If the first ground rod’s resistance is not below 25 ohms, what action is recommended?

• A. Add another rod
• B. Bury the rod deeper
• C. Remove the rod
• D. Coat the rod with insulating material

Answer: (A)

When a ground electrode’s resistance to earth is too high, the goal is to increase the grounding system’s effective area so current can return to earth more easily. A single ground rod can easily exceed 25 ohms in dry, rocky, or highly resistive soils. The practical fix is to install an additional grounding electrode and tie it into the same grounding system. The new rod provides another parallel path for fault current, lowering the overall resistance toward or below 25 ohms and improving the reliability of the fault-clearing path.

Other options don’t reliably meet the requirement: burying the rod deeper might help in some conditions but isn’t as dependable as increasing the electrode area; removing the rod removes the path to earth; coating with insulating material would actually increase resistance.