You Make The Call: Is It Grounded?

[sechs]

I recently moved into an older house (World War II to early 1950s vintage). Anywhere that I plugged-in a UPS, it popped up the wire fault light. Presumably, this is because the three-prong plugs aren't actually grounded (which isn't a surpise, considering the vintage).

Due to some vagueries of the new office setup, I purchased another UPS, and took the opportunity to add one which offers surge protection on the coax that goes to the computer's tuner. When I hooked-up the cable to the new UPS, the wire fault light went out. On every UPS on the circuit.

The cable system should be properly grounded, as I watched the installer complain about the previous job and redo it. So, now, have I just grounded this entire electrical circuit to the cable system (through countless feet of rigged cabling)?

 

[Bozo]

I would say, yes you are grounded, but in a very bad way. The ground is there to take fault currents. If you have a fault or a lighting storm, you could fry a lot of equipment.
If all the UPSs are now okay, I would surmise that the grounding sockets are connected to each other, and that the ground wire is broken somewhere.
If you go outside to your electric meter, look around the ground for some kind of metal rod sticking out of the ground. See if there are any wires attached to it. Could be the ground rod connections have broken off.
If no ground rod and you have city water, find the location where the city water line comes into the house. You should see the water meter there too. There should be a wire attached to the pipe comming into the house, going around the water meter, and connecting to the pipe that goes on into your house.
The electrical panel should have a wire (usually bare) comming out of it and going to either the water pipes or the ground rod outside.

If you can't find any of this, get a QUALIFIED electrician to look your system over.

Bozo :joker:

 

[Bozo]

One other thing: Houses built in the 40s-50s didn't have three pronged recepticles. Someone must have upgraded your house. Another good reason to check for the broken/missing ground.

Bozo :joker:

 

[Splash]

You need to install your own earth ground.

Go to a Radio Shack and purchase a 1m / 3ft copper grounding rod. Drive it all the way into the earth near the power center (a.k.a. -- breaker box), making sure you aren't driving it into a subterranean gas line, water line, telephone cable, et cetera. Attach a 12 or 14 gauge solid copper from the rod to the grounding terminal on the power center. From there, you need to make sure that all of the receptacles throughout the house are properly connected to earth ground.

Proper earthing does more than just provide safety, it also reduces noise in electronics.

 

[Groltz]

You need to install your own earth ground.

Go to a Radio Shack and purchase a 1m / 3ft copper grounding rod. Drive it all the way into the earth near the power center (a.k.a. -- breaker box), making sure you aren't driving it into a subterranean gas line, water line, telephone cable, et cetera. Attach a 12 or 14 gauge solid copper from the rod to the grounding terminal on the power center. From there, you need to make sure that all of the receptacles throughout the house are properly connected to earth ground.

Proper earthing does more than just provide safety, it also reduces noise in electronics.

I was able buy a 6' copper-sheathed steel ground rod from Home Depot back around 1990. I used it to ground a 5/8-wave 10-meter Ham antenna that was mounted on my chimney. Ground rods are most effective when driven into earth that is usually moist...if possible. Driving a 6' ground rod all the way down to its last 6", with a sledgehammer, is a BITCH by the way.

 

[timwhit]

Doesn't that depend on the soil composition though? I am guessing it would be a lot harder to pound into clay than sand.

 

[ddrueding]

Here we have solid clay from about 8" on down. I have driven a 6' grounding rod all the way in, and did considerable damage to the wall in the process. Fortunatly I missed the water main and gass main which were about 8" away.

 

[Groltz]

One thing I did do that probably helped: Before I drove the ground-rod, I grinded the last 1.5" of it to a tapered point on an industrial beltsander at the place I worked at back then.

That particular house was in Belmont, CA and the ground was soil with a lot of rocks scattered in it.

 

[Bozo]

You still need to check the ground circut from the recepticles back to the electrical panel.

Bozo :joker:

 

[Bozo]

RE: ground rod. If you can, beg, borrow, steal, or rent the proper size hammer drill to install the ground rod. :-D

Bozo :joker:

 

[sechs]

This is a rental, so I'm not at liberty to make a lot of changes to the electrical system. I have brought up the grounding issue to the landlord, who is totally clueless about even what kind of wiring is in the wall.

There was obviously some work done in the house ten or so years ago, as all of the plugs are now three-prong (some GFCI), the bathroom is no longer vintage, and all of the windows on the front of house are of recent design.

In case of a fault to ground on this circuit, what might happen?

 

[LOST6200]

I don;t know where you liveo, but does't the landlords have tan obligation to keep th renatal property up to code??? Don;t get eletrocuted!

 

[Bozo]

I'd be concerned that any faults would travel through the cable, possibly frying other componates.

Bozo :joker:

 

[Howell]

So, now, have I just grounded this entire electrical circuit to the cable system (through countless feet of rigged cabling)?

It is possible that you grounded the one UPS/surge protector through the cable network as that is the one device that is connected to both networks. However, the grounding mesh in that cable isn't even close to the 12-14 guage wire that is normally used in house wiring. Your current situation might help reduce noise on the electrical circuit but it will be worthless in the case of lightning strike or your curling iron shorting out. Your other UPSs are being tricked.

Lost, The national Electrical code is updated every three years. It would be too expensive to update every building to code every three years.

 

[sechs]

The landlord here doesn't have any real obligation to upgrade the electrical system, as long as it is safe and works correctly.

In new revelations... I spoke to the "handyman" this morning, who said that the plugs should be grounded. When his electrical guy (nee nephew) called to setup an appointment to examine the situation, he said that it probably wasn't supposed to be grounded. I pointed out that *if* i grounded one of the devices plugged into the circuit, the entire circuit was grounded, and therefore, the ground prong must be attached somewhere, and all of the grounds must be attached together; he was dumbfounded. Good times.

I put a UPS in a room in an addition to the house presumably made in the late 1980s or early 1990's. It shows no wiring faults.

In the mean time, I've disconnected the coax when not in use.

 

[mubs]

...but it will be worthless in the case of lightning strike or your curling iron shorting out.

Sechs uses curling irons? :-D

 

[LunarMist]

Perhaps he meant to say soldering iron.

 

[sechs]

Just so that folks know... I don't have or use either a curling or soldering iron.

The electrician came by this afternoon and basically proved what I already know. He went on to say that, yes, our breakers are probably beyond their useful life and, yes, it was a code violation to replace the old two-prong plugs with three-prong ones. I also said that he usually does new constructions, and really doesn't know what he's talking about.

I will be calling the landlord on Monday.

 

[Pradeep]

You might want to try using a plug-in tester (the ones that light up different colours depending on what is wrong), I don't know if a UPS is going to tell you if the socket is hooked up backwards, etc. Sounds like some quality "home improvement" went on there.

Other than that, make sure you are fully paid up on your contents insurance.

 

[Pradeep]

You might want to try using a plug-in tester (the ones that light up different colours depending on what is wrong), I don't know if a UPS is going to tell you if the socket is hooked up backwards, etc. Sounds like some quality "home improvement" went on there.

Other than that, make sure you are fully paid up on your contents insurance.

 

[sechs]

That's basically what the "electrician" did.

The landlord had a bunch of work done prior to putting the house up for rent, and it's obvious that a lot of it was done on the cheap. She's beggining to regret that.