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Electrical ground question
I have a small bedroom studio which mostly consists of keyboards and
computers. Once in a while I plug in my electric guitar. I ammoving to a new rental house which does not have grounded power unfortunately. I really want to avoid spending too much money to try to get grounded power in there. Do you gurus have any other suggestions about it? Will the sound suffer? Will I electricute myself when I play the guitar? Are there any alternatives to wiring up ground? I guess I can have an electrician come out and run a ground wire up from the crawl space..providing he can find something to ground to. Would probably cost me up to $500 to do that though..which is enough to buy a cool music toy...so... not insignificant.. Suggestions? -steve |
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Electrical ground question
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Electrical ground question
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Electrical ground question
From: "Bob FlintsTone":
(Steve S) wrote: I have a small bedroom studio which mostly consists of keyboards and computers. Once in a while I plug in my electric guitar. I ammoving to a new rental house which does not have grounded power unfortunately. I really want to avoid spending too much money to try to get grounded power in there. Here we go again. So the move is a done deal? How's the landlord about needed improvements? You need a ground rod ground *and* a waterpipe ground. Today in the 1940 house my wife and I just bought, the old cloth insulated wire started coming out, the new Romex going in. New 200 amp service, will have lots of dedicated circuits, will all be to new code incl. 120v/battery interconnected fire alarms and GFCI's where needed plus the new arc fault breakers for bedrooms ($30.00 each for these breakers where GE single space 20amp "normal" breakers are $3-4.00). The old Federal Pacific Electric breaker panel will be replaced with aforesaid GE unit (~ cheapest breakers and good stuff at reasonable price, esp. at Home Depot, Lowes). While taking apart one of the old medicine cabinets, not intending to expose bare wire yet, the chromed steel end cap for the plastic light fell into an old extension cord being used as a shaver outlet (not plugged in all the way, prongs exposed). My hand was on the endcap. I felt nothing before my hand flew off, but even with sparks flying and bouncing on the floor, and the old wallpaper burnt, the FPE breaker did *not* trip. They are famous for this, staying open under full load dead short ("house fire" and/or "electrocution"). "One of those things", I was lucky I wasn't grounded. Sorry for long. A master electrician friend and I worked out a deal (I play helper, do the grunt/dirty work and run for parts, pay him by the hour, buy his coffee. He knows how to wire houses 100% to code and will do it only that way.). If I had a landlord, I'd work out a deal to run at least one dedicated, code-legal circuit in his house, and pay for it myself if that's what it took. Given an open place in the panel for another breaker, $500 should do that easily, even without knowing an electrician. Two open breaker spaces, two circuits. While the real electrician is there, he can correct any handyman errors he finds, per landlord approval, which person should be glad if a dangerous (death/injury lawsuit, loss of dwelling) situation is corrected. --Tom Paterson |
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Electrical ground question
Tom Paterson wrote:
While taking apart one of the old medicine cabinets, not intending to expose bare wire yet, the chromed steel end cap for the plastic light fell into an old extension cord being used as a shaver outlet (not plugged in all the way, prongs exposed). My hand was on the endcap. I felt nothing before my hand flew off, but even with sparks flying and bouncing on the floor, and the old wallpaper burnt, the FPE breaker did *not* trip. They are famous for this, staying open under full load dead short ("house fire" and/or "electrocution"). "One of those things", I was lucky I wasn't grounded. I worked in a government facility that used Federal no-blows. An electrician working on an outdoor lighting circuit accidentally shorted something. The breaker for the circuit did not trip. The main service breaker did not trip. The substation breaker DID trip. I don't know how that happened, but the neighbors were not happy and the panel was replaced within eight hours. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
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Electrical ground question
Bob wrote:
If you buy 100' of proper 14 gauge 3 conductor wire and run it between the incoming power and your bedroom, you will save a fortune in labor. But you will not have a 20A circuit and you will have voltage drop even on a 15A one. Spend the extra $2 and get 12 gauge, please. If you really need to run 100 feet for a 20A circuit, you'll be wanting 10 gauge. |
#10
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Electrical ground question
Tom Paterson wrote:
From: (Scott Dorsey) An electrician working on an outdoor lighting circuit accidentally shorted something. Even the pros can mess up. Yup, that's why we have breakers. The breaker for the circuit did not trip. The main service breaker did not trip. What can I say? This is where someone dies and/or the house burns. That happens a lot with Federal No-Blows, apparently. One of the many subjects I'm ignorant on, but another consideration or two: an electrician told me a dedicated computer power circuit was highly advisable. Didn't get an explanation. Another more recently pointed out that one advantage of "localized" (by room or function) circuits is that if you do pop a breaker, the cause is easier to locate. Sounds good to me. Makes sense. Also you can reduce noise issues with isolated grounding. Repeating motive for posting: Handyman electrical work kills people and starts fires. Yes, I've gotten away with (e.g.) plugging room heaters into known-bad wire, etc. But when you don't "have to"... Ground rods are "code" for good reason. They can be a PITA to drive and make work. BTDT myself and also witnessed the struggle on the job. Install problems are inconsequential. Grounding systems have been required since the 1930s. But grounded outlets have not been required until comparatively recently. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
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Electrical ground question
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