Ground Wire

[sgraham602]

I'm wiring up a panel for a brutus 10 type system. From what I can tell the only item on the panel that needs a ground wire is the pump. Both of the temp controllers don't have a ground. If I have the ground wire from the pump going to the ground bus that I have installed in the panel, and the ground bus connected to the ground wire on the extension cord coming in...do I need to run a ground wire on my stand? My thought was that the ground plug on the main extension cord is grounded, so I don't need to make a ground wire on my stand.

 

[lukesdaddy]

If the stand does not have any other un-grounded electrical components mounted to it, then I would say no, you do not need to ground the frame. The reason items like the motor require a ground wire is if the internal wiring shorts to the case then the energy in the case will be taken to ground instead of you. The energy, Voltage and Current, will seek the path of least resistance.

Your wiring sounds ok. Make sure the electrical enclosure is also grounded.

If you have any electric heating elements in your kettle, I would ground the kettle.

Hope this helps.

 

[sgraham602]

My control panel is mounted on my brew stand. Does that count as being grounded??


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

You're in the electric brewing forum, so I'm assuming you're brewing with... electricity. So wouldn't your kettles also be getting power via your panel, and thus your statement that the only thing on the panel that needs grounding is the pump is wrong. If you're heating your kettles with electricity, then your kettles need to be grounded, too.
-Kevin

 

[lukesdaddy]

The panel can only be considered "grounded" if there is a clean, no paint, no rust, connection. Bolting is adequate as long as this is true. I would recommend using a star washer on the bolted connection. This allows for the washer to "bite" into the steel. An alternative, is a dedicated ground wire from the enclosure to the stand but make sure the enclosure grounding bar is attached to the incoming power ground wire.

As the previous poster mentioned, and I mentioned before, if you have a heating element in the kettle, you should also ground the kettle. Having it sit on a stand does not help the grounding.

Your ground wire should also be sized appropriately, I would use the same gauge wire as the incoming power.

Another rule of though and a requirement for offshore oil and gas installations is any non-current carrying, conductive components shall be grounded. In other words, to protect from electrical shock ground everything that is conductive, i.e. motor housings, enclosures, kettle, and stand.

Hope this help and sorry if I rambled too much.