ConduDisc Demonstration - Earth Rod Alternative
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 พ.ย. 2024
- Overview and demonstration of the ConduDisc, an alternative to an earth rod.
In this demonstration, the ConduDisc is placed in fairly loose soil about 12 inches depth, so the obtained resistance is higher than in a normal installation.
A future video will cover this being installed in a real installation at a more suitable depth - • ConduDisc and Conducre...
UK: earthingservice...
North America: www.saeinc.com/
This channel is gold standard information. No nonsense, plain talking and useful info delivered in an easy to understand way. You Sir are the guy I wished lived next door.
There's a feeling you get watching John and that feeling is trust
It's wonderful to see the great John Ward getting to grips with the ConduDisc. Everyone at Earthing Services recognises his expertise and applauds all of the knowledge sharing that he does; just like many in the e5 Group John Ward has worked tirelessly to improve safety in the electrical sector and this is a further demonstration of that.
Nobody at Earthing Services was involved in the preparation, planning or implementation of this install.
As JW says this is not a complete installation, just a demonstration of the product, and as such the performance is not reflective of a real world installation. JW points out that this is not to depth or properly compacted.
Simply backfilling a ConduDisc is a bit like laying an earth rod in an excavation as it does not sufficiently reduce contact resistance. For example a driven earth rod is forced into the ground assuring low contact resistance which ultimately benefits discharging electricity as it is easier for the energy to pass from one medium to another. Providing this comparable resistance for a ConduDisc requires compression.
A great case study of this is shown here:
(www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6772877222358466560/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(activity%3A6772877222358466560%2C6773253548340764672 ))
In this instance the ConduDisc was nearly 400 Ohms when installed, but through compression it got down to 75 Ohms. Most people aren't as heavily equipped as FM Services Group in terms of vibrating compression tools, but Liberty Charge elects for its staff using their body weight to compress, which will certainly accelerating resettlement of excavated material as seen here:
th-cam.com/video/OxQdjyZKe1U/w-d-xo.html
Furthermore at this point it's unclear what the ground profile is, without a soil resistivity survey that could be speculative. Our short overview here:
th-cam.com/video/CbkFfBgX8YI/w-d-xo.html
demonstrates how influential soil resistivity can be. Afterall gold is an excellent conductor but if you put it in a block of rubber it will not discharge electrical current. Here we may be seeing the earth rod having penetrated an optimal layer of soil resistivity which has enhanced its performance. As much as the ConduDisc has a contact surface area equivalent to a 3m rod, if it's in a more resistant layer then its performance will be impacted.
Finally it is worth saying this, the reason that there is a marketplace is to enable people to make a choice of what suits them. The ConduDisc will not deteriorate like the earth rod, it is easy to install, safer to install and it will likely outlast the item it is protecting. All we would say is if you are using one get it compressed, it will improve performance with no extra cost!
Thanks again JW for having a go with the product and we look forward to his next adventures!
A final point, JW you clearly look after your testing equipment to a truly admirable standard, not the bird's nest of testing cables so often seen!
Hi John, I am positive that your video has relieved the stress and tension of anybody who was worrying about how to get an effective earth!
Always good to have options!
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
Glad to see it in action after your excellent discussion on the products on E5 podcast.
It really was, you may like to see this: th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
Looking forward to seeing the results once you do the proper installation of the disc.
Just reboot and in bios settings, boot sequence say start from external Disc...
@@Xclub40X hopefully designed for Linux. My house has Windows but it's always crashing.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
May I ask why your name is inverted?
Nice review, will be curious to see the results of the next test. This is something I can imagine getting better with time as the earth compacts in density around the disc. Obviously moisture will play a part, but overall I think age will benefit this. Would be interested to see a followup if you keep it installed in the other location, after it has sat for a year or so.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
As there was no pause in the sentence before or after the moment 'weeks later' popped up on the screen, I LAUGHED. Unintentionally adorable.
I've no idea how I got here and I've no idea what an earth rod is, but I'm thoroughly intrigued. :)
Only John would announce it's now a month later, but for the sake of continuity wear a red shirt and jumper again. Great 👍
But the laundry on the washing line changed.
I always wear the same clothes for DIY etc work
Could well imagine this "rod" being a "a get out of jail card" in urban areas. Highlight of the video for me though was John, s retesting of a conventional rod sank 18 months ago and finding it's resistance had increased by a third!!!!
It’s an interesting idea. I remember back in the day people would often bury a old copper hot water tank for a Earth although they have quite a scrap value today.
I've heard of churches using confiscated moonshine stills. KPPC Pasadena Presbyterian Church, and KBRT Catalina, are possible examples.
@ AllThe GearNoIdea,
All sorts of things used to get buried, car radiators, old copper pipes, old gas caliphonts, you name it.
There was an old eccentric English guy that moved here to New Zealand and I re-wired his cottage, he BOUGHT a plate of copper, it was 2 metres x 3 metres and it was 12.5 mm (1/2") thick.
He made me fit 12 x 50mm² copper conductors back to the main switchboard in the cottage, before we buried the whole thing 2 metres down in the ground.
The Inspector from the local Power Board, asked what the hell all the wires were for, the guy said " I came from England, I don't trust the electricity out in the colonies!"
@@mikeZL3XD7029 He must have had more money than sense.
@@chrisfryer3118 Not any more.
Are you tired and bored of DVDs and rubbish on TV?
Come and watch JW on ConduDisc
*MUCH BETTER*
Thanks for your video John. To get a good reading on this disk you will probably have to bury it at a depth of around 2 to 3 feet down and then compact it in. That's a lot of digging and work to do, not much of a time saver really. It's easy if the ground is soft but then a stake would be easy to drive in soft ground also. Digging such a large hole in compacted ground with possible rocks or large stones would be harder than driving a stake. As far as avoiding services is concerned, I don't think there is much improvement as most services are buried around 2 feet down around a property so it would still be difficult to find a suitable place to bury the disk.
Interesting Mr Ward... I actually quite like the idea..obviously high resistance above 200 ohms due to shallow bury in the ground and its normally deeper but i get the idea..if you do another test with it at its proper depth i would be interested to see the reading.. I just hope they make the price reasonable.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
John, On your next test, since you are going to use some concrete, you might try to put some #6 bare copper in some concrete in direct contact with earth and see how it performs. In the US it is #4 cu. 20’-0” long typically in a footing.
After burning a copy of this, I have now put the ConduDisc onto my DVD drive and pressed play. Much better than the original DVD format.. Drive is squashed a bit though.
What on Earth you thinking! ;-)
The shallow depth of the ConduDisc means it will be sensitive to the level of moisture of the ground which will vary wildly over the year whilst the earth rod will be close to or ideally into the water table. I know which one I'd prefer.
In a real installation, it would be buried much deeper, and the soil around it compacted. This is just a demonstration. It will be shown in a real installation in a future video.
@@jwflame please do a propper installation, so to see a real world value.
Could you do a video about earthing gensets? On some outdoor events I've seen generators grounded properly. Other times I've seen no ground rod and the genset on a trailer with (rubber) tyres as aped to a skid mounted geni plonked directly on the ground. What Is the proper protocol?
Love your videos JW
My house in Canada, built in the 1970's has a buried copper water main, which also serves as an electrical earth connection. Many modern homes no longer use copper mains and have to make use of earthing rods.
Not allowed to use water mains as primery earth supply in the UK any more because of the switch to plastic
And yet my 1987 UK house with plastic water main still has an earth bonding wire to it, connected mere inches from the joint to the plastic. Later plumbing changes in the house with plastic mean it is only connected to a couple of metres of copper pipe in the house. The incoming gas pipe (probably also mostly plastic but harder to tell) also has an earth bonding wire to it. The main fuse says it is a PME installation but I'm far from convinced any of the earths are any use. If there is an earth rod anywhere, I don't know where it is.
@@owensmith7530 well they aren't any use are they. Just a waste of time and materials. Sometimes it's company policy. Severn Trent bond across water meters even with incoming and outgoing plastic pipes!
Hmm, really nice in theory, but I'm worried that's make it easier for people to half arse it and not bury it deep enough.
With an electrode you have to drive it at least so deep to stop it sticking out.
Top layers of soil are going to be much more seasonal than the lower layers with regards to moisture and ice.
With an electrode, the soil around the top may dry out , but the lower bit will still likely be damp.
If the soil around this dries out...*all* the soil in contact with the electrode will be dry, potentially increasing the resistance by an order of magnitude.
Is there regulation on the minimum depth of an earthing electrode?
As far as UK earthing standards are concerned the minimum depth is 600mm to mitigate the seasonal variations you reference. In terms of what operatives may do during an installation shallower is not uncommon. You make a good point about driving an earth rod, but sadly all too often cutting off half-buried rods occurs, as does even more alarmingly people leaving earth rods sticking out of the ground. In terms of does it make it easier? Perhaps, but then again it comes down to personal professional standards.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
Nice video, interesting product, never knew its existence!
Here's a marketing / product idea - a generator 'table'. Consisting of a 'table' with a 2" lip all around it. You stand your generator in the 'tray' table top - the table having 4 legs made of 22mm copper tubing open at both ends with no feet. The weight of the vibrating generator 'quietly' tapping the legs further into the ground - while, in the 'tray' you add a good inch deep of water. The water runs down the copper tube legs making the groud wet - aids sinking in the legs and electrical conductivity. Earth your generator to the table ;)
Good to know these discs exist anyway. They look useful. What's the price? I can't see anyone selling these yet.
SAE Inc. sells them, no prices on the website. Prepare to spend some bucks I guess.
Hmmm, I think I'll use one of these to replace the seriously janky rod we currently have. We need to do some work on the drains near to the rod so it makes perfect sense. Thanks John.
I always find it amazing how in some countries you have to be so careful about possible cables or pipes not belonging to you being buried under your property...
I worked for British Telecom for 30 years and we had ( still have ) thousands of miles of cables in private property. One issue is that boundaries can change over time. The GPO as we were then always got permission and wayleaves before laying a cable but if that land was later sold for development they could find a fair sized cable across the back garden. Poles in gardens etc. In modern housing estates quite often the 1st metre in from the edge of the footway is a services zone and people would just assume it was their garden and plant stuff there or have a block paved driveway laid right to the footway, many time people came home to find us digging a large trench or lifting their driveway. It caused a lot of arguments but I never remember a single case of them being correct. They would insist they bought that strip from the council but then had to admit that they didn’t pay for gas water electric and telephones to be rerouted into the carriageway and back into the neighbours services strip, meaning they never really bought it at all. Driveway companies although knowing the situation never told householders they had to stop 1m short of the footway either. It’s a long standing headache. Farmers regularly plough up cables that may be feeding a village and can’t be run in carriageway ducts. The farmers don’t want the cable but checking the wayleaves it was their grandfather who gave the permission decades ago. This is a reason for slow fibre optic roll out in rural areas, having to close a single track road and lay miles of carriageway duct and manholes takes weeks and costs millions of pounds only to find that most people are happy enough with their ADSL and the service providers can’t get their customers to take the fibre.
Its because they're so old. In London, no one really knows where a lot of the Victorian pipes and cables are.
@@londontrada Same in most major cities, found a tunnel in Birmingham right next to a highrise they built in the 60's as they were knocking it down , they reckon it dated back to victorian times
What possible advantage does this have (apart as you said not spiking or cutting something) over burying anything else conductive in the ground, such as say a aluminium trash can lid or other lump of (non corrosive) metal?
Looks like a (probably expensive) solution looking for a problem to me.
Whilst aluminium isn't a suitable metal for buried conductors used for earthing / grounding due to rapid deterioration, you are right any suitable conductor will help discharge electricity. The benefits are much longer service life, easy, fast and safe installation and highly deterioration resistant in hostile ground masses. That being said it's a free market and you must always select the product you deem most suitable.
The advantage is on new build housing . The disc can be installed and backfilled with the foundations . Considerations should be given to back up earth electrodes on new build housing.
@john ward, can you have too many earth rods? One on house , another one hot tub, EV etc and all linked through wiring?
I'm thinking of testing the earth/ground resistance between my house and my neighbor's. The electrical panels are connected to the city water supply lines, so in theory the resistance should be very low, since the water distribution to each house is a massive grid from the street, but it ends if the water line switches to plastic somewhere underground.
It would be instructive for your and your neighbor to do that test.
Interesting. Might spook people going forwards if not accessible for maintenance though! Also isn't 13mm too small for a buried earthing conductor?
Yes, the minimum for buried without mechanical protection is 16mm², so this 6AWG is slightly undersized. Would be better if supplied with metric sized wire.
Shouldn't require any maintenance, it's intended to have a lifespan measured in decades rather than years.
@@jwflame What is the point of a 16mm wire connecting to something with tens of ohms?
@@mikeselectricstuff Electrically none - the 16mm² minimum is for mechanical strength. If the conductor is protected against mechanical damage, minimum size is 2.5mm²
@@jwflame The almost certainly original wire to the earth rod in my 1960-vintage house is a single-core SWA which I've never seen anywhere else. The rubber-insulated 7/.029 copper conductor is protected by spiral-wound steel armor and then a woven fabric outer layer.
The earth rod itself just pokes up through a layer of concrete a few inches behind the back of the house. However the measured Ze is a respectable 50 ohms.
Hi John, great video. With this being closer to the surface do you have any increased concerns over step voltages?
No, as in a real installation it would be buried considerably deeper.
perhaps adding small spikes about six, in a bracket on the disc would help conductivity, driven about 4 inches in the soil, stepping or hammering on a center plate attached to the disc.
Wonder if there are any limits on soil conductivity? While the surface area is similar, the small footprint vs. a long ground rod could be an issue in poorly conducting soils.
See our earlier reply, relative soil resistivity and compaction are factors in performance of any conductor
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
Tries to record video.
Mother Nature: “I’m going to rain on this man’s parade.”
Rock on Johnny!
The important question is how many Kv did the microphone withstand before being "eliminated"?
I love you JW :-) thanks for more education!
Audio isn't as bad as you make out ;) at least it isn't the camera mic
What no salt water 💦😄
Just to say I did new electrodes on a couple of terrace houses. First job required three three foot extension rods to get below 200 ohms which needed a sledgehammer. I imagine the first set of deep rods improved next door reading which only required a single rod . The electrodes were only about 4 meters apart from each other . It would be interesting to see if the same thing is going on here
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
Hi John, I know you must be a busy guy but if you see this comment (or anyone else for that matter) it'd be great to get some advice. In my kitchen I have an outlet for an electric cooker which is connected as a single circuit on the consumer unit with a 45A breaker. I want to have an on-demand electric water heater installed in the kitchen, this is a 9kW device which will also need a 45A spur. I have had an electrician who says he can run a spur from the consumer unit to another control unit in the kitchen for use with the heater. Another electrician has said the best thing to do would be to run a single 25mm² line from the main consumer unit to another consumer unit in the kitchen and then spur that off to the two control units. The later suggestion seems dodgy to me, I'm not an expert but I don't believe having a consumer unit in a kitchen would be a good idea and I'm not convinced having such a high current breaker (It'd need to be 90A surely? The main cut off fuse is only 100A) in the main unit is even possible.
A 9kW heater is approximately 40 amps, so a 40A or 45A circuit breaker would be appropriate.
25mm² is grossly oversized, whole houses are supplied with less.
The normal method would be a new 40A or 45A circuit from the existing consumer unit to the heater, with an isolator switch at the heater end. Cable would typically be 6mm² unless it's an excessively large distance or it has to be installed through insulation or other undesirable things.
There is also the question of whether the supply is capable of supplying the additional load, which depends on it's capacity and what else is already installed in the building.
I think the Condudisc needs to be buried deeper, even just for a basic reading. The conductance from the top surface is fundamentally limited by the resistance of the top layer of dirt. Or put differently the perimeter area of the soil "disc" on top. Just burying it deeper would probably lower the measured resistance by at least 1/3.
It would also be interesting to measure the resistance of that black material. Idea: put a sheet of al foil on the top and bottom and a weight on top to get the top to bottom resistance.
It does, and will be in a future video.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
I wonder if that was inspired by the Hypnodisc, from Robot Wars 😄
I'm not saying it wasn't... it was originally conceived to be screwed onto the bottom of timber transmission poles, but in-house we generally refer to them as pucks
Does a ground rod have to be vertical? Can it be installed horizontally? If so, how long and how deep would it have to be?
Horizontal earth rods may be a safer and faster concept than driving vertically but measured performance is usually significantly lower.
@@earthingservices44
so youre saying that horizontal rods need to be longer, right?
@@mrxmry3264 Not at all, but thanks for checking. If you want to go metallic only then go for copper tape or HD bare cable. It's more expensive but stands a far better chance at discharging electrical current than the horizontal copperbond rod.
Two trampolines. Do you do tricks where you jump from one to the other?
Hi is this Condu earth disc allowed and compliant with BS 7671?
it would very interesting to know what it cost JW.
The SAE Inc. website doesn't seem to have any prices listed. Which tells me I probably couldn't afford it.
Looks interesting but how much do they cost as that is one of main things people to know I notice in comments people have asked but there's no price given they just reply with contact sales department which to me means there expensive.
But that removes the thrill of pounding a ground rod into an electric distribution cable or a high pressure gas line.
✨ *B A N G* ✨
were can I get condudisc and conducrete from? cheers
I do not find any where or very much info on how these or the conductive concrete can actually be purchased.
Is this a UK available item? Are they available with a 16mm equivalent wire?
What would be the point of 16mm^2 wire on something with a resistance of a couple of hundred ohms?
@@mikeselectricstuff The cable size varies to suit a given application, and as JW side this is not representative performance of the product.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
The csa of an earth wire for TTs systems required by BS7671 depends on whether it is protected against mechanical damage and corrosion or not. If protected from both it need only be 2.5 sq mm.
One question I would ask how would you achieve compliance with the regs as to the earth being continuous with no breaks or joints in the run?
Nothing in BS7671 requires an earth conductor to be continuous with no joints.
Inaccessible joints would need to be permanent, as in crimped, welded or similar,. Other types of joint such as screw terminals would need to be accessible, in the same way that the connection to an earth rod remains accessible.
Can this be used in place of ground rods for lightning protection on a 200a residential service? This is a question for the North American sparkies. For places where you can’t drive rods
Contact SAE Inc: www.saeinc.com/
Good videos, very informative. But I keep wanting to say "Cheer Up!"
That would never do! We come here as much for John's deadpan delivery and occasional dry humour as much as his expertise.
Two trampolines in one yard? Someone is really overdoing it now...
He is often seen by neighbours bouncing joyfully from one to another measuring air resistance
You've clearly not seen the video on his other channel, measuring the comparative springiness of trampolines installed on either soft ground or hardstanding. He has some interesting test equipment for that.
So, you've got roughly 2 times more resistance with the ConduDisc.
So what does that mean in a practical sense?
What resistance is: ideal, good, & bad?
What would be the practical difference between an ideal resistance & a good resistance?
As JW points out this isn't an actual comparison, it's an installed earth rod and a ConduDisc not at depth or fully compacted. This disparity in performance is never seen in complete installations.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
Just an Idea. John Have you not thought Doing a Live you tube Stream also taking Questions from all your Fans ? who watch your videos ?
Yes, that is already in preparation.
Been out of the game many years but from memory I always assumed the a rod resistance had to be in the region of 30 Ohms or lower. I guess I was lucky in my day because mine, not that I did many just mainly out in the sticks cottages, were around 20 something Ohms.
Depends on the application, for normal use under 200 is suggested, although lower is certainly desirable.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
Very informative, this is why I don't watching T.V!
Has John got two sheds? Two sheds Jackson will not be pleased lol.
Arthur😉
👍💯
Hopefully the Army EOD team don't get called out to this one as JW has informed them in advance
Is the megger tool better than fluke ?
Any idea how to actually get these? The only company I could find that claims to sell these in UK didn't even get back to me with a price.
wow, that earthing services site plays four different videos at the same time automatically, what a mess.
How much do these cost? It's definitely interesting.
That's concerning, could you reply advising which page on the website? That clearly shouldn't be happening and we cannot find it.
@@earthingservices44 It was the condudisc page, I just checked again and this time it didn't do it, so not sure what triggered it last time, good that it's not consistent though.
@@XOIIOXOIIO Thanks for re-checking and delighted that didn't happen this time. Have spoken with the site team to monitor this. Your feedback is invaluable so thanks again, and always feel free to get in touch!
I got a price from them directly recently, they quoted 1 x 16sqmm ConduDisc @ £148.00
2 x 25kg bags of Conducrete @ £38.50 per bag
In America, the now-preferred method of grounding (at least for residences) is the rebar in the concrete foundation. I'm curious as to what kind of reading you'll get on your next video through that concrete.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
In the UK foundation concrete for residences tends not to contain any rebar (or didn't, I may be out of date), so can't be used as an earth.
Old way was to bury a copper cylinder seems sensible as surface area very high when you add up internal and external surfaces.
Wouldn't the internal surface just become a Faraday cage though?
Hmm, I'm in the States & I've never seen nor heard of that thing!
It appears to have only been around about 1 year, seems targeted at pro installers not DIY homeowners.
For whatever it is worth, the first part (lapel mic?) was better for my ears...
...I have never worked with or on a TT system. Can someone explain how the max zs result can comply with the max zs permitted on a given circuit please?
Max Zs for a given protective device is virtually impossible with a TT earthed system. This mandates a 30mA RCD to provide ground fault protection for all circuits. This equates to ground fault protection even at a Zs of 1600 ohms. I believe It is still essential to calculate the R1 and Rn values to ensure low enough impedance in the event of a L/N short circuit.
@@MS-Patriot2 ...thank you for your reply. Great explanation cheers!
Is it possible to get a lower read than that?
Yes, it would be lower in a normal installation, as it would be buried deeper and the soil would be compacted around it.
@@jwflame Couldn't have said it better ourselves!
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
What concrete is not conductive ?
As a simple easy to install item this would have probably saved the life of a young boy electrocuted by an ornamental lamp post installed by a slovenly and tightfisted bar owner. The sunken steel post he probably assumed was enough to ground it properly.
That story hadn't reached us. How tragic. A warning to anyone taking shortcuts, real lives are affected with potentially fatal consequences.
Seem to be very difficult to buy. Only 2 suppliers that I could find & neither sell or even give the price via their web site. You can't ring up and order one either, you have to request a quote, which can take a while to arrive, then they insisted they had to create an account even though it was a one off purchase & to open the account they wanted my bank account details.
The price at the moment is a bit eye watering (I was quoted just under £200 for a Condudisc Pro & £62 for Conducrete), even delivery is expensive (£80 from the 1st company £55 from the 2nd - yes that's just delivery - seems it has to come on a pallet).
Oh and neither company mentioned the price was plus VAT in their quote... So those prices above exclude VAT
I have seen 360 ohm when rod has hit rock after 500mm. So for me the jury is still out on this product.really not happy with value over 150 ohm as concern over surface fault voltage and unreliable tripping due to low fault current
As JW says this is not a complete installation, just a demonstration of the product, and as such the performance is not reflective of a real world installation. JW points out that this is not to depth or properly compacted.
Simply backfilling a ConduDisc is a bit like laying an earth rod in an excavation as it does not sufficiently reduce contact resistance. For example a driven earth rod is forced into the ground assuring low contact resistance which ultimately benefits discharging electricity as it is easier for the energy to pass from one medium to another. Providing this comparable resistance for a ConduDisc requires compression.
A great case study of this is shown here:
(www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6772877222358466560/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(activity%3A6772877222358466560%2C6773253548340764672 ))
In this instance the ConduDisc was nearly 400 Ohms when installed, but through compression it got down to 75 Ohms. Most people aren't as heavily equipped as FM Services Group in terms of vibrating compression tools, but Liberty Charge elects for its staff using their body weight to compress, which will certainly accelerating resettlement of excavated material as seen here:
th-cam.com/video/OxQdjyZKe1U/w-d-xo.html
Furthermore at this point it's unclear what the ground profile is, without a soil resistivity survey that could be speculative. Our short overview here:
th-cam.com/video/CbkFfBgX8YI/w-d-xo.html
demonstrates how influential soil resistivity can be. Afterall gold is an excellent conductor but if you put it in a block of rubber it will not discharge electrical current. Here we may be seeing the earth rod having penetrated an optimal layer of soil resistivity which has enhanced its performance. As much as the ConduDisc has a contact surface area equivalent to a 3m rod, if it's in a more resistant layer then its performance will be impacted.
Finally it is worth saying this, the reason that there is a marketplace is to enable people to make a choice of what suits them. The ConduDisc will not deteriorate like the earth rod, it is easy to install, safer to install and it will likely outlast the item it is protecting. All we would say is if you are using one get it compressed, it will improve performance with no extra cost!
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
how about Ufer ground system compared to conductive concrete you mentioned? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufer_ground
300 ohms and above !!! Miles too high than the recommended 200 ohms.. will be interesting to see how it performs in the next video👍
Quite right, 300 ohms isn't indicative of a complete installation. Glad JW points out that it isn't at depth or compacted.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
300 Ω is high, but better than no ground.
It isn't indicative performance of a complete installation as JW says, but yes you're right any ground is better than no ground!
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
Should we be concerned that "weeks later" JW is still in the same clothes? Has he stood like Iron Man in that same spot for weeks before turning the camera back on?
Maybe it's just the lockdown sloping about the house day pyjamas.
He definitely stood out in the garden for a month; he's a true Englishman, undaunted by adversity. No way I would trust him otherwise.
continuity, and attention to detail.
I live in Austria and we would not allow anything more than 100 Ohms.
300 Ohms is way too high and poses a risk as the RCD would not trip fast enough!
You would need to bury several of those "discs" to even get below 100.
Interesting, are these sold in the U.K. or have you shipped it in ?
contact sales@earthingservices.com
An earthing product made by Murcia, the land of toy voltages and two pin plugs, No bloody way.
US domestic supply is typically split phase 240V so while most outlets are 120V there is 240V in the house with outlets for larger appliances such as dryers, cookers and water heaters as well as heavy duty power tools.
@@calmeilles, yep just as I said, toy voltages, and you have so many idiotic arrangements to boot.
PS, it’s not split phase, it’s single phase, 240 with a centre tap.
Split phase is a whole other bag of cats that is used in motors to create a rotating field.
@@elonmask50 US electricians themselves call it as split phase so pedantically incorrect or not readers will either understand the reference or be able to google it and find meaningful results.
@@calmeilles, let’s just call it spazmosity then!
How about this for a plan, I will correct idiots wherever I find them, and you can go on being one of the idiots.
I personally learned single phase centre tap when I was four years old, so it cannot be too difficult, as for what US Electricians, call things, who cares, they call live wires “hot”, ain’t nothing hot about them, unless they are under sized and over loaded.
Were I or someone I know to get shocked, I'd much prefer it to be that "toy voltage" of 120 volts rather than the UK's 240 volts. Wiring here in the States has to be thicker for the same power draw, but the result is safer.
2 metres of #6 awg. Love it. Just like asking for 3 metres of 4"x2" wood 🤣
You want 10 feet of "two-by-fours." :D
@@Madness832 no you don't. Not if you want your board to be 4"x2" anyway. A "two-by-four" will typically measure something like 3 1/2" by 1 1/2" because it was milled and planed flat, but still sold by the name two-by-four.
@@Gameboygenius Nominal, hence the quotes.
@@Madness832 the measurenents in the original comments were exact. Although tbh I'm just taking every opportunity to dog on the backward ways of the murrcans. ;)
Carbons for cinema arc lamps, at least in the UK were metric diameter x imperial length for some reason.
I'm still waiting for someone to give me a valid reason for earthing a generator. Especially when it's not been connected to a building/wiring system, and only powering devices through extension leads.
A few reasons come to mind - by using earth you have a known reference point so your 0V matches everybody else's 0V (particularly important if eg having something with an ability to transfer between mains and a generator). You also provide a connection to avoid eg static electricity build ups in the generator, and likely reduce any RF noise that might otherwise be present on the circuit and affect nearby systems etc.
@@alexacb63 RF interference is valid, though unlikely.
Mains earth is never at 0v with respect to anything, and varies from installation to installation. Static......
Personally, I would never reference a genset to earth. It's safer for the end user, not to.
Hey John dont know if you seen my channel or know who I am yet?
I would really like a cut out fuse or two for my collection, do have one or two I can buy from you mate ....
Steve
Isn't the maximum for TT 200 ohms?
Yes, however in this demonstration it was buried in fairly loose shallow soil, in a real install it would be much deeper and the soil around it would be compacted.
Is 200 ohms what's written in the regs?
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation
@@01dec2001 nope. It's an niceic thing. If you do the maths the maximum is 666 ohms which I've always thought is kind of creepy.
@@Woodkin007 did you mean 1666 ohms?? Thx for reply by the way
X-ray that microphone.
🔨 "x-ray" 🔨 😅
Pretty disappointing results really. For c street cabinets etc it has be much lower...under 200. The disc has a large area of contact so I hoped it would do better. Maybe condu-crete with a copper mat would be much better.
In this demo, its only buried about 12 inches deep with fairly loose soil. Resistance will be a lot lower when buried at a more usual depth and the soil compacted over it. Will be seen in a future video on a real installation.
@@ruben_balea For street furniture it's the initial reading at the point of commissioning that counts. I'm not sure how it being deeper will make that much difference. The readings are not good. It's better to use a copper earth mat and condu-crete...and leave a cu tail out in case a daisy-chain of mats/spikes are required.
Spikes can be driven horizontally remember.
th-cam.com/video/8mVIuxuOvaY/w-d-xo.html - ConduDisc and Conducrete - 47.5 Ohms on the day of installation