Electrical Ground for Dummies

Ground rod specifications

In case you haven't noticed it, we assign tags to each of our posts; key words and phrases like "dumbass of the day" and "HomeSteady incompetent writer." One tag we don't use lightly is the phrase, "dangerous stupidity": it's reserved for nominees whose advice or instructions are tantamount to nomination for a Darwin Award. Today's nominee, returning winner Marissa Wilson, had a short and inglorious career at eHow. We have yet to find anything she wrote that doesn't qualify her for an award, but – thankfully – today's the first time her award is tagged with dangerous stupidity. Take a look at her thoughts on "How to Install Ground Wiring"¹ at HomeSteady.com.

To anyone who knows anything about electrical systems, the subject is ambiguous: does the OQ want to know how to ground the whole house at the service panel, or does s/he want to know how to ground circuits that are wired without a ground? If the latter, the OQ is probably looking at rewiring the entire house.

Wilson, we think, picked interpretation A: ground the connection to the grid. Unfortunately, Marissa's high-school classes do not seem to have included much (if anything) about electricity. Otherwise, she probably wouldn't have said stuff like,

"Ground wiring regulates the power coming into your home to prevent electrical surges... Without ground wiring, nothing will work..."

Wilson's unfamiliarity with electrical systems is obvious from her choice of illustrations: she chose an image of two-conductor wire that doesn't include a ground! Once she has all that stupidification out of the way, Marissa charges into her instructions. What's weird, though, is that (as far as we can tell), she's telling her readers how to run an underground supply line to the house! For instance, she says to,

• "Measure from the electrical pole to the ground wire for the house..."
• "Dig a 4 to 6-inch trench from the pole to the house. You will bury the ground wire in the trench after installing it Use the tape measure to measure the PVC pipe. You will need to run the ground wire through the pipe to keep it out of the weather."
• "Connect the ground wire running from the electrical pole to the main breaker in the house."

Ummm, Marissa? Do you have any idea what you're talking about? Your "references" don't include the instructions you've reproduced; in fact, the one you have talks about either grounding the neutral/ground bar of the breaker panel to a copper or galvanized ground rod pounded into the soil near the house or to a cold water pipe (that last, we hear, is now frowned upon by the NEC). Nowhere is there a mention of a PVC pipe or a "4 to 6-inch trench"! But, then, the reference probably wasn't written by a Dumbass of the Day candidate; at least not one who's dangerously stupid!

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_7627596_install-ground-wiring.html

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