On Feb 3, 6:59*pm, Limp Arbor wrote:
On Feb 3, 1:30*pm, "John Grabowski" wrote:





So the ice storm the othe day took down many trees in our area. *My
BIL called me because a branch fell and knocked his neutral wire loose
from the weatherhead. *Some things worked others didn't, biggest
problem was when the fridge kicked on the whole house went dim.

I asked him about a ground rod and he was sure he didn't have one.
Until he could get a guy to climb up there I told him to go get a
ground rod at the Borg and pound it in as far as he could and connect
it to the ground/neutral bar in his panel. *He was able to get the
ground rod about 5' down with a hammer and connected two 12ga copper
wires from the rod to his panel. *After he did this there was no
improvement at all.

An hour later an electrician he knows showed up and reconnected the
neutral to the weaterhead and all was better. *Neither of his hot
leads at the weatherhead were loose or needed to be touched. *So why
wouldn't going directly to ground from the panel have helped his
problem?

*As someone else said the ground rod is not a substitute for a neutral.
Neutral current wants to return to the power company transformer. *To get
there it normally travels over the neutral (Grounded conductor) wire. *When
the neutral wire is broken, but is bonded to the grounding conductor in the
main panel, the neutral current will attempt to get to the transformer via
the grounding conductor. *However whether it makes it back to the
transformer or not depends on the conditions. *The transformer must have an
unbroken grounding conductor connected to a ground rod in order for the
neutral current to travel through the earth. *There should also be a path of
low resistance and that would depend on the soil conditions and distance.

I have heard stories from other contractors and inspectors of the neutral
current from one house traveling through the earth to a neighbor's grounding
conductor and going back to the transformer via the neighbor's neutral wire.

I hope that your BIL turned off the main breaker when he attempted to
connect the ground rod. *All of the return current could have been on that
grounding conductor.

Yes, he turned off the main and all of the individual breakers before
trying this. *Turned the main back on then each breaker.



BTW the advice that you gave your BIL could have been fatal not only to him,
but to someone who just happened to be walking on his lawn at that time..
Also, If there was a pool nearby, although not likely this time of year
someone in the pool could have gotten zapped from the stray current in the
earth looking for a path to the transformer. *He could also have damaged
some appliances by having a higher voltage than normal passing through them
The best advice in this case would have been to shut off the main breaker
and get the neutral wire reconnected.

How could someone walking by have been shocked? *Doesn't electricity
always seek ground?

BTW he also got the same advice from another guy who works at the
power company. *Obviously not as a permanent fix but to get his heat
working til he could get the neutral wire reconnected.

So in my house as with most houses even though all of the neutrals and
grounds are tied together in the panel everything is going back to the
transformer?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Electricity does not always seek ground. It only seeks ground because
the transformer it originated from has one side grounded.

When a substantial current goes down a ground rod, a voltage drop
appears on the ground in concentric (equipotential) circles around the
rod.

The effect is very local though metal pipes in the ground nearby can
effect it. So a volt drop appenars on the ground on lines not
tangenital to the circles. So yes you ca get an electric shock just
by being stood there, even more so if you touch the rod.
If you are a cow and have a your feet further apart, you get a geater
voltage anda better chance of dying. . :-)