More needs with grounding [RE-wrenches]

[Daryl Thayer]

Thank you to everyone.
Regarding my grounding problem and lightening damage. 
 
I have decided to drive several ground rods at the
power shed and wind tower. Grounding each point
several places and I will link the ground rods
together with #1 bare copper buried.  I am going to
drive sectioned 5/8” ground rods (the threaded ones
that can be screwed together) as deep as possible
hoping to 30 or 40 feet.  I will add rock salt to a
couple of the rods as soil enhancer, (bury a small
quantity at each rod).  

I am going to bond as if separate buildings, and not
run a ground wire from shed to house.  

I will report back to the group on the resistance
between ground rods, as measured by my ohmmeter
(multi-meter).  

Thanks Daryl
--- Jason Fisher <jfisher at nahbrc.org> wrote:
> I had a similar problem where a customer's SW,
> located in a power shed 350'
> from the house, got blown twice in one year from
> lighting hits (Delta's
> didn't stop it). In the second case, it was
> determined that the surge came
> in on the neutral. It was at this point that I
> started thinking about other
> strategies to better isolate the inverter.
> 
> I decided to change my original grounding scheme
> (unbonded neutral at shed
> and separate grounding wire run to house) and use
> the separate building
> rules to bond the neutral at the shed. I simply
> disconnected the #4 bare
> copper ground wire I had installed in the trench
> from the shed and rolled it
> back a good distance and buried it. I was not
> completely confident in this
> approach so I wasn't going to cut any wires. I
> already had 2 rods at the
> shed so this was a relatively simple switch. Well,
> so far so good. It has
> been about two years and there has been no lighting
> damage to the inverter.
> I have nothing that tells me for sure that this
> strategy fixed the problem
> but I'm happy with it.
> 
> Daryl, the reason I suggested this strategy to you
> in the first place was in
> an attempt to help you solve your problem without
> anyone occurring
> unnecessary expense through the installation of a
> 600' ground wire. From
> your description, it sounded like inadequate
> grounding at the shed and tower
> was a potential problem area. The relevance of the
> code articles to this
> strategy is important to anyone who works in an area
> that is regulated
> through electrical permits and inspections.
> Achieving a code compliant
> solution is also another way for us installers to
> limit our liability. I
> have seen no solution that anyone has proposed to
> this problem yet that is
> not code compliant. The questions posed were really
> about whether this
> strategy was compliant.
> 
> Good luck with it.
> 
> Jason Fisher
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daryl Thayer [mailto:daryl_solar at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 2:34 PM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: RE: More needs with grounding [RE-wrenches]
> 
> Code or not, what we want is the best way to prevent
> lightening strikes from distroying another inverter
> in
> my case.
> Daryl
> 
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