There was a house fire in May of 2021 at 118 Sunset Boulevard. It broke out in the middle of the night and was determined to be an electrical fire of unknown origins. But I have a pretty good idea of what those are. Some of what I would like to bring to your attention is discussed in the following post that links back as far as you may care to venture into the details.:
The electrical grounding on the homes in Crystal Key is of particular importance due to the construction with metal conduit in cinder block. This is a construction that has fallen out of favor more recently for reasons I will highlight here, but was common practice at the time of construction. There are three wires that run through this conduit: hot-insulated; neutral-insulated and ground-bare wire. This essentially makes the cinder block part of the grounding system and also connects it to the slab. Cinder block and concrete have conductivity that varies with moisture and the moisture can wick and move through the material, creating various paths to ground. Other metal within the structure can create what appears to be what is called a neutral to ground short, which is actually when the insulation fails between the neutral and ground, when there is actually no such thing.
With such construction, it is important to keep the cinder block dry, with any leaks well sealed. It is also important for those bare ground wires running through the metal conduit to be well grounded. If you do not have an adequate electrical ground, the energy will try to get to ground through the slab. Even if the ground is good, you should keep the area around the slab moist to give the electro-junk a path to ground. If the energy leaves through the slab it tends to end up as surface voltage and energy that can effect you and your landscaping, causing it to need more water and even die. You want the electro-junk to go deep down the grounding rods.
My electrical ground was of original construction. I knew there were problems with it and my garden by the electrical meter died soon after the smart meter was installed in 2011. I eventually just covered the area with rocks and turned off the water…a very bad mistake. The grounding rod is buried there and the dry ground is less conductive. I tried calling out an electrician around 2016 when I bought the house, but he did not seem to have a clue what to do.
I got rid of the smart meter in 2020 when I came down with a nasty flu. When I got ill in 2021, after local telecom deployments, I had to call out four electricians to finally get one who could resolve the problem. The first one was useless, the next two, master electricians, where helpful and finally a fourth was willing to work with me on the problem and upgraded my system appropriately. I would recommend AG Electric of Boynton Beach for such upgrades.
Here is a mark up of the Electrical Riser that is in the Building Plans for all models of the homes in Crystal Key. Code discussions are in the link above.
Even the 1996 NEC code required two grounding electrodes and what I dug up did not have the second one connected per the grounding code. As the bonding wire went under the slab, it will be difficult to prove there is a code violation if the building department accepts bonded connections for the second grounding electrode under bonding code.
My rod had two connections that I believe were separate grounding and bonding wires and there was only one grounding electrode, an old, corroded grounding rod, connected to the meter. The other wire went under the slab and was likely for bonding the building and other required connections.
I did not get a resistance test done as those are actually quite cost prohibitive and common sense told me I needed an upgrade. There were some immediate benefits and others that have taken place over a year or more. They are all discussed in the Code link at the top of this page.
Talking with other neighbors, some have upgraded already. So how would you know if you have a problem? For one thing you can do is have the area around your meter excavated to inspect the rod and it’s connections. The rod is near the legs of the FPL meter about a half foot down. If you choose to do this yourself use plastic tools and caution.
The other way you can tell is by the differential between the electrical ground and the earth that influences your slab. You will need some simple volt meters and some wires and connectors. The meters should be able to read in the mV range. One should be an analog meter and another a cheap digital meter. I use 6 AWG copper wire as a slab depth probe about 6 inches into the ground but a long screw driver will also suffice. Then I put a grounding plug in an outside receptical and run a wire to the meter to the slab probe. You will likely see that the reading vary with distance from the slab. Take the reading near the slab and then another out far enough so the reading stops changing.
Start with the analog meter and place the probes to get the reading on scale. Note how they are connected. Then connect your digital meter with the probes the same way. Your digital meter may read differently, the difference being electro-junk usually dismissed by most electricians. It is somewhat an artifact of the meter, but know that radio-electro-junk shows up on it.
If your reading is positive with the red probe on the slab probe, current is running from the earth to the electrical ground of the house and electron flow is from the house to the earth. What should these readings be? My suggestion is that differential voltage as measured on the analog meter should be less than 50 mV, preferably less than 10 mV. That would be a slab that is well earthed and an indication the grounding is good.
What you consider acceptable is up to you and you should consider the health of the two legged and four legged residents of the home. If there are no health problems, what could I say? But 4G Restless Leg Syndrome has turned into 5G Stiff Person Syndrome and our exposures are excessive all over. Your electrical ground is one powerful way to reduce your exposures to EMF in your home. It is also a factor in electrical safety issues. Both your sensitive electronic equipment and biological equipment will operate better when properly grounded.
I have seen up to 2 Volts on my digital meter in my home when it was poorly grounded. The reason we are not feeling shocks is that it is all low amperage. But, in my opinion, it is all still low level electrocution so I get rid of what I can. With all my upgrades, I still have just one spot where I have 400 mV at 1 milli-amp that I keep grounded. This is likely related to NEV, that is the Neutral to Earth Voltage that is a function of the Electrical Grid System. See the posts linked back through the one at the top of this page for an explanation of that.
We are all connected and you will find you share a transformer (green FPL box by the light poles throughout the community) with 8-10 other people. Your electrical supply is influenced by these connections. The more people who are well grounded that you have on the transformer, the better off you will be.
If you have a metal fence connected to your cinder block, the electro-junk will try to ground out through that also. One of my neighbors is carrying 600 mV as measured on the analog meter (real voltage and electron flow) on his fence. Many utilities are grounding the fences of their infrastructure that is monitored by wireless communications. Our homes are more important than a lift station.
Another neighbor who is having obvious problems with his landscaping has constructed a aluminum sun-porch that I have raised objections to. Excuse me, this is not just my health and safety I am worried about.
As the ground goes dry, the conductivity drops and grounding will be more difficult. We ask all to have a care and stay safe and well grounded.