EARTHING

 Earthing or grounding is the term used for electrical

connection to the general mass of earth.

 Equipment or a system is said to be 'earthed' when it

is effectively connected to the ground with a
conducting object.

 Earthing provides protection to personal and

equipment by ensuring operation of the protective
gear and isolation of faulty circuit during:

Insulationfailure
Accidental contact
Lightning strike
 Earthing is necessary for proper functioning of certain
equipments.

 Earthing is also done for preventing the operating

personal from hazardous shocks caused by the
damage of the heating appliances.

 Besides the body of the electric heater, bodies of hot

plates, kettles, toasters, heaters, ovens, refrigerators,
air conditioners, coolers, electric irons etc could be
earthed using three pin plugs.

 For large current to flow, earth resistance should be

low. To achieve this proper earthing has to be done.
System earthing:
It is the earthing of neutrals of generating stations
and substations. It is employed to limit the
voltage of live conductors with respect to
potential of general mass of earth. This is
necessary to prevent failure of insulation.

Equipment earthing:
Is earthing of non current carrying metal parts of
electrical equipments. However equipments with
double insulation need not be earthed.
 Electrode material.
 Electrode size.
 Material and size of earth wire.
 Moisture content of soil.
 Depth of electrode underground.
 Quantity of dust and charcoal in earth pit.
 Resistance of metal electrode
 Contact resistance between electrode and soil
 Resistance of soil away from electrode surface.

The resistance decreases with the presence of

moisture and salt in soil.

 To increase the effectiveness of earth, the total

earth resistance should be reduced.

 Efforts should be made to reduce the resistance

contributed by each of above three components.
Earth electrodes can be of following shapes:
 Driven Rods or pipes
 Horizontal Wires
 Four Pointed Stars
 Conductive Plates
Round Vertical Plates
Square Vertical Plates
 Buried Radial Wires
 Spheres made of metal
 Water Pipes
 As water pipes exist extensively and these are most of the time
embedded in earth, they can make a good earth electrode.

 With direct currents, the flow of fault currents in pipes produces

electrolysis and results in heavy corrosion of pipes.

 The water supply main pipe should have metal-to-metal joints

between its segments.

 A perfect electrical connection should be made between water

pipe & earth conductor.

 The earth resistance achieved by such an arrangement is usually

a fraction of an ohm.

 Low resistance of such system is due to long length of water pipe

and the fact that it is mostly embedded below earth.
1. Temperature of soil:
The resistivity increases when temperature falls below the freezing
point. If the temperature falls from 20 ºC to O ºC, soil resistivity
goes up from 7.2-KΩ/cm to 14- KΩ/cm.

2. Moisture Content of Soil:

Small changes in moisture content seriously affect the resistivity.
For example if the moisture content changes from 25% to 30%, soil
resistivity drops from 250-KΩ/cm to 6.4-KΩ/cm. It is important
that earth electrodes should be in contact with moist soil. It should
be ensured that the electrodes are deep in soil and if possible below
the permanent water level.

3. Mechanical Composition of soil:

Finer the grading, lower the resistance.
 Pipe earthing is done by permanently placing a
pipe in wet ground.
 The pipe can be made of steel, galvanized iron or
cast iron.
 The pipe should be placed at least 1.25m below
the ground level and it should be surrounded by
alternate layers of charcoal and salt.
 This is to maintain the moisture level and to
obtain lower earth resistance.
 A funnel with a wire mesh should be provided to
pour water into the sump.
 The plate electrode should have a minimum dimension of 600x600x3.15
mm for copper plate or 600x600x6.3 mm for Gl plates.

 The plate electrode should be placed at least 1.5m below the ground
level.

 The earth conductor is to be securely connected to the plate by means

of bolts and nuts.

 The earth conductor should be carried in a Gl pipe buried 60 cm below

the ground level.

 The plate electrode should be surrounded by a layer of charcoal to

reduce the earth resistance.

 A separate Gl pipe with funnel and wire mesh attached is provided to

pour water into the sump.
 For all places having a rocky soil bed, this type of
earthing is suitable.

 On this system, wires or strips made of GI of size

25 mm x 4 mm or made of copper of size 25 mm
x 1.6 mm are embedded 0.5 m, below the soil in
the form of a network.

 The length of strip should not be less than 1.5 m.

 While it is not possible to change the
fundamental nature /properties of soil at a
given location, but local variations of soil
conditions do occur even in a small area.

 When a location for making earthing pit has

to be selected, preference should be given to
location, which is likely to give minimum
electrical resistance.