WHAT IS ELECTRICAL GROUNDING AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
Grounding is one of the basic electricity principles often overlooked in older homes and can puzzle both novice homeowners and electrical engineering students. A home wiring system is unsafe without a proper grounding system, and homeowners should take great care to include it when renovating an old building.
This article will explain how grounding works and why it should be inside every house.
What is grounding?
Electricity is a flow of electrons between two areas with different charges. In house applications, the system uses a positive and negative lead to control electricity. The negative charge, often called the hot wire, supplies electrons to travel to the neutral wire in a positive direction. Both wires run side by side to provide appliances with a circuit to complete and facilitate electrical flow.
The grounding system is a backup when one part of the circuit malfunctions. Electricity will naturally flow towards areas without resistance and charge, and grounding provides a safe avenue for excess electrons. When the electricity stops flowing through the intended wires and moves elsewhere, that’s called a short circuit.
If the neutral wire becomes unavailable for electricity flow, appliances without grounding will seek other objects to dispense electricity, including fabrics, metals, wood, or people. A short circuit can damage the device, start a fire, or even cause bodily harm in ungrounded appliances.
How does home grounding work?
Home grounding systems come in a few configurations. Older homes were often built without any grounding and required considerable renovations to the electrical network to become safe.
Modern homes usually have a grounding bar in the service panel connected via bare copper wires to every grounded outlet in the house. The bar is connected through similar cables to a large grounding rod in the earth near the home. The copper wires provide a path of least resistance, and electricity flows directly from the short-circuited appliance to the bar and the rod in the ground. The earth has a limitless capacity to absorb electricity.
Some homes have variations in the grounding system. For example, older grounding models used metal conductors instead of copper wires, and the grounding rod can be made from different materials.
Additional grounding options
Usually, home grounding systems are incredibly resilient and don’t require maintenance unless there is severe damage to the system. They also have a few backup systems in place to prevent grounding faults.
Modern circuit breakers, installed directly into the outlets or service panels, detect abnormal electricity flow and immediately shut off power to the affected circuits.
Additionally, some homes use plumbing pipes as a secondary grounding path and connect the electricity and plumbing systems with a clamp near the water heater.
How to tell if you have a grounding system?
A surefire way to tell a house doesn’t have grounding is to check the outlets. Two-prong outlets don’t have the grounding socket and, therefore, no connection to the ground. These outlets have long been obsolete and replaced with three-prong outlets when possible. If your new home has two-prong outlets, it is advisable to contact a qualified electrician to inspect it and overhaul the system to include grounding.
Kennedy Electric is a reliable full-service electrical company serving residential and commercial customers in Citrus, Hernando, and Pasco Counties. We offer electrical repairs, boat lift wiring, remodels, low voltage lighting, generator hookups, RV power, electrical inspections, fan installation, home lighting, new circuits, panels, and more. Call today at 352-251-2795.
