What is Earthing

The main reason for doing earthing in electrical network is for the safety. When all metallic parts in electrical equipments are grounded then if the insulation inside
the equipments fails there are no dangerous voltages present in the equipment case. If the live wire touches the grounded case then the circuit is effectively
shorted and fuse will immediately blow. When the fuse is blown then the dangerous voltages are away.

Purpose of Earthing:
(1) Safety for Human life/ Building/Equipments:

To save human life from danger of electrical shock or death by blowing a fuse i.e. To provide an alternative path for the fault current to flow so that it
will not endanger the user

To protect buildings, machinery & appliances under fault conditions.

To ensure that all exposed conductive parts do not reach a dangerous potential.

To provide safe path to dissipate lightning and short circuit currents.

To provide stable platform for operation of sensitive electronic equipments i.e. To maintain the voltage at any part of an electrical system at a known
value so as to prevent over current or excessive voltage on the appliances or equipment .

(2) Over voltage protection:

Lightning, line surges or unintentional contact with higher voltage lines can cause dangerously high voltages to the electrical distribution system.
Earthing provides an alternative path around the electrical system to minimize damages in the System.

(3) Voltage stabilization:

There are many sources of electricity. Every transformer can be considered a separate source. If there were not a common reference point for all
these voltage sources it would be extremely difficult to calculate their relationships to each other. The earth is the most omnipresent conductive surface, and so
it was adopted in the very beginnings of electrical distribution systems as a nearly universal standard for all electric systems.

Conventional methods of earthing:

(1) Plate type Earthing:

Generally for plate type earthing normal Practice is to use

Cast iron plate of size 600 mm x600 mm x12 mm. OR

Galvanized iron plate of size 600 mm x600 mm x6 mm. OR

Copper plate of size 600 mm * 600 mm * 3.15 mm

Plate burred at the depth of 8 feet in the vertical position and GI strip of size 50 mmx6 mm bolted with the plate is brought up to the ground level.

These types of earth pit are generally filled with alternate layer of charcoal & salt up to 4 feet from the bottom of the pit.

(2) Pipe type Earthing:

For Pipe type earthing normal practice is to use

GI pipe [C-class] of 75 mm diameter, 10 feet long welded with 75 mm diameter GI flange having 6 numbers of holes for the connection of earth wires
and inserted in ground by auger method.

These types of earth pit are generally filled with alternate layer of charcoal & salt or earth reactivation compound

Method for Construction of Earthing Pit (Indian Electricity Board):

Excavation on earth for a normal earth Pit size is 1.5M X 1.5M X 3.0 M.

Use 500 mm X 500 mm X 10 mm GI Plate or Bigger Size for more Contact of Earth and reduce Earth Resistance.

Make a mixture of Wood Coal Powder Salt & Sand all in equal part

Wood Coal Powder use as good conductor of electricity, anti corrosive, rust proves for GI Plate for long life.

The purpose of coal and salt is to keep wet the soil permanently.

The salt percolates and coal absorbs water keeping the soil wet.

Care should always be taken by watering the earth pits in summer so that the pit soil will be wet.

Coal is made of carbon which is good conductor minimizing the earth resistant.

Salt use as electrolyte to form conductivity between GI Plate Coal and Earth with humidity.

Sand has used to form porosity to cycle water & humidity around the mixture.

Put GI Plate (EARTH PLATE) of size 500 mm X 500 mm X 10 mm in the mid of mixture.

Use Double GI Strip size 30 mm X 10 mm to connect GI Plate to System Earthling.

It will be better to use GI Pipe of size 2.5 diameter with a Flange on the top of GI Pipe to cover GI Strip from EARTH PLATE to Top Flange.

Cover Top of GI pipe with a T joint to avoid jamming of pipe with dust & mud and also use water time to time through this pipe to bottom of earth plate.

Maintain less than one Ohm Resistance from EARTH PIT conductor to a distance of 15 Meters around the EARTH PIT with another conductor dip on
the Earth at least 500 mm deep.

Check Voltage between Earth Pit conductors to Neutral of Mains Supply 220V AC 50 Hz it should be less than 2.0 Volts.

GI Earthing Vs Copper Earthing:

As per IS 3043, the resistance of Plate electrode to earth (R) = (r/A) X under root(P/A).

Where r = Resistivity of Soil Ohm-meter.

A=Area of Earthing Plate m3.

The resistance of Pipe electrode to earth (R) = (100r/2L) X loge (4L/d).

Where L= Length of Pipe/Rod in cm

d=Diameter of Pipe/Rod in cm.

The resistivity of the soil and the physical dimensions of the electrode play important role of resistance of Rod with earth.

The material resistivity is not considered important role in earth resistivity.

Any material of given dimensions would offer the same resistance to earth. Except the sizing and number of the earthing conductor or the protective

conductor.

Pipe Earthing Vs Plate Earthing:

Suppose Copper Plate having of size 1.2m x 1.2m x 3.15mm thick. soil resistivity of 100 ohm-m,

The resistance of Plate electrode to earth (R)=( r/A)X under root(/A) = (100/2.88)X(3.14/2.88)=36.27 ohm

Now, consider a GI Pipe Electrode of 50 mm Diameter and 3 m Long. soil resistivity of 100 Ohm-m,

The resistance of Pipe electrode to earth (R) = (100r/2L) X loge (4L/d) = (100X100/2X3.14X300) X loge (4X300/5) =29.09 Ohm.

From the above calculation the GI Pipe electrode offers a much lesser resistance than even a copper plate electrode.
As per IS 3043 Pipe, rod or strip has a much lower resistance than a plate of equal surface area.

Amount of Salt and Charcoal (more than 8Kg) :

To reduce soil resistivity, it is necessary to dissolve in the moisture particle in the Soil.

Some substance like Salt/Charcoal is highly conductive in water solution but the additive substance would reduce the resistivity of the soil, only when
it is dissolved in the moisture in the soil after that additional quantity does not serve the Purpose.
5% moisture in Salt reduces earth resistivity rapidly and further increase in salt content will give a very little decrease in soil resistivity.

The salt content is expressed in percent by weight of the moisture content in the soil. Considering 1M3 of Soil, the moisture content at 10 percent will

be about 144 kg. (10 percent of 1440 kg). The salt content shall be 5% of this (i.e.) 5% of 144kg, that is, about 7.2kg.

Amount of Water Purring:

Moisture content is one of the controlling factors of earth resistivity.

Above 20 % of moisture content, the resistivity is very little affected. But below 20% the resistivity increases rapidly with the decrease in moisture
content.

If the moisture content is already above 20% there is no point in adding quantity of water into the earth pit, except perhaps wasting an important and
scarce national resource like water.

Length Vs Diameter of Earth Electrode:

Apart from considerations of mechanical strength, there is little advantage to be gained from increasing the earth electrode diameter with the object in
mind of increasing surface area in contact with the soil.

The usual practice is to select a diameter of earth electrode, which will have enough strength to enable it to be driven into the particular soil conditions
without bending or splitting. Large diameter electrode may be more difficult to drive than smaller diameter electrode.

The depth to which an earth electrode is driven has much more influence on its electrical resistance characteristics than has its diameter.

Maximum allowable Earth resistance:

Major power station= 0.5 Ohm.

Major Sub-stations= 1.0 Ohm

Minor Sub-station = 2 Ohm

Neutral Bushing. =2 Ohm

Service connection = 4 Ohm

Medium Voltage Network =2 Ohm

L.T.Lightening Arrestor= 4 Ohm

L.T.Pole= 5 Ohm

H.T.Pole =10 Ohm

Tower =20-30 Ohm

Treatments to for minimizing Earth resistance:

Remove Oxidation on joints and joints should be tightened.

Poured sufficient water in earth electrode.

Used bigger size of Earth Electrode.

Electrodes should be connected in parallel.

Earth pit of more depth & width- breadth should be made.

Remember the following point in your mind if you are constructing an Earth pit for your Home/Office and Industrial application.
(a) Choose the Earth Plate according to the Load and short circuit current capacity of your installation. A bigger Earth Plate is
always preferable and safe in operation.
(b) Choose the deepness of an Earth pit minimum 8 to 10 feet but you can go more the 10 feet in hill & rock area where the soil is
not available at 10 feet.
(c) Always check earth resistance & voltage between N to Earth point every three to four month especially in hot season.
(d) If the resistance is more than 1.0 Ohm or the voltage between N to Earth point is more than 2.0 Volts then use water in the
Earth pit

The earth electrode is a metal rod or pipe. Metal rods of steel or copper and metal pipe
of galvanized iron are commonly used. The diameter of steel earth electrode rod should
be minimum 16 mm and that of copper should be minimum 12.5 mm. For GI pipe
electrode the minimum internal diameter should be 38mm. The depth of the earth
electrode should be minimum 2.5 meter. Rod earth electrodes

can be installed by manual hammering. For installing pipe earth electrode, a bigger hole
is drilled in the soil, the pipe is placed in the hole and the hole is filled with treated soil.
The treated soil consists of homogeneous layers of mixture of soil, charcoal, common
salt and sand. The soil treatment improves the quality of electrical earth by reducing soil
resistivity. Earth resistance depends on the resistance of the earth electrode, soil
resistance and contact resistance between electrode and soil. Ideally the value of Earth
resistance should be as low as possible and can be measured by earth resistance
tester. The practical value is less than 10 ohm and may be below 1 ohm for very good
installations. Earth resistance should be tested before energizing the power supply
connection.