Ground Rod At Pv Pole Location

James
James Solar Expert Posts: 250 ✭✭
in Advanced Solar Electric Technical Forum #1
The John Wiles link is helpfull, but I am still having trouble with this question;

Can a 8' ground rod be set in/hammered in ground thru the hole augered for a PV pole?.

The pole mount shall have a concrete top base about 24" x 24".

I would like to set the ground rod before the concrete pour.
Will the aprox. 4 feet of the rod driven in virgin soil below the post footing meet NEC rules?

I don't want a loose grounding cable running across the concrete pad and then attaching to a ground rod. anyone have info on this?

To summarize; 4 feet of the ground rod will be in soil below post hole, the balance shall be set in concrete with about 2" above pad in order to connect PV array frame grounding wire.

thanks, jim
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: Ground Rod At Pv Pole Location

    james,
    ground rod contact with concrete is not the same as soil and i am not 100% sure without looking, but i'll say they would frown upon it. i guess for contact's sake if driven into the ground at the bottom of the hole with little exposed to the concrete except for ground wire connection that would come up through the concrete to connect above ground would suffice electrically, but an inspector won't see what is in or below the concrete so my advice is to run it off to the side of your poured concrete, but angle it slightly away by a few degrees so that when driving it in it will not hit your concrete. do not drive the top of the rod and its connection into the ground below the soil surface either unless the inspector says you can, so leave a few extra inches of ground wire to allow driving it in farther. if he says no, then cut the excess wire off at the mount. if he says yes, don't hit the wire or the connector when driving it into the ground.
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  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Ground Rod At Pv Pole Location

    Sounds OK to me, have a sketch or photo of it, to show the inspector, if he does not like, you can still hammer one in next to the pad, if that's what he's used to. Call up inspector before hand - see what he likes.
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