Grounding wire question

[TerryinMD]

I installed a jumper grounding wire when I put in my whole house filter. It provides continuity from the hot water heater to my well head. When the water lines and electricity were installed, the pump man ran a heavy guage copper wire from the well head to pressure tank. From the pressure tank to the hot water heater, the lines are copper and which extended the grounding. I saw this and said there must a good reason, so I just spent the $5 or so dollars to extend the grounding.

I worked around mainframe computers during the computing stone age (wink) and everything was tied to a centralized grounding grid in the computer room. They used braided copper strapping to make sure every piece of equipment or any mechanical appliance was grounded. The bigger issue was static electricity of course but I can imagine that it also had to do with having a common ground for any kind of fault.

Terry

 

[Keoke]

Richard, pure water it's self in NOT a conducter of electricity.
It is the minerals in the water that make it a conducter. Depending on it's mineral content, water can go from being a lousy to a somewhat decent conducter.
Because of it's residual minerals, well water is generally a better conducter then rain or melted snow water.

cheers,

 

[beenthere]

Terry
Similar experience with good grounds when installing a research computer in the early 70's - almost stone age. We needed a separate ground and had a well driller put in a hole that served as our ground into water. The head electrician didn't think much of the idea, and sent one of his men to "test" the ground (by shorting 110v to the ground to see if it would blow a 30A fuse in the line). This "test" was done without disconnecting the $100K computer from the ground being tested. Poooof!

The computer survived better than the rest of the circuits, allowing the 5v logic to float on top of the 110 volts it was subjected to. But the several thousands of dollars of research circuitry didn't fare so well. Essentially all the resistors became toast, along with many other parts.

As soon as the electrician touched blew the 30A fuse, it dawned on him that he should have let us know to disconnect the computer first.

You are right, good grounds in those days were hard to come by.