Deep Earth Electrodes

Used to facilitate good earths in the protection of electrical equipment.

Low resistance grounding is essential for safety and protection of sensitive electronic equipment. It is the basis for any facility’s power quality assurance program.

Effective earth grounding is essential for grounded AC and DC electrical equipment and distribution systems. Such as these for Wind Turbines.

Effective grounding provides the level of safety required to protect personnel and equipment from shock and fire hazard.

The understanding and evaluation of a facility ground system should be part of any power quality assurance program.

Selecting the Correct Earth Electrode

By reaching permanent moisture and frost free soil levels, low resistance should be achieved. Often these levels are some metres below the surface and the most economical way of reaching them is by extensible deep earth rod electrodes.

We recommend the use of deep earth rod electrodes wherever conditions allow.

Where rocks lie just below the surface and deep driving is not possible, drilling is recommended these should still be installed as deep as possible to avoid seasonal variations, damage from agricultural machinery etc.

Often parallel rods are driven too close together; this decreases their effectiveness. The distance between rods should be greater than the rod length.
Earth Rod Electrodes

Quality earth rods are commonly made from either solid copper, stainless steel or copperbonded steel.

Zyggi’s Rock Drilling supply all three types, but the copperbonded steel cored rod is by far the most popular, due to its combination of strength, corrosion resistance, and comparatively low cost. Solid copper and stainless steel rods offer a very high level of corrosion resistance at the expense of lower strength and higher cost.

Physical Composition

Different soil compositions give different average resistivities:

Increased moisture content of the ground can rapidly decrease its resisitivity.

It is especially important to consider moisture content in areas of high seasonal variation in rainfall.

Wherever possible the earth electrode should be installed deep enough to reach the "water table". or "permanent moisture level".

Chemical Composition

Certain minerals and salts can affect soil resistivity. Their levels can vary with time due to rainfall or flowing water.

Temperature

When the ground becomes frozen, its resistivity rises dramatically. An earth that may be effective during temperate weather may become ineffective in winter.

Please note that, if your soil temperature decreases from +20°C to -5°C, the resistivity increases more than ten times.

If you are looking for any of the services we offer, please feel free to contact us to provide you with a quote.