Ensuring Safety and Reliability: The Importance of Electrical Earthing for Homes
Top 5 Reasons for Electrical Earthing in Residential Buildings
- Protection against electric shock: Earthing provides a safe path for fault current to flow into the ground, significantly reducing the risk of electric shock. Electrical earthing at home is to safeguard human life.
- Safeguarding electrical appliances and devices: A proper earthing system protects household appliances and sensitive electronic devices like music systems, air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, laptops, chimneys, iron and other electronic devices from damage caused by voltage surges.
- Fire prevention and property protection: Without a proper earthing system, excess electrical current from faults, short circuits, or lightning strikes cannot flow safely into the ground. It can result in electrical fires. Proper earthing helps the flow of excess current into the ground, thereby increasing the safety of human life and electrical devices.
- Voltage stabilisation: It regulates the voltage level across the entire electrical system, thereby preventing any possibility of overcurrent or excessive voltage to any appliance or equipment.
- Ensuring proper operations of protecting devices: Shields from static electricity created by friction and protects them from possible electrostatic discharge.
What is Electrical Earthing?
Electrical earthing is the process of connecting the non-current-carrying parts of the electricity to the earth.
The purpose of electrical earthing is to provide a safe path for the current to flow into the earth in the event of a fault, and electrical earthing reduces the risk of electrical shock or fire.
This helps to maintain the voltage level of the system and protects us from the electrical hazards caused by lightning, static electricity, or short circuits.
What Can Happen if Electrical Earthing is Not Done Properly?
- Electric shock: Without proper earthing, electric currents may not have a safe path to flow in the event of a fault, leading to the risk of electrical shocks and injury to individuals.
- Fire hazards: Improper earthing can cause excess electrical current to build up, leading to overheating of the wires and electrical components. This overheating can ignite surrounding materials, resulting in a fire that may spread rapidly and cause property damage and endanger lives.
- Damage to electrical equipment: Sensitive devices and appliances completely rely on earthing to safely discharge excess voltage from surges or faults. Without proper grounding, these surges can damage or destroy electronic equipment.
- Malfunctions of electronic equipment: Sensitive electronic equipment such as computers, air conditioners, refrigerators, & other electrical appliances may not function correctly without proper earthing, leading to malfunctions or even complete failure.
Three Steps to take to Ensure Proper Electrical Earthing?
1. Select the right location and materials:
- Choose a site with good soil conductivity, preferably moist and away from underground utilities or interference sources.
- Use corrosion-resistant materials such as copper or galvanised iron for rods, plates, and conductors to ensure durability and effective current dissipation.
- Marconite is considered the best earthing type for demanding reliability, longevity, and performance across all soil conditions. Its environmental benefit makes it the most preferrable earthing and cost-effective solution over time for both residential and industrial critical infrastructure projects.
2. Test and maintain the earthing system:
- Perform regular inspections and maintenance, including checking resistance values and ensuring soil moisture around the electrode for consistent performance.
3. Install and connect the earth electrode correctly:
- Install the earth electrode (rod, plate, or pipe) vertically in the ground at the selected location, ensuring it is buried to the recommended depth for effective grounding.
- Securely connect the earthing conductor from the electrode to the main electrical panel or equipment, using proper clamps and minimising joints for a low-resistance path.
InterTech brings to you a sustainable, maintenance-free, world’s best earthing solution “Marconite” that offers trouble-free and consistent earthing for 50 years. Marconite is environmentally friendly & is non-corrosive in nature. Also, the system does not require any water/chemical charge for the whole life span of 50+ Years.
