Earthing in the rain

If you think that we have nothing better to do on a Saturday, you're wrong. We have tons to do as the business is sort of picks itself up at one moment and also, falling flat on moodier days. Instead of transferring my vast knowledge to my tech, I had to oversee an Earthing project where the customer is complaining about their punctuality.

Right away, I can see there the fault lies as the tech had to go to PJ to purchase the raw material and use the van to fetch it all the way to Shah Alam. And he had to do this before 11 in the morning. Which is not possible because no one had taken into account the delay caused by the supplier since he had to place the order and get them from a nearby manufacturer....

The first thing that needs to be done is to create
a hole for the Earth Chamber (concrete box
on the right). This means opening up all the
bricks and digging a trench for a pipe.

All these bricks, although heavy, are easy
to remove. Just that you have to make
sure there is space for you to put your
finger/screwdriver in to loosen it up.

There. All done! The next task is to dig the hole
deep enough for the Earth chamber to go in.

Unfortunately, it started to rain and after
a few moments, we had to stop work.

When the rain stopped, we quickly dug the hole
as fast as we could....

Before the rain continued...

And spoilt our work

And it got heavier and heavier. We could do
nothing else but to sit back and wait the rain
out. Yes, its very depressing while the rest
of the Saturday afternoon is "wasted".

But we can't complain as there is a job to
be done and I know my techs well, they
will get it done no matter what.

Our work schedule was pushed further back when
we discovered some cables underneath. This
means we have to dig a little to the left now.

So we dug, and test fit and then dug again
to make sure the Earth chamber is sitting
nicely among the tiles and does not sink.

At the same time, we got the trench dug and
the plastic pipe put into place. And then it
rained again...

Its getting to be kind of really depressing to
watch our work being flooded because its not
a nice feeling to scooping the water out. Its
like an eternity doing it as the water just keep
coming back in (all the water from the tiles
just keep coming into this hole).

Much much later, after we've covered the tiles,
we continue to hammer the copper rod into the
Earth Chamber. This time, we did not remove
all the water as the soft earth makes the rod
enter the earth easier. There and then, my
tech admitted he gets sick easily when his
head is "hit' by rain water. I did not say
much but he found his own solution.

Once that is done, we need to scoop out the
excess water since its not receding much.

This is because we need to connect the cables
to the copper rod and the connector is deep
inside the chamber.

Once that is done, we cleaned up and closed
the chamber with loose sand and soil as its
not a good time to use the cement since the
rain will continue again.

And so we cleaned everything up while some
of us tested the Earthing. From my meter, I
got roughly 100 Ohms, which is still too high.
The ideal is under 10 Ohms or better, 5 Ohms.
All this in under slightly three hours......