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Importance of Proper Grounding

 
The main reason for grounding is Safety.
  • Personnel: this is for every person who may come in contact with high voltages in the event of a electrical fault
  • Equipment: this will insure the equipment in your home or business is protected in the event of a fault.
  • Noise Control: This will help eliminate transients from any source. These transients can cause numerous issues from insulation break down to sensitive equipment failure.
All ground rods at a facility should be connected where a buildings ground connections come together this includes all steel, metal water pipes etc..
 
These ground rods can be combined at the service entrance to decrease ground resistance.
  • In the event of a lightning strike near the facility, the ground voltage for all equipment will rise equally. If there were separate ground connections and this occurred you could have both personnel and equipment safety issues.
The service entrance is the only place where a ground should be connected to a neutral
  • If multiple neutrals are tied to grounds through out you system this could cause parallel paths for neutral current which can cause protection circuit misoperation in the facility and equipment.
  Typical Connection Problems
 
Problems Possible Causes
Burning smell at a Circuit Breaker Panel, J-box or Outlet Bad connection, faulty conductor inside panel, J-box or Outlet
Warm CB panel Bad circuit breakers or connections
Buzzing sound Arcing from bad connection
Burnt insulation Wire or circuit overload, bad conductor or connector
No Voltage Tripped breaker, blown fuse or broken conductor
Intermittent Voltage Bad connection or arcing