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Looking for Boilerplate


Terence McCann

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The metal ground from the motor, cabinet, etc. of an appliance through the cord, receptacle, cable, distribution panel and into the ground

Hold on right there. The ground is not a particularly relavent part of this equation. What we're talking about here is an electrical path back to the secondary coil of the transformer at the street. The earth might be an incidental part of that path but it isn't a primary part. The service conductors are.

offers much less resistance to current than if the path is through the cabinet, through your body, and then to ground through whatever else you are touching, even a grounded plumbing fixture. Electricity takes the path of least resistance.

Hold on again. As Jim Port, Marc, & Chad have explained, electricity does not take only the path of least resistance; it takes all paths in proportion to their resistance.

Does not matter a bit whether the earth is a good conductor or not, that resistance is overcome by the 8' ground rod, 10' of METAL water pipe and/or Ufer foundation rebar grounding system.

This is a faulty statement. The grounding electrode, whether a ground rod, metal water pipe, or length of rebar in concrete, is the means of connecting the system to the earth. These things don't change the earth's resistance. Also, as Jim Port pointed out, the grounding electrode system has nothing at all to do with equipment grounding system, even though both systems use the word "grounding." They each serve entirely different purposes.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

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