If you have a mobile home, you might have realized that most communities require you to have your home equipped with a grounded 200-amp 4-wire service.
As such, having your mobile home grounded is extremely important.
In this regard, How Do You Properly Ground A Mobile Home?
First off, a mobile home with proper grounding should have a physical connection between all of its electrical components to the ground. One grounding pole has to be placed next to the meter pole, and the other must be 6 feet away. Further, the ground and the neutral should be bonded together at the main panel.
When it comes to grounding a manufactured home, it is further advisable to have the second grounding pole buried between your house and the meter pole.
This post will cover more on electrical grounding, emphasizing grounding mobile homes.
What Is Grounding, And Why Is It Important?
Electrical grounding redirects electricity back into the ground whenever there is wiring system fault.
It is one of the very critical safety procedures that mobile homeowners should consider.
While electrical circuits may be earthed for various reasons, the core reason for grounding electrical systems is to protect you, your family members, and other occupants from the dangers of high voltage.
Further, proper grounding offers a safe way for your appliances to discharge excess electricity – when power surges, the excess electricity will flow to the earth rather than fry your appliances.
In a mobile home, the ground is considered a reference point for the voltage sources, which helps ensure stabilized voltage levels throughout your mobile home’s electric system.
How To Ground A Mobile Home
Having your mobile home properly grounded is critical for the safety and protection of your electrical equipment and appliances.
Generally, mobile homes need to have a 200-amp 4-wire service that’s properly connected to the earth.
Here is how to go about the grounding procedure:
1. Identify Where To Bury The Grounding Poles
Measure a distance of six feet from the meter pole and mark the spot.
Grounding poles should be six feet apart, so one pole will be next to the meter pole and the other on the identified spot.
To keep people from walking over the poles, consider buying the second pole between your mobile home and the meter pole.
2. Dig The Holes For Them
Using a posthole digger, dig two 8-foot holes, one next to the meter pole and the other at the measured location.
3. Bury The Grounding Rods
When the holes are ready, drop the earthing rods into the holes, then fill the holes.
When filling the holes, make sure to hold the rods so they stand straight up.
4. Connect The Ground Wire
Turn off the power to your mobile home, then locate the ground wire from the main disconnect.
Next, connect the cable to the grounding rod conduit.
Next, run a continuous grounding cable to connect to the second grounding rod and secure the cable to the conduit.
Upon completion, you will have properly grounded your mobile home.
Two Risks Of Improper Grounding
Any mobile home that’s not ground or is improperly grounded runs the risk of dangerous problems.
Unfortunately, many old mobile homes lack grounding altogether.
The worst and most harmful scenario imaginable is property fire due to improper grounding.
Here are problems associated with improper grounding:
1. Electrical shock
When electricity flows through a circuit, it is bound to find a path to the ground.
If your mobile home is not properly grounded, you or your family member might be the shortest route to earth the electricity finds.
Electrical shock can cause serious injury or, worse, death.
2. Residential fires
If the electrical system of your mobile home is not properly, the metal parts of your equipment and appliances may be energized.
Because the excess voltage cannot be safely eliminated, it may end up frying your appliance, which can lead to a fire.
Besides these hazards, improper grounding can cause lights to dim, especially when large appliances are turned on.
Depending on the unique situation of your home, the lights may go off, and the appliances fail to operate optimally.
In rare cases, a short can be made to the grounding system, allowing electric current to flow to the ground uncontrolled and continuously (which can result in higher electric bills).
Signs Of Improper Grounding
We can all agree that the home electrical system is a complex web of wires, circuit breakers, circuits, and receptacles. All these elements work to ensure that electricity is useful and poses a minimal threat.
If your home electrical system is not grounded, it will almost certainly malfunction, leading to possible hazardous issues.
To know if your mobile home is grounded or not, look for these signs and symptoms of a faulty ground system:
- Dimming lights
- Shocks when you touch metal-containing appliances, wires, water pipes, etc
- Two prong sockets
Are Your Outlets Grounded?
Finding out if your mobile home electricity system is properly grounded is important, but it is not for the faint of the heart.
As with any other project that involves electricity, you need to be very cautious.
That said, the tell-tale sign of a grounded home is three-prong outlets – the usually U-shaped slot serves as the grounding component.
Many manufactured homes are grounded because of the high safety regulations.
If your mobile home has three-prong outlets, but you want to be certain that it is grounded, insert the red probe of a circuit tester into the small slot of an outlet and the black probe into the outlet’s large slot.
In case the indicator of the circuit tester does not light up, reverse the probe.
If the indicator lights up, it means that the circuit is grounded but wired in reverse. If the indicator doesn’t light up, even after reversing the probes, the outlet is not grounded.
Importantly, while it sounds reasonable to assume that all outlets are grounded if one is properly grounded, it is possible that the receptacle you tested was installed during a renovation project.
For this reason, repeat the testing procedure on all outlets.
Conclusion
Grounding is an essential safety measure every mobile homeowner needs to keep in mind.
If you are not sure whether your home is properly grounded, an electric grounding test can help raise the electrical safety levels in your property and ensure all your installations are safe.
Hopefully, you will find this post helpful, especially in solving possible grounding issues in your mobile home.
Electricity can pose significant threats, so don’t take your safety for granted.
Related
References
https://www.hunker.com/12406529/the-effects-of-a-poor-electrical-ground
