Easiest way to ground a computer?

[Matt]

Great advice, Stretch.

Not only did you show your unique ability to be trolled with ease, but you also just gave out incorrect, dangerous info.

Good job.

Keep it up!

[Chip C]

coathanger its

This is actually a pretty good point. A makeshift ground may do more harm than good; in the extreme worse case, suppose you "ground" to a water pipe which is not itself grounded (suppose the water service has never been upgraded and is still lead, or has been upgraded recently with plastic). Then a fault on your grounded computer energizes all the plumbing in the house. A wire out the window to a coathanger is not a ground, it's an antenna, and it's anyone's guess what that'll do for your computer.

What you can consider, which is code-compliant in the US and Canada and a safety benefit, is to have the ungrounded outlets replaced with GFCI receptacles. This does not provide ground but will protect against a lot of what can go wrong. GFCI's come with stickers that say "no equipment ground" that you put on the faceplace when you do this.

If the "site wiring fault" light on your surge suppressor bothers you, put tape over it.

Chip C Toronto

[kevin]

Julie,

Sorry you got so much abuse on this board. You are right that some computer equiptment does need a decent ground to function properly. Some of the replies were right (even though abusive) -- you do want to be careful not to make the situation worse than it already is. Since the ground is used for several things (sheilding, possibly a reference voltage, and place to dump current in the case of a short circuit), you have to watch what you are doing. You are probably best off just living without the ground unless your particular equiptment is not working correctly without it. The issue with the ground wire is that it carries current in a fault situation, so you want to make sure it really really is connected to the ground. If it is hot but not connected, then you can end up with hot radiators, plumbing, or whatever, which is worse than just having no ground wire at all. Here are some ideas:

1 - Get a 3-prong to 2-prong-with-ground adapter. The adapter should let you attach a ground wire, preferably with a screw clamp of some kind. This way you won't be causing any ground loops, or connecting in any way to the (disconnected) ground on the outlet. I don't know the code surrounding these, but this may be the best option for your unfortunate situation.

2 - Buy a decent peice of wire for the ground cord. I don't see why it needs to be any bigger than the wire used by your equiptment itself. So you could just buy 14g stranded cord, for example, if that is what you prefer. Best would be to buy a length of 14 gauge solid copper wire with a green covering, which would make it clear what it is being used for. You could use 12 guage also, but for a single computer device that would be overkill, and harder for you to work with.

3 - Don't connect to the radiator or other things, for the reasons above. A coat hanger won't work. You normally would need a ground rod, but you might be able to find something suitable nearby already. What does your service ground use? If you can find your existing ground rod(s), or whatever plumbing pipe is used all ready, connect to that with a new separate copper clamp. If you entire service is ungrounded, then you have much bigger problems and need to report it. If you can't get at the ground for some reason, then you could put in your own ground rod, which should not be too hard. Talk to someone at a decent electrical supply store (not HD or bigbox stores -- try an independent store with an old guy behind the counter), and they will give you a rod and instructions on how to install it. You can use the same rod for multiple computers.

Good luck,

-Kevin

[Ron Tock]

That little screw that holds the outlet cover on should be grounded. You could attach to that. Or a cold water pipe.

[John Hines]

Get a decent UPS and plug the computer stuff into it? Mine has Automatic voltage regulation (AVR) and it is amazing how often it kicks in.

Weirdly, it is because the voltage increases when a load kicks on.

[John Harlow]

Which computer equipment would that be?

[John Harlow]

You might have a bad neutral connection, possibly to the pole.

[Clark Griswold]

Julie P.

Do anything and hook anything up you want. The house will probably burn to the ground and they will come and build a new one to code.

Of course, some people may not be around to enjoy it.

[Keith Jewell]

The APC UPSes will generate their own ground if they don't get one. At least, the more expensive ones. The ones that do have a little notice in the manual about how all they need is a neutral and power.

-Keith

[Matt]

You mean to enjoy the fire, or enjoy the new house?

[The Real Tom]

troll?

[Jeff Wisnia]

Whether this thread began with a troll or not.....

Do you really think in a house that old you could rely on the boxes being grounded? I don't think saying "should" was good advice without teaching her how to establish whether they are or are not grounded.

If the house is as far off code as claimed, then there's no guarantee that all the cold water piping is grounded either, someone may have slipped a piece of plastic in when making a repair, or perhaps installed a galvanic coupling (also an insulator) when replacing a section of old iron pipe with copper.

She (If not a troller.) really needs to get a qualified electrician to make sure things are done right.

Jeff

[Stormin]

Julie, Disregarding code and stupid replies, ground the outlet box you will use for the computer. A secure connection to a water pipe will sufice or run a ground to the circuit breaker or fuse box. I own several houses built between 1902 & 1920 and these have only two wire systems. This works. Stormin

[xrongor]

says who? its grounded if its grounded. its not if its not. if its old enough its not.

randy

[xrongor]

sorry norman. what you propose does not 'ground' anything. at best it does nothing. at worse you have current flowing through this so called 'ground' all the time.

randy

[Matt]

This thread has got to be breaking records in the area of the number of people so easily trolled/so many incorrect answers given to a troll question.

I hope Julie is getting a kick out of it; because other than that - this thread serves no purpose whatsoever.

[Jimmy]

Then you fit right in.

[JimL]

Julie, just get you a ups for the computer equipment - not the AC, and forget the ground. It will not be a problem. A 725 ups should handle it just fine.

[w_tom]

If the point was not established by other posters, well, this is the bottom line. You are asking for a safety ground. Earthing does not provide a safety ground. A safety ground must connect the appliance ground prong to circuit breaker box safety ground - the neutral bus bar. Below are two solutions and two taboos.

Worse than no wall receptacle safety ground is to connect a safety ground to water pipes. All wire connections to water pipes are to remove electricity. Removing electricity from water pipes is why a bare copper wire connects city water pipe to breaker box. When is a human at greatest risk to electric shock? When wet. Wet human in a shower or bathtub is why electricity in pipes can be so dangerous. Safer to not safety ground the computer than to ground it to bathroom and kitchen plumbing. Code also makes same demand. Common sense says that plumbing is the last place to dump electricity.

Although no longer considered safe by code, one could run a

12 AWG green wire from wall receptacle to breaker box. That being minimum grounding one can do for human safety. Otherwise install a GFCI on that circuit (ie. in the first wall receptacle on that branch circuit) and apply prerequisite stickers that read "No Equipment Ground" to each wall receptacle plate.

Aga> It's not that I don't care about code, it's that this house

[TPutmann]

The easiest way to ground a computer is to dig a hole at least three feet deep in your yard and bury the computer.................