Electronics > Beginners

Is there away to check continuity over long distances?

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Beamin:
Say you wanted to check to see if the gutters or metal work on your house was grounded or all connected. Other then taking a meter and a super long piece of wire if there a device that can measure this through RF or other means? Say you wanted to use the gutters on your house as a lightning rod or even ground rod how would you do that if laying huge amounts of second conductor isn't doable like where the metal passes through the house. Is there a net working tool that does this?

AVGresponding:
Generally speaking, the earth bonding should be easily visible and identifiable. That's part of the regs here in the UK, and I imagine there's similar requirements there.

Sometimes there's an issue with what regs were in place when the place was built/refurbed, so if it wasn't a requirement at the time it'll not have been done.

I don't think I'd want any kind of metal guttering to be used as a lightning conductor unless it was specifically designed for a dual use; I'd imagine joints in it aren't great in terms of conductivity and likely spots for arcing and fire starting...

When a professional electrician tests these things, he or she uses a purpose made test device which measures the impedance of the earth connection, like these.

On occasion, it might be necessary to use something called a "wander earth lead", basically an extension lead for the earth socket on a tester, 10m or even more in length.

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