Shunyata CupperCon Outlets

Nyal Mellor

Industry Expert
Jul 14, 2010
590
4
330
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
While most residential settings use Romex® or plastic conduit, some areas use EMT (think Chicago) or flexible metal conduit or metal building framing. So in those cases, an isolated ground could be useful. But it's very easy to mis-wire an isolated ground system and in commercial setting they are hard to maintain over a long period of time.

Agree, especially with your statement about the fact that it is easy to mis-wire the isolated ground system. Typically the ground wire ends up bonded to the conduit at some point other than just at the panel. Isolated ground is not required is 95% of residential settings. If you don't have metal building framing and are using romex then basically you don't need it. If all your wire is in conduit and you have metal building structure then yes it may be beneficial, but should be tested after installation to confirm it was done correctly.
 

Speedskater

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2010
941
15
368
Cleveland Ohio
Each of my dedicated outlets has a dedicated ground via an 8 foot ground pole.
Oh boy, Oh boy. No, No, No. !!!!!!!!
Never ever do this.

A building should have only one ground rod system.
For a US type power system.
All the ground rods should be connected together at one point and that one point connected to the Neutral at the building service entrance/main breaker box.
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
3,899
2,142
495
Oh boy, Oh boy. No, No, No. !!!!!!!!
Never ever do this.

A building should have only one ground rod system.
For a US type power system.
All the ground rods should be connected together at one point and that one point connected to the Neutral at the building service entrance/main breaker box.

Yup...

For the reason google "step voltage" and then realize that if there was a lightning strike nearby there could be thousands of volts of potential difference between your ground rods. If you were touching 2 different chassis that were on 2 different ground rods and lightning struck you'd get zapped... possibly killed. Step voltage is the way lightning kills a vast majority of folks. You need to arrange the ground connections as SS said above to avoid this scenario.

People have the idea that ground is the end-all be-all sink of electricity and the truth is the neutral/common in the trafo feeding your house is the voltage source. It is important that grounds in your system are all at the same potential but this has nothing to do with the physical connection to the earth at your service entrance.
 

Speedskater

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2010
941
15
368
Cleveland Ohio
Yup...
For the reason google "step voltage" and then realize that if there was a lightning strike nearby there could be thousands of volts of potential difference between your ground rods. If you were touching 2 different chassis that were on 2 different ground rods and lightning struck you'd get zapped... possibly killed. Step voltage is the way lightning kills a vast majority of folks. You need to arrange the ground connections as SS said above to avoid this scenario.
People have the idea that ground is the end-all be-all sink of electricity and the truth is the neutral/common in the trafo feeding your house is the voltage source. It is important that grounds in your system are all at the same potential but this has nothing to do with the physical connection to the earth at your service entrance.
Double Yup.............

The bad electricity (from an audio system point of view) has little interest in Mother Earth. All that electricity wants to do is get back to the Neutral/Common of that big power company transformer down the street.

That stake in the garden is there only for safety reasons. Reasons like thunderstorms, power company high-voltage cross-connections and keeping outdoor appliances at the same potential as the swimming pool.
 

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