grounding of wind towers [RE-wrenches]

[Darryl Thayer]

I concur. Ground the tower at several points, connect
this ground to the house ground.  Place a lightening
arrester between all non grounded wires and the ground
system.  Test the quality of the ground, (if in a
stand alone situation by testing between two
grounds)by renting a ground rod tester.  If in sand
take extra precaution to compensate for seasonal
ground water level changes.  Drive ground rods to
continously moist soil.  

The principal is that charges (lightening in the worst
case) in the air are trying to get back to the earth. 
This current will flow down the tower and find a way
to the earth.  The soil is not a good conductor and
the current will spread along many paths to find this
good path to the earth.  

Darryl

--- "Travis Creswell, Ozark Solar" <ozsolar at ipa.net>
wrote:

> Hello Kirk,
> 
> Your approach appears to be exactly the same as the
> one I use and I'm quite
> happy with it.  We get plenty of lightning and no
> problems to date.  
SNIP
> The sharps bends underground can't hurt either.
Here I disagree, keep sharp bends out of grounding
runs.
 
> I cannot think of a situation where you don't want
> the tower ground bonded
> to the house ground.  
SNIP
> Travis Creswell
> Ozark Energy Services
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kirk Herander [mailto:kirk at vtsolar.com] 
> Subject: grounding of wind towers [RE-wrenches]
> 
> Group,
>  
> We've probably covered this before, but what's the
> best way to ground a
> wind generator tower? I usually drive a rod at the
> base and all guys,
> and ground the tower as well as all guy levels. Then
> put a lightning
> arrestor at the tower base where the splice to
> larger wire is and
> connect the arrestor neutral/gnd to the rod at that
> location. As most
> generator manuals do not discuss grounding and
> lightning protection, I
> wonder if I'm going too far or not far enough. And
> is it wise to connect
> the tower ground to the system (house) ground in all
> cases? Exceptions?
>  
>  
> Kirk Herander
> Vermont Solar Engineering
> 802.863.1202
> fax 802.863-7908
> NABCEP(tm) Certified Solar PV Installer
> Xantrex Certified Dealer Charter Member
> NYSERDA-eligible installer
> VT Solar and Wind Partner
>  
> 
> [
> 
> 
> 



	
		
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