Ask the Grounding Experts

In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin discusses Part 5 of a 5-part series about lightning strike scenarios and the ways to protect against them.

In the previous four episodes, we discussed the 4 lightning scenarios that cause damage: cloud-to-cloud strikes, nearby ground strikes, strike to incoming power lines, and finally direct strikes to your building.  These problems can be resolved with the following lightning protection strategies:  First, a Franklin-style lightning protection system with lightning rods on the roof of the building protects top of your building.  This system is tied to the building grounding system, which is made up of ground rods and possibly a buried ground ring.  Finally, surge protection device systems will protect your electrical system from incoming lightning surges on your incoming lines.  A cascaded surge protection system can add a second line of protection against surges to your electrical system.  These systems all work together to create a complete lightning protection system.

For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com 

In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin discusses Part 4 of a 5-part series about lightning strike scenarios and the ways to protect against them.

Direct lightning strikes are the fourth and least common scenario that can damage your building.  However, a direct lightning strike can be very powerful and cause major damage.  The odds of a direct strike to your building will depend on the lightning strike frequency in your area.  Due to the high currents, it can start fires in wood structures.  It will also cause a large electromagnetic field pulse.

For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com 

In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin discusses Part-3 of a 5-part series about lightning strike scenarios and the ways to protect against them.

Ground strikes are the second most common source of lightning damage, due to the direct coupling of ground currents traveling through the earth and into the concrete encased steel components of a structure.  These steel components will need to form there own magnetic fields which in turn will can cause damage to electronic systems within the structure.  Understanding how lightning can damage a structure is key to understanding how to protect a structure.    

 For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com 

 For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com 

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin discusses Part-2 of a 5-part series about lightning strike scenarios and the ways to protect against them.

 Ground strikes are the second most common source of lightning damage, due to the direct coupling of ground currents traveling through the earth and into the concrete encased steel components of a structure.  These steel components will need to form there own magnetic fields which in turn will can cause damage to electronic systems within the structure.  Understanding how lightning can damage a structure is key to understanding how to protect a structure.    

 For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com 

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin discusses Part-1 of a 5-part series about lightning strike scenarios and the ways to protect against them.

 Air-to-Air strikes are the most common source of lightning damage, due to electromagnetic fields (EMF) and the damage this interference causes to electronic systems.  Understanding how the EMF from lightning cause damage to your structures is key to understanding why the solutions work and how lightning protection systems work to protect you from numerous different scenarios.  

 For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com 

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E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin responds to viewers' questions about the differences between ground “loops” and ground “rings”. Ground loops are a common term that is often ill defined and even more often used inappropriately. Typically, ground loops are used to define a process where the return currents (neutral currents) are allowed to travel back to the source on the normally-non-current-carrying-exposed-conductive-parts of a circuit, in violation of NEC 250.6 –Objectionable Currents.  Objectionable Currents are hazardous to both persons and equipment and must be removed from any circuit. 

For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin responds to viewers questions about the dangers of Step Voltages. Step voltages are a very dangerous and unseen hazard. Primarily caused by lightning strikes or downed power lines, step voltages are large differences in potential that are a short distance from each other, which can turn the person or animal taking the step to become a conduit that the electrons use to flow from one potential to the other. David describes the dangers and explains the process by which this current flow occurs. He also offers some mitigation and safety tips.

For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President DavidStockin goes into detail on the importance of addressing your grounding system during the design process and how not doing so can cause costs to dramatically increase. David discusses the issues that can arise when grounding is an afterthought instead of a forethought and tells us a few of the details and standards that must be covered.

For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions.

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In this Episode of Ask the Grounding Experts, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin discusses the Top 3 areas of improvement that are needed in Article 250, the Grounding Section, of the National Electrical Code (NEC).

In particular, the importance of installing a copper wire in branch circuits instead of using steel conduit is discussed.  In addition, the human safety reasons for always bonding the steel rebar in concrete (concrete encased electrodes) and the need to use copper in Liu of building steel for down conductors and grounding electrode conductors is also examined.  A few small adjustments to the National Electrical Code could help to dramatically reduce electrocutions, save lives, improve reliability, and reduce the costs of corrosion on our infrastructure.

For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S President David Stockin discusses the grounding challenges that you can encounter at solar farms.

For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, our President, David Stockin walks us through the difference between a ground wire and a neutral wire.  The differences might surprise you!

For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin discusses a requirement for ground rods in the IEC – it may be surprising to learn when this requirement was introduced!

There are several reasons why a ground rod should be installed at every home’s electrical service panel, rather than rely upon the ground rod for the utility’s transformer.  Sometimes when a code or standard introduces a new requirement, it raises a lot of questions on how to implement the requirement. The expert team at E&S Grounding Solutions stands ready to offer guidance on installing a safe and compliant grounding system.

For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin chats with us about electrical codes used around the world. Not every country and region follow the same standard or code, but most of these guiding documents derive their requirements from two main sources. These codes are frequently being updated as advancements are made in technology and safety. The E&S Grounding Solutions website maintains a helpful resource for engineers to find the codes in effect in nearly every part of the planet! For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin continues looking at an example of lightning striking a large metal tower. The connection between electrodes and earth will determine the potential difference across the ground, so it is important to understand what causes the potential difference and why engineers should work to minimize that difference. The formation of electromagnetic fields and step and touch voltages are other factors to consider in the design and analysis of a grounding system. Mitigations are possible by adding copper wire, copper ground ring(s), and electrodes that are specially-designed to help dissipate leakage current. Many of the principles applying to a large metal tower could apply to other structures.

 For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

Please follow us on Social Media

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There are a number of electrical phenomena that occur when lightning strikes an object.  In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President, David Stockin walks us through those and tells us what we can do about it.  For more info, please visit www.ESgrounding.com. 

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin explores the topic of resistance-to-ground specifications. It is important to consider the justification for specifying a particular value of resistance-to-ground. Can a very low value always be achieved? Does it matter? While some installations may have a valid need for a low resistance-to-ground, many times, it is not necessary.  Also, consider that it is not possible to simply buy materials that meet an arbitrary resistance-to-ground spec. Rather, engineers should evaluate if the grounding system has a good continuity and therefore low potential difference across the system to minimize hazards to equipment and personnel.
 For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin builds upon the previous episode’s discussion on testing the continuity of a grounding system, this time focusing on the clamp-on method. In this method, the clamp-on meter will induce a current on the system in two directions. The clamp-on meter can then determine the resistance. Normally, a low resistance reading will indicate that there is a good continuous loop between the grounded object under test and the larger grounding system. However, in the case of isolated grounds, the desired resistance measurement on the clamp-on meter would be extremely high (open) to indicate that current only traveled successfully in one direction. Then, a two-point test can be used to validate that there is a continuous path for the isolated ground.  A clamp-on meter can provide key insights into possible issues such as leakage current and corrosion.
 For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin begins a discussion on testing the continuity of a grounding system, focusing on the two-point method. In this method, resistance measurements are made at numerous points in the facility, taking each measurement with the same reference point. One measurement between two points does not offer much information about the complex network on conductors in the grounding system. Taking readings in multiple locations will hopefully present consistently low values of resistance that will indicate the connections in the network of ground conductors are in good condition. Higher values of resistance may be indicative of an issue in the ground system connections. Continuity testing is also very important to ensure bonding conductors will serve their purpose to protect humans from harmful touch voltages. For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin concludes a two-part series on resistance to ground measurements by discussing the induced frequency test, often called the “Clamp-On Method."  In this method, a comparison is made between an induced current and a return current, while the test voltage is held constant. When the meter is clamped on to an electrode that is in series with a massive resistance loop with many parallel resistances, the meter can display a resistance that is approximately near the resistance to ground of the electrode under test. If electrodes of interest are accessible via test wells, the clamp-on method can be helpful for maintaining the grounding system by examining the change in resistance over an extended period of time, or by measuring the amount of current in the grounding system. For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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In this episode, E&S Grounding Solutions President David Stockin sits down to chat about the three-point fall-of-potential method for conducting a resistance to ground measurement. In this method, there is a particular location for a potential probe that will help produce a reasonably accurate result for the test. However, it is important to take readings at multiple locations to see if there are any problems with the test setup and site conditions. The fall-of-potential method has limitations to its applications because site conditions may not accommodate a good test setup. Still, engineers should learn how the concepts behind the fall-of-potential method can be useful when assessing the design or performance of a grounding system. For a video of this podcast, please visit our YouTube Channel at E&S Grounding Solutions. For more information or to sign up for some of our world-renowned educational classes, please visit our website at www.ESgrounding.com

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