This article was posted 03/14/2007 and is most likely outdated.

Equipotential Grids Required by the NEC - Are they Useless?
 

 
Topic - NEC
Subject
- Equipotential Grids Required by the NEC - Are they Useless?

March 14, 2007  

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Equipotential Grids Required by the NEC - Are they Useless?

 

ImageThe following paper describes Stray Voltage Service’s www.strayvoltage.ca approach in dealing with farm neutral to earth voltage. They have tested over 2,500 farms for stray voltage and this maybe more than any organization has done. The approach they offer provides real world low cost technical solutions to stray voltage in two broad ways; first by balancing secondary farm neutral loads and then secondly by reducing the remaining non-engineered electricity paths from passing through farm animals. This paper identifies the technical failures of the past and current standard stray voltage mitigation techniques and its outcomes. This paper describes some impressive results offered using our remote monitoring oscilloscope services to farmers across North America and the world.

 

Click here or on the image to view this paper titled: Solutions to Farm Neutral to Earth Voltage provided by Stray Voltage Services.

 

 

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Comments
  • I enjoyed all the comments on being able to print, etc. since I was experiencing the same thing. Yesterday I could see all the nice 'scope plots; today there are none.

    It aoppears it is all because my employer is futzing with Sun Java versions due to security issues.

    The wonderful world of Windows...

    Paul Heit
    Reply to this comment

  • Link only works with Internet Explorer, not Mozilla

    Mozilla and Firefox users: Right click on link and click on "Open in IE tab", or just use IE.

    T. Griffith
    Reply to this comment

  • They're more than useless. They are dangerous as they are causing a dc component voltage to always be present under the cows from the constant charging of the different metals by the ever present utility neutral current flowing over the bonded floor back through the barn into the main service ground and back to the grid. We need isolation from the utility neutrals before metal will work in the floor. We may need to go to a fibermesh rebar system instead.

    Tim Arneson
    Reply to this comment

  • I always wondered what would happen if farmers buried a large size wire all the way around their farm. Would this provide a path for stray voltage around their farm? Then all they would have to deal with is problems with stray voltage produced on the farm itself.

    bill bamford
    Reply to this comment

  • Hard to post a comment when the links are not working. i am in an area of PA (Lancaster County) that has a lot of farms and reading this article would be, i think, helpful.

    Regards, E. Schwarz

    Ernest Schwarz
    Reply to this comment

  • David uses his extensive knowledge and experience to solve the problems and he does NOT try to mask the problems. The e-plane and neutral interconnection between the electrical distribution systems (primary and secondary) are not designed for the cows safety. The only answer that truly works, is the removal of the source or in simple terms, the removal of the electrical voltage/current accessing the cows in their enviroment. AC 50 and AC 60 are at cow contact because of the source, it does not occur in nature, it is man-made or generated by man. We have to use electricity safely and keep it away from the cows. This sounds like a simple statement but it is NOT simple to accomplish. David and I have become friends and I am extremely proud to call him a friend. Mike, thank you for sending out this very important newsletter!!

    In response to the VFD issue, David has demonstrated that VFD's can be a problem, if they are not properly installed and designed. David, to the best of my knowledge, is not against VFD's, if they do not cause problems for the cows.

    Chuck Untiedt
    Reply to this comment

  • Seems like a lot of information taken out of cotext and overlooking some serious safety concerns and financial losses. Just one point, VFD's are not the root of all evil, and neutral isolators are not the cure all.

    Jeff
    Reply to this comment

  • Smart fellows-these Canadians. The VT-NI seems to be a good solution. Lightning arrestors (and their "primary" ground) and the single-phase distribution transformer (and it's "secondary" ground) are somewhat commonly installed on the same pole, and the grounds may even be via single, common electrodes (rods). In this case, should the primary and secondary grounds first be separated (by 6 + meters), each with their own electrodes, before a VT-NI unit can operate effectively?

    Jim
    Reply to this comment

  • Tried to print the paper with no success.

    Bill Fleming
    Reply to this comment

  • enjoy all your good stuff. did you hear OSHA has new elect std . this may be old news to you

    wayne leller
    Reply to this comment

  • The new flashing "Click Here To Post A Comment" sign is annoying and makes the newsletter hard to read

    Steven Carter
    Reply to this comment

  • Good article! Sometimes, to many of us, the "stray voltage" discussions get to sounding similar to global warming, with seemingly smart people, on both sides of the argument. It is good to see an article that sounds like it is based on objective testing and also does a good job on the pros and cons of several possible solutions.

    Thank you Mike. Dan Prater

    Dan Prater
    Reply to this comment

  • The scope capture Graph "Very short duration micro-second milliamp events"in the article shows time on the horizontal scale and voltage on the vertical scale. How are milliamps derived from this graph? Another dumb question...What influence would stray RF (radio frequency) radiation, or for that matter, any radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum, have on this scope?

    Mark Prairie
    Reply to this comment

  • The paper "Farm Neutral to Earth Voltage provided by Stray Voltage Services" is 15 blank pages.

    Greg Luri
    Reply to this comment

  • links broken

    Bruce Rockwell
    Reply to this comment

  • Imagine my surprise upon returning to the barn for my laptop, to find my dairy cows actually reading this newsletter! I am certian I had turned it off. I also found hoof prints on the keyboard! Thank you,

    Farmer Brown

    Mark Prairie
    Reply to this comment


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