johno1234: Be a hell of a job in some Auckland volcanic locations. E.g. in Mt Eden some streets are basically rock.
Aren’t most houses grounded twice: once by the ground wire back to the pole and once be the earth rod?
Our earth wire at Whangamatā broke off in a storm and it was quite dangerous. The lines company came over promptly and replaced it but commented that the earth rods in the area are in dry sand and make poor earth sinks leaving the house ungrounded.
Not exactly. Earth rods are so much higher resistance than the copper/aluminium neutral that you get dangerous touch voltages with even relatively small loads.
If you have a ten ohm earth stake, even ten amps means 100V.
A girl in Western Australia got pretty serious lifelong injuries a few years ago because of a broen service neutral.
The reason you don't see it more often is that neutrals don't fail that often, most people call a sparky or the lines company when the power starts to flicker, and people don't often get a solid connection to both mains earth and a true earth. An earthed garden two while standing in a puddle tends to be the highest risk situation, though EVs are potentially posing more risks.
Replacing an earth stake is absolutely PEW and not covered by the homeowner exemptions. The only impact of it being low or high risk work is whether it also needs an inspector.
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