Grounding of electric appliances

[Dave Hounddriver]

5 hours ago, manofthecoldland said:

somewhere back in time she had heard that if you didn't unplug things during storms, you risked losing your valuable and costly appliance. All our apartment rentals and house had/have circuit breakers, of course, but old habits die hard, better safe than sorry,

I have seen tvs in "foreigner wired" houses fried during lightening storms in Philippines.

It seems to be because most of the houses have no lightening rods or ground rods so lightening will hit the electric wiring and on rare occasions fry anything electronic that is plugged in.  The circuit breakers don't seem to help in that case.  Of course if your rental units have a ground rod and a lightening rod then there is not sense unplugging anything.

Notice I admitted that is rare, but it still does not hurt to unplug anything valuable when not in use and when severe lightening is expected.

[Jollygoodfellow]

2 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Notice I admitted that is rare, but it still does not hurt to unplug anything valuable when not in use and when severe lightening is expected.

Yes if a pole out in the street gets struck you will get a surge of electricity blasting through the wires which pretty much nothing will protect sensitive electronics or appliances.  When lightning hit the TV antenna on the building I lived in in Australia most people losts equipment.

We had this conversation before about this happening and there were some non believers but if you google it one will find out it's true that a lot of damage has happened through lighting strikes passing through the electric wiring of a house. 

[KurtVD]

I hope this is the right place for this thread:

My electric appliances all have 2 phase plugs, and the wall outlets are only 2 phase as well. These appliances have the grounding wire dangling separately, but so far I didn’t care, it didn’t seem to matter. However this night, I noticed for the first time a medium strong tingling sensation when I’m touching the metal housing of my fridge, so now I would like to ground it properly. Who here knows how that works, eg where would I have to put the grounding wire? I think there are adapters that transform 2 plug outlets into 3 plug outlets, do I need to get one of these and stick the loose wire into the third hole? Or where in my kitchen would I connect this grounding wire to, to be safe?

Edited July 4, 2018 by Old55
I moved your question into a long recent thread about this.

[fototek1]

 

This gives a thorough explanation of the way the power system is wired.  If you are only worried about the fridge, you can take the dangling ground wire and connect it to a copper ground rod. It is likely your neutral does not have a good contact to ground and is floating.  

Edited July 4, 2018 by Jollygoodfellow
Bemoved website link. Breaking rules

[hk blues]

I have no electrical knowledge other than being able to wire a plug, but even where a 3-pin outlet is provided there is no wiring (at least in my place) from the 3rd pin so I'm not sure what the benefit of connecting the ground/earth wire to the 3-pin plug would be - would it actually be going to ground?  I have a couple of appliances with the "hanging" earth/ground wire but I have not bothered to connect to ground as they are in extremely inconvenient places and I don't fancy chipping holes in concrete walls to activate them!

[Dave Hounddriver]

3 hours ago, KurtVD said:

These appliances have the grounding wire dangling separately

Disclaimer:  Not a qualified electrician but did my own home wiring for years.

That wire (probably green and narrow gauge) is useful to ground out any static charge building up on the metal surface of the appliance.  But take a good look.  Is it really big enough to handle a short to ground in the event of a malfunction?  It would probably burn out in a flash if the appliance malfunctioned.  Thus I have had good results in the past just connecting that green wire to the metal junction box for the sole purpose of grounding static electricity.  Since most Philippine houses do not have a legit ground anyway, what can it hurt to do that?  If it stops the "tingling sensation" then it has accomplished its purpose.  I find it particularly useful on electric hot plates.  I get lots of static shocks from them in Philippines until I attach some kind of ground, even a "less than perfect" one.  Unfortunately, if using plastic pipes and plastic junction boxes then I have not found any kind of ground to attach that wire to.

[KurtVD]

4 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Unfortunately, if using plastic pipes and plastic junction boxes then I have not found any kind of ground to attach that wire to.

That is my problem too: I don’t see where I can connect it to. The pipes are made out of plastic, the only thing metallic nearby is the kitchen sink.

So you’re saying there’s no risk of electrocution, even when being barefoot while touching the housing? The tingling sensation alone isn’t a big deal, I’m worried about serious consequences. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

10 minutes ago, KurtVD said:

So you’re saying there’s no risk of electrocution, even when being barefoot while touching the housing?

No, I'm saying that hooking up that green ground wire will not protect you from electrocution if the machine malfunctions regardless of how it is hooked up.  It's only big enough to drain off static charge.  You would need a ground fault circuit interrupter with a 3 prong plug and a true ground for real safety.  But the green wire hooked up will prevent some nasty static shocks, if you can find any kind of ground to hook it up to.

[Gary D]

If the plugs were fused the green wire would likely give enough protection, but they are not. If your appliances is on the ground floor you could drill the floor behind somewhere convenient and knock a ground rod into the sub floor. The tingling is coupling to the mains not static, static gives you a jolt not tingling, tingling is ac.

[KurtVD]

1 hour ago, Gary D said:

If the plugs were fused the green wire would likely give enough protection, but they are not. If your appliances is on the ground floor you could drill the floor behind somewhere convenient and knock a ground rod into the sub floor. The tingling is coupling to the mains not static, static gives you a jolt not tingling, tingling is ac.

But I’m not on the ground floor, no luck there. In this case, should I just not touch these appliances anymore when I’m barefoot? Am I safer if I’m wearing sandals?