Posted: 4/11/2017 4:47:16 PM EDT
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Not an electrician, Did not spend last night in a Holiday inn Express......
I was having ground fault errors on my Heater over the winter if I was also using the clothes dryer, also then the dryer just would not work. I just found my house ground and there was an old metal curtain rod stuck between the copper grounding wire coming out of the panel and the house. Removed said rod, dryer now works, is there such a thing as shorting out the grounding wire? |
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Well, all I can say is that this house is wired with 3 wire, not 4 strand. That's made life interesting when buying a new dryer and not wanting to rewire the entire house..... 
1) the service outside should have a ground wire going to a metal rod in the ground, actually there should be 2 ground rods outside. use a ground bonging clamp for this (also can ground your telephone, security system, etc.) 
2) inside the house, the ground wire from the CB panel should be connected to a copper cold water line. 
Those are the basics - get a copy of your local codes and prepare for an electrician if you have any doubts about your home wiring. |
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At first I did't believe you when you said you were not an electrician, now I have no doubt. Quoted:
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Well, all I can say is that this house is wired with 3 wire, not 4 strand. That's made life interesting when buying a new dryer and not wanting to rewire the entire house.....  Â
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There not being a "Rod" is strange to me, just a copper wire that comes down from where the panel and the meter meet, that goes into the ground, not a true grounding rod like what Ive driven into the ground helping someone set up a generator. My ground wire comes out of the house, disappears into the dirt, runs about four feet and connects to a standard copper ground rod, and then travels another six feet to a second standard ground rod. You can't see any of that, because it's buried a few inches under the surface. If you just have a few inches of wire shoved into the ground, you need to change that. The rest of it...I have no idea. Do you have metal siding? (not that THAT would ground your house...) |
| NEC requires ALL utilities entering the structure must be grounded to the power entrance ground. This keeps all grounds in the same potential. If you have open loop grounds it can cause a lot of problems. Grounding is a safety issue. The problems you describe sound more like a neutral issue, which is the biggest problem you can have in an electrical circuit. The neutral not only completes the circuit but keeps the voltage in the proper range. If you lose a neutral even on a household circuit the voltage can go from 0 to hundreds or in worst cases thousands of volts. I strongly urge you to have a competent electrician take a look at the issue. |
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I'm sure he knows how to make all kinds or revolutionary war shelters from hides, logs and peat moss. |
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http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/montourseth/IMG_4983_zpspj5vxslo.jpg This is all I can see. The curtin rod was stuck behind the wire. Thanks to all, You confirmed that I need to have someone look at this. I was really hoping that all my problems were just caused by excess clutter and not something worse, but such is life |
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Everything is working just fine, The weather is nice, no need to run the heater. Ive washed and dryed 3 loads of clothing. Spent the weekend with my daughter at Mom and Dad's for Easter. |