all my plumbing is copper, hot and cold water, in the slab. and, i have an
outside water spigot just a few feet away from my service entrance...should I
tie it in too ??
just wondering, w5xz, dan
On Thursday, October 29, 2015 1:39 PM, Tom W8JI <w8ji@w8ji.com> wrote:
>I have driven copper ground rods in about ten years ago, then wrapped a
>couple turns of #4 wire around the top and soldered that to the rod using
>plumbers solder. These connections are as good today as the day I soldered
>them. Plumbers solder works very well outdoors for me. I use it on
>everything outdoors now.
>
> Dave, W5UN
80 year old broadcast radial systems are still good with silver solder
connections. My 318ft tower gets whacked all the time and has silver
soldered connections. They never melt. Even RF radials that augment the
lightning ground, which are plumbers solder #16, do not get hurt.
The main reason NEC and other codes don't like solder is they don't trust
people to know how to solder.
Of course the heat is I^2 R times the time. It isn't just current, it is
joules. If the solder connection is good with low resistance, it will not
get hot.
Also, there is no possible way a rod system could stay anywhere near zero
volts in a strike. Almost all of the protection to equipment and the house
itself is by the common point connection of things entering the house
outside the house.
We certainly need the rods, but most of the protection comes from bonding of
all things entering the dwelling. Very little of the protection inside the
dwelling actually comes from the rods.
With a tower or tall structure likely to be hit, the structure ground can be
a major player. That ground keeps strikes from raising the base voltage so
much, and reduces common mode into the house grounds. It takes a pretty big
ground system to not elevate in voltage in hits. A couple rods will not do
it, even if they ohm just a few ohms at low frequencies.
73 Tom
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