To ground or not to ground. That is the question

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Dave Hounddriver
Posted
Posted (edited)

I found this article that may make you feel better about operating your microwave without a ground wire in place.  I will put it in a spoiler for those who do not care because it is long.

Spoiler

8. An alternative to a true Ground system for safety is a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). You can actually buy the simpler one-circuit version of these at any electrical supplies or hardware shop. They look a lot like a normal 3-prong double outlet (but more expensive) and you mount them into the wall box in place of the old outlet device. (Obviously, before starting you MUST isolate power from the box before opening, by removing the fuse or shutting off the breaker that supplies this outlet box.) They are different on the front in that they also have a little indicator light, a TEST button, and a RESET button. If you don't understand house wiring you are best advised to have this item installed by someone who does, like an electrician. (If you are competent at home electrical systems, see end of this paragraph.) Once properly installed, what they do is to constantly measure and compare the currents flowing in both the Hot and Neutral parts of the circuit. Those ALWAYS should match. If they don't the GFCI interprets that to mean some current is leaking out of the circuit to somewhere else, and that could be a big problem. So it shuts off the power or "trips out", just like a circuit breaker does. Once you fix the original problem, you use the Reset button. You can test at any time with the Test button, and it will trip out for you. The intriguing part is that this device does not need a true Ground point to operate, so it can work in an ungrounded outlet box. It just uses a different measurement to decide when to shut off power. So it provides very similar safety protection for people and for many appliance malfunctions, but it does nothing for getting rid of electrical noise and static charges. Now, for those competent to install a GFCI, here are notes to use; all others skip down. READ the GFCI unit's manual; it usually has four terminals or wire leads. Three of these are the usual Hot (Black), Neutral (White) and Ground (Green or bare copper). These are the supply connections to the double outlet. The fourth (often Red) is an OUTPUT of sorts. It is a Hot connection on the Load side of the device (just like the small right-hand slots) that you can use to power additional outlet boxes further down the circuit layout. If there's a cable leaving this box to power other boxes, use this "Output" Red as the Hot supply going out on that cable. Then ALL the outlet boxes "downstream" from this box also are protected by the GFCI, but NOT any boxes that came before it. For that reason, if you plan on using the GFCI for this multi-outlet box protection system, the device should be mounted in the very first box in the chain - the one fed directly from the Fuse Box or Breaker Panel.

So, a combination of a GFCI for safety protection against malfunctions, and a ground wire from the microwave's case to a water line for removing static charges and electrical noise, may work for you. These still do nothing for power system surges, but a modern grounded system does not, either. That's a whole separate issue.

Here is the Philippine supplier of GFCI

Here is one for sale on Lazada which is shipped from overseas so may not work here

 

 

Edited by Dave Hounddriver
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Old55
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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Kuya John said:

Years ago it was standard practice in UK to connect an earth wire to the water pipes.

However now with the use of plastic piping (even the main supply pipe) it is considered necessary to use earthing rods connected to the main fuse board.

I would feel much safer knowing any electrical appliance with metal casings was earthed.......just my opinion

Tim could best answer this now.

Our home was built in 1960 has no ground at any duplex outlets.

We will soon have an electrician replacing our service box and major reworking our wiring includes a ground. What I understand correct and per code is the ground comes from the service box. I have our utility room grounded to galvanized water pipes. This is workable but not really right. End game is to be updated to code and have ground fault circuitry added. I’ll ask the electrician when he arrives about it.

Edited by Old55
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Gary D
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48 minutes ago, Old55 said:

Tim could best answer this now.

Our home was built in 1960 has no ground at any duplex outlets.

We will soon have an electrician replacing our service box and major reworking our wiring includes a ground. What I understand correct and per code is the ground comes from the service box. I have our utility room grounded to galvanized water pipes. This is workable but not really right. End game is to be updated to code and have ground fault circuitry added. I’ll ask the electrician when he arrives about it.

If your house was built in 1960 do we assume it is in the USA. The USA as I'm sure you know uses 110V ac which is a lot safer than the 230-240V ac used in the UK and the Philippines. A while back the sister in law was complaining that everytime she touched the metal screw holding the switches and sockets into the back boxes she would get a tingle. Someone had cut the 2 metres of grounding wire running down the outside wall to the ground rod and stolen the wire, for scrap value I assume. Anyway there was enough cross coupling from the live wires to the ground wire in the house wiring to give a small jolt on the open circuit ground wire.

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virginprune
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I have grounded both my fridges and when I get a washing machine will ground that also, this was recommended by my electrician.

Yesterday one of my niece's teachers was electrocuted and died while doing his laundry. Just saying!

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Mike J
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13 hours ago, Kuya John said:

I suppose it's a silly question, but has the block  a lightning conductor  :56da64a10ceee_1(235):

I hope you are not suggesting he use a lightning conductor as a grounding conductor. :shock_40_anim_gif:  I think if that were done there would be an AMAZING fireworks display in JGF's kitchen the next time there was a lightning strike. :SugarwareZ-034:

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Old55
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Google the sad case of Ruben Boyunan who was nearly killed when he and two others were electrocuted while working in Cebu City. The other two men were killed. Ruben got off easy, falling three stories arm badly burned and both testicles exploding. :shock_40_anim_gif:

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Kuya John
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6 hours ago, Mike J said:

I hope you are not suggesting he use a lightning conductor as a grounding conductor. :shock_40_anim_gif:  I think if that were done there would be an AMAZING fireworks display in JGF's kitchen the next time there was a lightning strike. :SugarwareZ-034:

Not really Mike, I was asking the question by way of saying earthing properties are just as important as Lightning conductor's,

besides who would run the forum without JGF :hystery:

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Jack Peterson
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7 minutes ago, Kuya John said:

besides who would run the forum without JGF :hystery:

You.jpg :whistling:

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allancomeau
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Posted

GFI  - good idea.   I would think an isolation transformer (1:1  220 in, 220 out) would also work but bulky, heavy and 'always on'

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