How to ground a water heater in a private house on your own? – Setafi

The technical passport of each boiler provides for a clause on the mandatory presence of grounding in an apartment or private house. What is it? And how to properly ground the water heater so that you don’t have to redo everything later - we’ll tell you in our article in just 3 minutes.

Grounding to a boiler in a private house - why do it

Anyone can get electrocuted, no one gets an exception. However, you can reduce the chances that even a bare wire will lead to disastrous consequences. This information is for you.

Consider the situation: a person touches a bare wire! You may not immediately say that: “Oh, this is deadly; yes, how is it? And so on. Any specialist will tell you that if there is no current in the network, then you will not be hit in any way. But this is different. In situations where there is grounding for the boiler in the country, a special circuit is created to absorb excess electric current deep underground.

That's the whole point: grounding completely reflects current discharges, for example, if you mixed up the wires when connecting or, God forbid, stepped on a bare wire. The earth not only feeds, but also protects.

Boiler grounding structure - what it looks like

Grounding - a thick electrical wire of short length, to which an electronic circuit is connected at one end, and the rest of the base is buried underground.

Installation of grounding the boiler in the apartment warns against a possible electric shock and reduces the load on all household appliances. Also among specialists there is another term - the ground loop. It is needed for metal electronic structures:

1. Washing machine.
2. Electric stoves.
3. boiler.

The excess of the device connected to the electrical circuit must be absorbed by the earth. But for this, it is necessary to create a chain that will direct the energy flows deep into.

Thus, high-quality grounding of a water heater in an apartment will protect a person at 100. Of course, the electric shock will not be completely softened - part of the charge will still pass through your body. But it will be such a small fraction that you may not feel the impact.

How to ground a water heater in your own home - the preparatory part

In order to make the grounding to the water heater as good as possible, in particular, it is necessary to create a circuit and connect it to the system. To do this, prepare in advance a few consumables and tools:

•  Metal tube of square section (corner, profile), not less than 50 mm wide. For our work, about 20 meters of such a pipe is needed.
•  We will conduct grounding to the shield using a wire 3 mm wide.
•  Welding machine with which we will weld pipes for the circuit.
•  Bulgarian or hacksaw for metal.
• Impact drill or hammer drill - to drill a hole in the wall and make a contour.
•  A sledgehammer or a big hammer - to drive pipes into the ground.
• 3-core cable for connecting a socket.
•  Euro socket with a place for grounding.
• Automatic machine of the necessary parameters for the water heater.
•  Screwdriver, indicator, knife.

To begin with, we select a site for the future frame. Location distance - no more than 5 meters from the control room. The most important thing is that people or animals do not move around that place, since in the event of a network breakdown, all the current will go there. We strongly recommend choosing the right place! – Otherwise, the current may damage the current. To fence off the site, place stones, a fence or plant a tree on it.

How to make grounding in the country for a water heater - we assemble the circuit

We divide specially prepared corners into 6 strips of 3 meters each. We cut half of them with a grinder at an angle so that it is convenient to hammer them into the ground.

We dig a small ditch in the shape of a triangle (length - at least 3 meters, depth - up to half a meter). We install pipes at the corners of the triangle and hammer them with a hammer, leaving 10 centimeters sticking out.

We weld the corners between ourselves with the remaining three parts, which we did not saw through. The outline is done. It should look like a chair with three legs, but without the seat.

How to ground a water heater in the country - we connect the system to the switchboard

We pass directly to the part of the connection of the system. To do this, we make a small groove to the ground from the corner of the triangle closest to the shield. It is necessary to lay such a ditch from the switchboard to the corner.

We drill a through hole in the wall of the house with a puncher or impact drill. We weld one corner of the cable onto a triangle and lead it through the hole into the house. With ordinary wires, such a scheme will not work, since it will simply rot in the ground in 3-5 years.

To the end of the cable that we brought into the house, we weld the self-tapping screw with the cap down. Now we dig in the entire circuit located in the groove. It’s good if you have soft earth in your country house or with a high content of clay - the current is conducted through such material many times faster due to the high concentration of salts. If there is a lot of sand in the soil, additionally prepare a solution of salt and water and water the wiring area abundantly.

How to connect grounding to a water heater - we analyze the circuit

We take a screw connected to the wire by welding, and wind a three-core cable around it. Already it is displayed on the electrical panel. A separate machine is installed inside the system, and is connected to the shield via a three-core cable. Which machine to choose and the wire section - all according to the individual parameters of each water heater. For a device with a power of up to 3.5 kW, a 10 Amp machine and a 2 mm wire are enough, for a system up to 4.5 kW - 16 amperes in the equipment and a 2.5 mm wire; if you take even more - 25 amperes and 3 mm of wire is enough with your head.

It is worth understanding the wires and connecting everything correctly: zero, phase and ground. The latter is attached to a yellow, green or yellow-green cable. Zero is the blue cable, and the phase is the remaining one. If you haven’t figured out the scheme, then white, brown or black colors go under the phase (they won’t appear at the same time, so don’t get lost).

It is also important to pre-purchase a socket with a place for grounding wiring. After the result, we carry out a three-core system along the box, through the groove in the wall and to the future outlet. The system should be no more than 50 cm from the apparatus and about 80 cm from the ground. Important: do not attach wires above the bath or shower!

How to make grounding on a boiler - tips for a perfect connection

And at the end, some tips on how to properly ground the boiler:

• It is important to connect all electronics with the power off throughout the house.
• Before touching the wire, we check it for the possibility of current with an indicator (probe).
• It is forbidden to connect earth to any metal pipe.

If you have not yet implemented such a system at home, then there are several dangers of using a boiler: first, all the current will go to the water; second - stray charges will gradually destroy the water heating elements. As a result, you will be left without a heater and with health problems. Just in case, if you are not sure about the clarity of independent actions, consult a specialist or call a professional team. In any case - good luck!