eli5 why every household needs to have their own ground system? they don’t provide a universal ground cable like live & neutral from the grid system.
In: Technology
Ground is not quite universal. There are differences in the ground potential over long distances. Especially in certain conditions like during a thunderstorm or a solar flair. It is therefore important to have a local connection to the ground so that the ground wire in your electrics have the same potential as for example your plumbing or the wet grass on your lawn. If instead you hook your ground wire to a post on the other side of the neighbourhood you could get a nasty surprise, or even regular sparks damaging your utilities or causing a fire.
Another issue is that when you get a static discharge you want it to go to the ground as soon as possible. Even electricity have a certain amount of speed and any wire will resist changes in current through it. The longer the wire the longer it takes for the electricity to get to the other side and the more it is going to resist the change in current. This may cause a much higher spike in voltage in your house grounding system then you want. And again it can cause sparks and other issues. Even worse if your ground system is hooked up to your neighbours house then the current may find an easier path to the ground through his house. You may end up burning down your neighbours house just because of the long wire across the neighbourhood to the ground post.
Latest Answers