[dkaile]

How to do New/Renew your House Electrical Earthing

So my house was nearly 33 old now, since we had constructed it in 1991. Though everything was still solid, I keep on undertaking preventive maintenance of various aspects of plumbing (like renewing all bathrooms) and electrical etc.

So I was checking the earthing resistance by measuring the AC voltage by my Fluke Multimeter set on AC voltage setting, between the Neutral and Earth wires in our various fitting and was seeing a growing resistance. The reading was now around 12~13 Volts whereas the ideal reading should come at less than 3 volts. Though this is not the exact method to check earth resistance, it is the easiest and anyone can do so with a simple multimeter and get a broad idea of the earthing status in their house.

So I decided to get a new earthing made in our house, as I could not locate the earth pit that may have been made 33 years earlier, and connect it to our existing earthing, to make it strong/renew it.

Now there are various methods as you can search on the internet, but the most common one nowadays is the use of some type of good quality Earthing Rod. It can be of Stainless Steel; Galvanised Steel; Copper Bonded or Solid Copper Earth Rods. Now solid copper is the obvious choice but I decided to go Copper Bonded on the recommendation of my electrician and keeping costs in check. These usually have a lifespan of 15~25 years depending upon your soil quality, moisture etc. Now our house had very good quality soil underneath as was checked, hence the existing earthing was still working 30+ years down the line.

So a CE rated Earthing Rod/Electrode was procured -



It was Copper Bonded and 10 feet in length and about 2 inches in diameter, as is evident in this picture -



It came with 2 bags of 25kgs each of Earth Enhancing Compound. I also purchased a Plastic Earthing Pit Cover -



A 10 feet by 4 inches hole was manually dug up by the boring Contractor -



After the hole was ready, the plastic film around the Earthing Rod was removed and it was ready to be put in the hole that is visible -



After the Earthing Rod was safely inside, a slurry mix was made of the 50 kgs of Earth Enhancing compound and poured inside the hole -



The Earthing Pit Cover was fixed on the top which was openable for further work by the Electrician and any future maintenance -



Here's how the earthing rod looks now safely inside the Pit Cover -



I took out out my custom made extension box and checked the earthing with a 60W bulb and found it to be working perfectly with a wattage output of 62.6 watts at a voltage of 238.9 volts at 49.8Hz with a power factor of 1.00 and a Current Draw of 0.26Ampere, as is visible in the digital meter -



The Electrician was called in to fix the Earth Conductor Wire. I opted for 6mm Multistrand Finolex Cable rather than going for a bare 8 gauge copper wire for better protection. Total Wire used was 10 meters (@60/- per meter) as I had got the Earth Pit now made just a few feet away from my main electrical panel -



The earth pit was finished by cementing and the earthing wire was properly routed in a plastic conduit pipe. A look at the finished work -



The earthing Conductor was now properly connected with a Brass Bus Wire to the main panel and 2 outputs were taken connecting the existing Earthing Wires in the house -



And Voila!! Now the earthing resistance was once again measured between the Neutral and the Earth and the voltage was now found to be 1.2 volts!! -



The Total Cost and Time taken -

10' Copper Bonded Earth Rod with 2x25kg earth Enhancing Compound - Rs. 2000/-
Plastic Earth Pit Cover 180/-
15 meter 6mm Copper Wire, Copper Lux (though only 1 was used in the double connection inside earth pit, rest wire I kept bare on the electrician's advice), Brass Bus Wire etc. 1320/-
i.e. Total Material Cost - 3500/-

Labour Cost for 10feet x 4" Boring = 1000/-; Time taken 1 hour
Labour Cost for Electrician = 800/-; Time Taken 2 hours
Misc material like conduit pipe, bends, cement etc. = 200/-

Total Project Cost = Rs. 5,500/= ; Time Taken - 3 hours

Mission accomplished.

Cheers...

[impala]

Really great to see the a meaningful investment. Also, I am seeing the new set up for the first time. I was of the belief that people still use charcoal, salt and GI pipes! Happy to learn the new improved standards.

Originally Posted by dkaile

a Current Draw of 0.26Ampere

Please consider installing an Residual Current Circuit Breaker. It would cost around Rs. 2000 based on how much load is connected. Now, at least in some part of the country, an RCCB installed on the same board as the one for the electric meter is part of the inspection for new connections. It will cut of the supply when there is an earth leak or any other residual current. It may be a tricky with old wiring though if there are minute leaks.

[DRIVESAFE]

Nice post. I would advise you to take two grounding wires from the earth pit to the earth bus. This is done to reduce probability of failure due to reasons like, ageing/corossion/damage.

[rrsteer]

Thank you, very informative post. With EVs gaining popularity many people will have to get the earthing done properly or the car charger won’t work.

[srini1785]

A good informative thread on a very fundamental safety feature that many ignore. Properly done. Only one suggestion, use a megger and test for earth resistance, it should be less than 4 Ohms.