When building a house, you need to remember many things and plan the individual stages of the work very carefully. One of the mandatory ones is the construction of a foundation grounding. What is it, how to do it properly and what materials to use?
How to properly perform foundation grounding?
The foundation earthing has a very important task, it allows you to effectively protect the lightning protection and electrical installation of the house, ensuring safety for the entire building. In practice, it is made of a special tape or rod that is embedded in the foundation. The installation in the shape of a rectangle or several smaller ones is made in the load-bearing walls of a given building in the case of buildings with an area of up to 20 m2, in larger buildings it may be necessary to extend the installation and place appropriate elements also in the internal walls, in accordance with the design. The close proximity of the ground means that by making an earthing in the foundation, you obtain the minimum resistance necessary for protection, which could not be achieved using a horizontal installation. Another great advantage is that the foundation installation provides a stable and constant resistance value in all conditions. It does not matter what the conditions are outside, here the values are constant. Contrary to appearances, it is also a very economical solution, once made, it does not require any interference in the future, as long as the entire system is made correctly.
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A section of the installation must always be led outside, most often in the room where the foundation installation will be connected to the main grounding rail.
This solution has many advantages, first of all it is extremely durable, and its maximum service life is the same as the entire building, so it is worth investing in the execution of grounding, using good quality products for this purpose. The selection of materials is crucial in this case, because it allows to avoid problems, especially in the part of the installation leading out of the ground, i.e. the connection with the vertical earthing and lightning rods. An attempt to save on materials may in this case end with the formation of galvanic cells at the connection point or cause faster corrosion of the material.
Types of grounding
A lightning protection system made in the foundation is a designed system of cables that are to provide the electrical installation with proper grounding. It also allows to equalize differences in electrical potentials and ensures safety in connection with lightning protection. Currently, the design and implementation of the foundation grounding is planned already at the design stage, therefore, after the system is completed, the whole is filled with concrete with specific properties. Thanks to this, the properties of the system are improved at the point of contact of the installation with the ground. Additionally, filling the installation with concrete protects individual components and contacts against corrosion.
In practice, there are two variants of foundation grounding. The first is natural grounding, which is made using foundation reinforcement. Elements made of steel, if properly connected and made in such a way as to provide mechanical and electrical strength. The second variant is artificial foundation grounding. In this variant, a special conductor or a special system is placed inside the foundations, which is not a structural element of the building.
Ring and vertical earthing in an existing building
In buildings that have already been built and no foundation earthing has been used, it is necessary to consider the construction of a ring installation. It is located outside the building. It creates a closed loop around the building. Such an installation should be placed below the ground surface, at a level below the ground frost, at least half a meter below the surface. The whole thing should be buried at a distance of at least 1 m from the walls of the building. Special flat conductors made of copper, copper-bonded steel, hot-dip galvanized or stainless steel are used to make a ring earthing.
When making a vertical earthing rod, either pipes or specially prepared rods are used. They are dug below the ground surface so that the upper edge is below ground level. The distance at which they are placed from each other depends primarily on their length. As a rule, it is assumed that the distance between successive points cannot be less than the length of the element. This type of earthing is worth using where the ground resistance decreases with depth. In the case of too high resistance, it is recommended to make an additional vertical element, which is placed parallel to the first element and connected to it.
Materials for making the grounding are available at the Onninen installation wholesaler
Nowadays, making an earthing rod is no longer such a difficult task. In newly constructed facilities, you can use special sets, such as a complete 3-meter earthing rod . However, a big advantage is that manufacturers and specialist stores offer various types of elements that allow you to make a complete lightning protection installation. Tapes of various widths, aluminum masts , spires , connectors , and clamps . All parts allow you to make a complete, excellent quality lightning protection installation.
Check out the products for lightning protection grounding at the Onninen wholesaler