Quote Originally Posted by Shadyshaun View Post
The site assessment and design will determine the specifics. Electricians are not design engineers, nor are they lightning specialists and therefore should not be offering solutions, which do not fall within their scope of expertise. It would appear (reading comments on social media) that many electricians feel that one size fits all and every application is exactly the same, you will even be rewarded with certification once you have completed a certain number of installations.

If the design criteria specifies an earth spike, it should be installed.

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If you install an alternative supply you require an independent earth as you shall not rely on supply authority earth.


SANS 10142-1
7.12.3.1.1 Protection in accordance with the requirements of 6.7 shall be
provided for the electrical installation in such a manner as to ensure correct
operation of the protection devices, irrespective of the source of supply or
combination of sources of supply. Operation of the protection devices shall
not rely upon the connection to the earthed point of the main supply when the
generator is operated as a switched alternative to the main supply.

Where there is no existing earth electrode installed in the electrical installation,
a suitable earth electrode may be installed in accordance with SANS 10199.
When installed, the electrode shall be bonded to the consumer's earth terminal
and to the earthing point on the alternate supply by a conductor of at least half
the cross-section of that of the phase conductor, but not less than 6 mm2
copper, or equivalent. This also applies to a single-phase supply
(see also 5.2.3.1).