Installing: an Earthing ConduDisc 

In terms of the ConduDisc and Conducrete depending on the application and configuration we regularly develop systems beneath 1 Ohm. You make some great points here, just remember if you're using rods that aren't encased in Conducrete then you may be on a stopwatch for how long they last; not just hostile ground but local discharging electricity. Separately we've followed your comments for a while, particularly on the e5 podcasts and think you add tremendous value. Keep up the good work it improves the discussions, which improves the international sector.

@@earthingservices44 your correct there is deterioration of rods zinc coated, copper bonded and galvanazid and stainless steel rods are all choices copper bonded with thicker surface coating is often the way to go. Testing by federal agencies and US navy both showed long-lived 40 plus years. However I do see great merit in the condu-disk approach and it’s great work by yourselves in bringing this to market. What’s the rated life of this product? I keep encouraging people to read the original wenner fall of potential method article it’s really useful nothing more than basic calculus. nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/bulletin/12/nbsbulletinv12n4p469_A2b.pdf So on installation do you recommend vertical or horizontal installation of the condu-disk material. Have you played about with the copper type in the disk and how that can vary and why the decision was made to go with the actual type you chose?

@@mathman0101 Certainly the higher the coating the better. Agree we've seen 40 years on a rod but in a marine adjacent environment it would seem surprising. On one example we saw in an area of salt water migration there was nothing more than the thread left of a UL approved copperbond rod after 3 MONTHS. In that case it was a combination of salt hostility and discharging adjacent currents. Just like any electrolytic exchange there is always a loss involved, but if there's only metal in the ground then that's what starts to disappear with the deterioration proportional to the relative hostility and discharge rate. It just comes down to a matter of ground hostility and ambient electricity, or direct discharge. It's why the protective medium of Conducrete helps because that protects against hostility and will be consumed vastly slower following electrical discharge. That's why in any system we design where rods are beneficial we always endorse encapsulating in Conducrete to extend service life and vouchsafe performance. That's very kind of you to say, yes the ConduDisc is proving popular for many applications. It's age-tested up to 60 years, by which we mean that's the limit of the test, the product is still performing well by that cycle. It's why we say it will outlast whatever it is earthing / grounding. If you want to see any of the testing data just get in touch at info@earthingservices.com. That article is wonderful isn't it? Like you say the Wenner method is perfectly simple and effective. Whilst we usually defer to CDEGS whenever processing data or designing systems we also run spreadsheets our engineers have developed as a double verification, and also because the spreadsheets give us prettier graphs for the reports! When it comes to installation orientation of the ConduDisc it is really down to preference and practicality, unless either: a) vertical orientation permits access to a preferable layer of a soil profile. b) the stability of an application requires symmetrical / uniform pressure dispersal, whereby the horizontal orientation would be preferable. The internal metallic component within a ConduDisc was honed throughout development, but it settled ultimately on a galvanised steel plate. It provides the internal strength and is custom made for the ConduDisc to facilitate our manufacture process. In terms of strength the ConduDisc will happily be screwed to the bottom of a timber transmission pole and dropped in a hole, so it needs to be tough and robust enough to handle that. Furthermore in terms of its own electrical properties it provides the means of interconnection between the cable and the surrounding "ConduDisc" matrix which actually handles the electrical dispersal. When it comes to selecting the right ConduDisc variant for an application it usually comes down to sizing the cable to handle the fault, we have LV all the way to HV variants. Once again, thank you for your great questions and insights, such contributions make everyone smarter.

@@earthingservices44 kudos to you all for your great work in this work. I wish you all success your openness and information really will put customers at ease, education really helps your work. Have you also worked with the colleagues at DEHN on lightning earthing? Maybe not given they may have their own products, but as you say I have a lot of time for these experts as well.

Thanks for the feedback, we'll try that on our next install to see if we can get our next install down even further.

Thanks for getting in contact, even on chalky ground you will still achieve a good reading, however, I would recommend that you install the disk at 600mm as opposed 450mm and damp the ground before you had the conducrete base this will ensure that there good connectivity between the ground and the base of the condudisc.