Electrical Earthing – Methods and Types of

Earthing & Grounding

Electrical Earthing – Components, Methods & Types of Earthing –
Electrical Grounding Installation
Electrical Earthing, Grounding, Methods Of Earthing, Types of Earthing, Components of
Earthing And Its Specifications In Respect To Electrical Earthing for Electrical
Installations.
What is Electrical Earthing or Grounding?

To connect the metallic (conductive) Parts of an Electric appliance or installations to the

earth (ground) is called Earthing or Grounding.
In other words, to connect the metallic parts of electric machinery and devices to the
earth plate or earth electrode (which is buried in the moisture earth) through a thick
conductor wire (which has very low resistance) for safety purpose is known as Earthing
or grounding.
To earth or earthing rather, means to connect the part of electrical apparatus such as
metallic covering of metals, earth terminal of socket cables, stay wires that do not carry
current to the earth. Earthing can be said as the connection of the neutral point of a
power supply system to the earth so as to avoid or minimize danger during discharge of
electrical energy.
Why Earthing is Important?
The primary purpose of earthing is to avoid or minimize the danger of electrocution, fire
due to earth leakage of current through undesired path and to ensure that the potential
of a current carrying conductor does not rise with respect to the earth than its designed
insulation.
When the metallic part of electrical appliances (parts that can conduct or allow passage
of electric current) comes in contact with a live wire, maybe due to failure of installations
or failure in cable insulation, the metal become charged and static charge accumulates
on it. If a person touches such a charged metal, the result is a severe shock.
To avoid such instances, the power supply systems and parts of appliances have to be
earthed so as to transfer the charge directly to the earth. This is why we need Electrical
Earthing or Grounding in electrical installation systems.
 Below are the basic needs of Earthing.
 To protect human lives as well as provide safety to electrical devices and appliances
from leakage current.
 To keep voltage as constant in the healthy phase (If fault occurs on any one phase).
 To Protect Electric system and buildings form lighting.
 To serve as a return conductor in electric traction system and communication.
 To avoid the risk of fire in electrical installation systems.

Different Terms used in Electrical Earthing

 Earth: The proper connection between electrical installation systems via conductor to the
buried plate in the earth is known as Earth.
 Earthed: When an electrical device, appliance or wiring systems connected to the earth
through earth electrode, it is known as earthed device or simple “Earthed”.
 Solidly Earthed: When an electric device, appliance or electrical installation is connected to
the earth electrode without a fuse, circuit breaker or resistance/Impedance, It is called
“solidly earthed”.
 Earth Electrode: When a conductor (or conductive plate) buried in the earth for electrical
earthing system. It is known to be Earth Electrode. Earth electrodes are in different shapes
like, conductive plate, conductive rod, metal water pipe or any other conductor with low
resistance.
 Earthing Lead: The conductor wire or conductive strip connected between Earth electrode
and Electrical installation system and devices in called Earthing lead.
 Earth Continuity Conductor: The conductor wire, which is connected among different
electrical devices and appliances like, distribution board, different plugs and appliances etc.
in other words, the wire between earthing lead and electrical device or appliance is called
earth continuity conductor. It may be in the shape of metal pipe (fully or partial), or cable
metallic sheath or flexible wire.
 Sub Main Earthing Conductor: A wire connected between switch board and distribution
board i.e. that conductor is related to sub main circuits.
 Earth Resistance: This is the total resistance between earth electrode and earth in Ω
(Ohms). Earth resistance is the algebraic sum of the resistances of earth continuity
conductor, earthing lead, earth electrode and earth.

Points to be Earthed
Earthing is not done anyhow. According to IE rules and IEE (Institute of Electrical
Engineers) regulations,
 Earth pin of 3-pin lighting plug sockets and 4-pin power plug should be efficiently and
permanently earthed.
 All metal casing or metallic coverings containing or protecting any electric supply line or
apparatus such as GI pipes and conduits enclosing VIR or PVC cables, iron clad switches,
iron clad distribution fuse boards etc should be earthed (connected to earth).
 The frame of every generator, stationary motors and metallic parts of all transformers used
for controlling energy should be earthed by two separate and yet distinct connections with
the earth.
 In a dc 3-wire system, the middle conductors should be earthed at the generating station.
 Stay wires that are for overhead lines should be connected to earth by connecting at least
one strand to the earth wires.
Components of Earthing System
A complete electrical earthing system consists on the following basic components.
 Earth Continuity Conductor
 Earthing Lead
 Earth Electrode
Earth Continuity Conductor or Earth Wire
That part of the earthing system which interconnects the overall metallic parts of
electrical installation e.g. conduit, ducts, boxes, metallic shells of the switches,
distribution boards, Switches, fuses, Regulating and controlling devices, metallic parts
of electrical machines such as, motors, generators, transformers and the metallic
framework where electrical devices and components are installed is known as earth
wire or earth continuity conductor as shown in the above fig.
The resistance of the earth continuity conductor is very low. According to IEEE rules,
resistance between consumer earth terminal and earth Continuity conductor (at the end)
should not be increased than 1Ω. In simple words, resistance of earth wire should be
less than 1Ω.
Size of the Earth Continuity Conductor or Earth Wire depends on the cable size used in
the wiring circuit.
Size of Earth Continuity Conductor
The cross sectional area of the Earth Continuity Conductor should not be less than
the half of the cross sectional area of the thickest wire used in the electrical wiring
installation.
Generally, the size of the bare copper wire used as earth continuity conductor is 3SWG.
But keep in mind that, don’t use less than 14SWG as earth wire. Copper strip is also
can be used as earth continuity conductor instead of bare copper wire but don’t go for it
until manufacture recommend it.
 Related Post: How to Find The Suitable Size of Cable & Wire for Electrical Wiring
Installation?

Earthing Lead or Earthing Joint

The conductor wire connected between earth continuity conductor and earth electrode
or earth plate is called earthing joint or “Earthing lead”. The point where earth continuity
conductor and earth electrode meet is known as “connecting point” as shown in the
above fig.
Earthing lead is the final part of the earthing system which is connected to the earth
electrode (which is underground) through earth connecting point.
There should be minimum joints in earthing lead as well as lower in size and straight in
the direction.
Generally, copper wire can be used as earthing lead but, copper strip is also used for
high installation and it can handle the high fault current because of wider area than the
copper wire.
A hard drawn bare copper wire is also used as an earthing lead. In this method, all earth
conductors connected to a common (one or more) connecting points and then, earthing
lead is used to connect earth electrode (earth plat) to the connecting point.
To increase the safety factor of installation, two copper wires are used as earthing lead to
connect the device metallic body to the earth electrode or earth plate. I.e. if we use two earth
electrodes or earth plats, there would be four earthing leads. It should not be considered that
the two earth leads are used as parallel paths to flow the fault currents but both paths should
work properly to carry the fault current because it is important for better safety.
Size of the Earthing Lead
The size or area of earthing lead should not be less than the half of the thickest wire
used in the installation.
The largest size for earthing lead is 3SWG and the minimum size should not be less
than 8SWG. If 37/.083 wire is used or the load current is 200A from the supply voltage,
then it is recommended to use copper strip instead of double earthing lead. The earth
lead connection methods is shown in the above fig.
Note: We will post additional article about Earth Plate size with simple calculations…
Stay tune.
Earthing Electrode or Earth Plate
A metallic electrode or plate which is buried in the earth (underground) and it is the last
part of the electrical earthing system. In simple words, the final underground metallic
(plate) part of the earthing system which is connected with earthing lead is called earth
plate or earth electrode.
A metallic plate, pipe or rode can be used as an earth electrode which has very low
resistance and carry the fault current safely towards ground (earth).

Methods and Types of Electrical Earthing

Earthing can be done in many ways. The various methods employed in earthing (in
house wiring or factory and other connected electrical equipment and machines) are
discussed as follows.
Plate Earthing:
In plate earthing system, a plate made up of either copper with dimensions 60cm x
60cm x 3.18mm (i.e. 2ft x 2ft x 1/8 in) or galvanized iron (GI) of dimensions 60cm x
60cm x 6.35 mm (2ft x 2ft x ¼ in) is buried vertical in the earth (earth pit) which should
not be less than 3m (10ft) from the ground level.

For proper earthing system, follow the above mentioned steps in the (Earth Plate
introduction) to maintain the moisture condition around the earth electrode or earth
plate.
Pipe Earthing:
A galvanized steel and a perforated pipe of approved length and diameter is placed
vertically in a wet soil in this kind of system of earthing. It is the most common system of
earthing.
The size of pipe to use depends on the magnitude of current and the type of soil. The
dimension of the pipe is usually 40mm (1.5in) in diameter and 2.75m (9ft) in length for
ordinary soil or greater for dry and rocky soil. The moisture of the soil will determine the
length of the pipe to be buried but usually it should be 4.75m (15.5ft).
Rod Earthing
it is the same method as pipe earthing. A copper rod of 12.5mm (1/2 inch) diameter or
16mm (0.6in) diameter of galvanized steel or hollow section 25mm (1inch) of GI pipe of
length above 2.5m (8.2 ft) are buried upright in the earth manually or with the help of a
pneumatic hammer. The length of embedded electrodes in the soil reduces earth
resistance to a desired value.

Earthing through the Waterman

In this method of earthing, the waterman (Galvanized GI) pipes are used for earthing
purpose. Make sure to check the resistance of GI pipes and use earthing clamps to
minimize the resistance for proper earthing connection.
If stranded conductor is used as earth wire, then clean the end of the strands of the wire
and make sure it is in the straight and parallel position which is possible then to connect
tightly to the waterman pipe.
Strip or Wire Earthing:
In this method of earthing, strip electrodes of cross-section not less than 25mm x
1.6mm (1in x 0.06in) is buried in a horizontal trenches of a minimum depth of 0.5m. If
copper with a cross-section of 25mm x 4mm (1in x 0.15in) is used and a dimension of
3.0mm2 if it’s a galvanized iron or steel.
If at all round conductors are used, their cross-section area should not be too small, say
less than 6.0mm2 if it’s a galvanized iron or steel. The length of the conductor buried in
the ground would give a sufficient earth resistance and this length should not be less
than 15m.