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Message: [QUOTE="Catfishnut, post: 97301, member: 3828"] The purpose of grounding rods are two fold, at least. One, to direct a lightning strike directly to ground OUTSIDE of the home. Provide the lightning bolt with the least resistant path to ground, rather than having it make its way through your internal house wiring to locate a good ground connection. If the lightning can make its way into the home, it can ignite the would and other materials along the way and start a fire almost instantaneously. Second, if you lose the neutral leg from your electrical circuit, the ground rod will hopefully supply a path of least resistance for the hot line power if a short or some other failure should occur. Normally, that current or electrical power would return to the source via the neutral leg of the circuit. However, if the neutral leg is somehow broken and the hot lead contacts the metal frame of an appliance, the frame of the appliance shoud be connected to the ground rod and shunt the current through that pathway, rather than through anyone who happens to touch the equipment. It is meant to be a backup safety feature. Gordy [/QUOTE]