Difference Between Earthing and Grounding - Explaination
Earthing is a protection system for buildings through which all the electrical installations are connected to the earth to prevent damage to the property and people due to any fault. This is achieved by driving conductive rods into the earth itself near where power enters the house. Connection to the ground also restricts the build-up of static electricity when handling flammable products or electrostatic-sensitive devices.
The purpose of earthing is to minimize the risk of incurring an electric shock on touching while there is a fault. Electrical circuits may be connected to earth (ground) for several reasons.
Earthing Serves as
Personal protection
Property/ operational protection
Potential grading earthing
Protection from electromagnetic pulses
Protection from lightning
Why is Earthing Important?
Earthing is used to secure you from an electric shock as it provides a path for fault current to flow to earth. Earth is a big sphere so its capacity is larger.
Safe generation, transmission, and distribution of the electric system.
Protection from potentially deadly voltages when we come in contact with them.
Sometimes people won’t be able to feel electricity until it goes somewhere above 25 volts. Thus, damage can occur to delicate computer components unless human doesn’t become sensitive to shock.
Earthing of the equipment drives the protection to work and isolates the defective equipment from service.
Types of Earthing
The process of Earthing or electrical grounding can be done in various ways like wiring in factories, housing, other machines, and electrical equipment. There are different forms of earthing systems that are described below:
Plate Earthing System
In this type of system, a plate is made up of copper or galvanized iron that is placed vertically in the ground pit less than 3 meters from the earth. The electrode plate connects the electrical conductors to the earth. Moisture should be maintained around the plate earthing system for its better functioning.
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Pipe Earthing System
A galvanized steel-based pipe when positioned vertically inside a wet surface. Such a type of earthing system is known as pipe earthing. It is the most common type of earthing system used in houses. The pipe size mainly relies on the type of soil and the magnitude of the current.
Basically, for ordinary soil, the pipe dimension should be 1.5 inches in diameter and 9 feet in length and for rocky or dry soil, the pipe diameter should be greater than the ordinary soil pipe. The soil moisture decides the pipe’s length that is to be placed in the earth.
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Rod Earthing System
Earth rods are made from copper and stainless steel or copper bonded steel. The best choice is copper bonded steel due to its combination of strength, resistance to corrosion, and lower cost.
Their fittings are used to render the interface to the ground in all soil conditions in order to achieve satisfactory earthing systems. It deviates an electric current that might escape from a device to a metallic cable that ends with a rod buried in the ground.
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What is Grounding?
The grounding is actually a backup pathway that provides an alternating route or path for the current to flow back to the ground if there is a fault in the wiring system.
Difference between Earthing and Grounding
How to Prepare for Exams with this Topic?
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FAQs on Difference Between Earthing and Grounding for JEE Main 2024
1. What is an electrical earthing?
The process of transmitting a continuous release of the electrical energy directly to the earth by the help of a low resistance wire is known as electrical earthing. The electrical earthing is carried out by connecting the non-current carrying constituent of the equipment or neutral of the supply system to the ground. It forbids any harm to the electrical appliances and equipment by preventing undue current (from running through the circuit). In case of a major electrical earthing, the current is transmitted to the earth surface as the surface of the earth is assumed to be a collection of negative charges.
2. What is touch potential?
Touch potential is the voltage produced between the stimulated object and a body-part of a person in contact with the object. In principle current will flow from higher electric potential to lower electric potential. During its flow, if it encounters a resistance (in this case a human body), it passes through body, finally reaching the lowest potential. The resistance of human body is highly inconsistent, and the current that may pass through the body relies on the resistance of the body, and the position in which it touches the ground and resistance of the human body is considered 300-400 ohms.
3. Why does earth’s electric field transfer so easily through the human body?
The human body is composed of water and minerals. It becomes a good conductor of electricity (easy travel of negatively charged particles or electrons). The free electrons on the surface of the earth are easily transmitted through the human body if there is a direct contact with that surface. A common example is when a human is electrocuted. A highly positive current from the earth’s atmosphere, preferably at the level of the clouds, travel fast to the earth surface which is negatively charged. If there is a human in this path, the body of the human acts as a tiny conductor to further speed up the flow of the electric current. In the process, a small resistance (the human body) comes in the way of an exceedingly high current (lightning) and electrocutes the body.
4. What is the electric potential of the surface of earth?
The electric potential of earth’s surface is negative. The earth’s surface, lower atmosphere and upper atmosphere constitute global atmospheric electrical circuit. When there is lightning, the electric potential difference between the upper atmosphere and earth’s surface reaches up to 0.4 million volts. The lightning occurs when there is potential difference across the layers of the cloud or between a single layer of clouds. The high current then swoops toward the surface of the earth toward the negative potential to balance the potential difference.
5. How to identify if an electric device requires earthing?
An electric device has either two or three adaptor pins. If there are three pins, the longest and thickest pin represents earthing. The location of the earthing hole in the electrical point is at the top for ease of identification. Depending on the frequency of electric current and the demographic location, the shape of the earthing pin may vary from circular to rectangular. Examples of day-to-day use devices which require earthing are washing machine, refrigerator, Air conditioner, pump, water geyser, etc.
Earthing and grounding is an important topic not only for the exams but also for daily living. Students must understand this concept to know the benefits of earthing and grounding. Vedantu provides suitable and detailed information on the earthing and grounding that can help students to understand the difference between the two and solve questions based on the topic. Students can also read notes given on Vedantu to prepare for their final exams and score high marks. It can help students because it is an important topic for the competitive exams as well and students can get many questions from this topic in the final and competitive exams.