Hi all, great site. I am a new member and I have three questions about grounding.
1. I have installed a copper grounding rod which I intend to use to ground a portable generator. It is an 8ft rod with the shielded #12 grounding wire. I managed to get six feet into the ground which is very rocky. The rod is about six inches from the base of my house. The main grounding rod is on the opposite side of the house. How necessary is it to connect those two rods with #4 bare wire?
2. My house has aluminum siding which appears not be grounded. If it should be grounded, where, how and with what type of grounding rod and wire should I do same?
3. I have a satellite receiver which is grounded to the outside metal water pipe. How should this figure into the picture if at all?

Thanks in advance.

Sorry for the delay in getting an answer to you, been busy and your questions need some detailed answers. My answers follow your questions. There are many variables and I may not touch on your specifc situation.


1. I have installed a copper grounding rod which I intend to use to ground a portable generator. It is an 8ft rod with the shielded #12 grounding wire. I managed to get six feet into the ground which is very rocky. The rod is about six inches from the base of my house. The main grounding rod is on the opposite side of the house. How necessary is it to connect those two rods with #4 bare wire?

Why did you drive a rod for the portable genset? Why #4 ? I had to ask to learn what you have learned and this can help with more specific answer. Portable gensets do not need to be connected to a ground rod under most conditions. If the genset is used as a standalone unit using the outlets on the unit, then a ground electrode is not needed. This is why I need to know why you have a rod.


2. My house has aluminum siding which appears not be grounded. If it should be grounded, where, how and with what type of grounding rod and wire should I do same?


I recall one local city inspector that required any aluminum siding installer to ground the siding. This was many years ago, and I was not smart enough to ask what code he was relying on at the time. I believe he had some problems with service entrance cable getting frayed or damaged and short out to the siding, and if not grounded could cause the siding to become energized and a shcok hazard.

Siding is not specifically mentioned in the electric code, but can be loosely referred to a metal system in/on a building requiring to be "bonded" to a grounding electrode. Grounding the siding can be done, certainly would not hurt.

I did accomplished this by installing #8 Cu/AL wire lugs at each corner with sheetmetal screws and a short piece of #8 bare copper, to connect each side to the next to insure continuity. At or near the electric ervice location the last jumper was ran to the system grounding electrode, which was either a ground rod if and/or to the utility water pipe at the point of entrance into the building.

Simply attaching a wire to a water pipe at any location other than the entrance point is not considered as a proper grounding electrode.



3. I have a satellite receiver which is grounded to the outside metal water pipe. How should this figure into the picture if at all?

Dish installers should know the allowed connection points to ground their equipment, as I mention above, "Simply attaching a wire to a water pipe at any location other than the entrance point is not considered as a proper grounding electrode."

A building is intended to have one grounding point, and all grounding should connect to this system, not necessaryily at one point, but to be sure all surfaces are at one potential and to insure continuity. Attaching to a water line at any location is better than nothing, but, the installer should know, one if the water line is a grounding electode and two, even if the water line is even bonded or has complete continuity back to the grounding point. Too many times a water line is just assumed to be a good ground. I can tell you that attaching a ground for any antenna should not be at just any location of a water pipe, the ground wire should run back to the main system ground electrode.

A dish can have it's own ground rod, however, a minimum of # 6 copper wire needs to run from that rod back to the main system grounding electrode.

Again all grounding and bonding must refer to and connect to a common grounding electrode. Anything done that does not comply with these requirements, as I suspect many installations don't, pose a possible hazard.

I hope I have helped some without too much confusion.

Thanks tkrussell for your prompt answer to my question. I will use the numbers above to answer the questions you posed to me.

1. Why did you drive a rod for the portable genset? Why #4 ? I had to ask to learn what you have learned and this can help with more specific answer. Portable gensets do not need to be connected to a ground rod under most conditions. If the genset is used as a standalone unit using the outlets on the unit, then a ground electrode is not needed. This is why I need to know why you have a rod.

I grounded the generator because the instructions that came with the generator indicated that it should be grounded. I asked about the need to connect the generator grounding rod to the main grounding rod because this was suggested in a post by Borewyrm dated 11/10/05 in which he indicated the need to connect multiple grounding rods with #4 grounding wire.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/electrical-lighting/where-install-grounding-rod-13649-2.html

My generator will be a stand alone unit but I intend to hook it up to six circuit breakers in the main box by means of Reliance power transfer switch made for this purpose. This switching panel which will be adjacent to the main box has six switches which allow the user to manually switch the power source between the main circuit breakers and the generator in order to supply this alternate means of power.

2. Siding is not specifically mentioned in the electric code, but can be loosely referred to a metal system in/on a building requiring to be "bonded" to a grounding electrode. Grounding the siding can be done, certainly would not hurt.

Thanks for the information. I will not bother to ground the siding.

3. Again all grounding and bonding must refer to and connect to a common grounding electrode. Anything done that does not comply with these requirements, as I suspect many installations don't, pose a possible hazard.

Again I will not trouble the installation done by the Direct TV installers although it appears to me that they assumed that the water pipe was a good ground.

Thanks again tkrussell for your assistance and prompt response.

On the genset, that was the answer I expected, code requires the manufacturers instructions be followed. However, the portable genset only needs a ground rod when it is used with cords as a portable unit.

Once it is connected to the building via the Reliance unit, the grounding will be done through a green or bare wire in the cable that connects the genset to the transfer switch, and a ground rod is not needed.

The minimum size to a ground rod is #6, I think I missed that answer, it was posted a month after my answer.

Thanks much tkrussull for clearing up much of the fogginess I had concerning grounding issues.