back to your main panel.

I'm not at all comfortable with that idea! It's safety depends on the length of the ground rod and your local ground conditions. If your ground rod doesn't happen to have a sufficiently low resistance to earth, you could still end up with a hot cabinet. Much better to have a proper continuous ground wire back to the panel or to a correctly wired outlet.

With our silca sand here in south Florida, a single typical ground rod could never be trusted to make an effective safety ground.

I believe the ground spikes they sell at most of the electrical supply houses out here in SoCal are about 8 ft long and solid copper. That is what the code calls for in L.A. For most service panels. This would most likely be better than what Easy probably has with his existing house ground.

64ragtop wrote:

vaughnsimon wrote:

64ragtop wrote: Since yours is mounted outside, you could just drive a ground spike in the ground right next to it (giving you an isolated ground). This would save you the hassle of getting a ground wire back to your main panel.

I'm not at all comfortable with that idea! It's safety depends on the length of the ground rod and your local ground conditions. If your ground rod doesn't happen to have a sufficiently low resistance to earth, you could still end up with a hot cabinet. Much better to have a proper continuous ground wire back to the panel or to a correctly wired outlet.

With our silca sand here in south Florida, a single typical ground rod could never be trusted to make an effective safety ground.

I believe the ground spikes they sell at most of the electrical supply houses out here in SoCal are about 8 ft long and solid copper. That is what the code calls for in L.A. For most service panels. This would most likely be better than what Easy probably has with his existing house ground.

8 feet! The ground in my area is clay, and granite....I'll be lucky if I could drive the rod 2 feet into the ground.

If you drive a ground rod you still need to tie it to your service ground with a copper wire sized per your service size. That way there's no potential difference. Isolate the cabinet/ground and neutral and use a standard three wire cord.