# Grounding wire question.



## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Right now, the grounding wire on the coax coming into my house is just attached to the first splitter's grounding screw. Is this good enough, or is it better to get a separate grounding block?


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## christheman (Feb 21, 2013)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Right now, the grounding wire on the coax coming into my house is just attached to the first splitter's grounding screw. Is this good enough, or is it better to get a separate grounding block?


Is the splitter a solid piece of metal like a grounding block, as in "is it intended to be a grounding block"? If not, then you should use a dedicated grounding block before that splitter, and then disconnect the ground from that splitter.

Also here is something else you may want to get while you are at it. This goes BEFORE the grounding block, and gets attached DIRECTLY TO IT. Unlike a grounding block, this will shunt the inner signal wire to ground in case of a cable surge.
http://www.amazon.com/Cable-In-Line-Coaxial-Surge-Protector/dp/B0002KR7EK/ref=sr_1_46?ie=UTF8&qid=1407300855&sr=8-46&keywords=Gas+Discharge+Arrestors


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

christheman said:


> Is the splitter a solid piece of metal like a grounding block, as in "is it intended to be a grounding block"? If not, then you should use a dedicated grounding block before that splitter, and then disconnect the ground from that splitter.
> 
> Also here is something else you may want to get while you are at it. This goes BEFORE the grounding block, and gets attached DIRECTLY TO IT. Unlike a grounding block, this will shunt the inner signal wire to ground in case of a cable surge.
> http://www.amazon.com/Cable-In-Line-Coaxial-Surge-Protector/dp/B0002KR7EK/ref=sr_1_46?ie=UTF8&qid=1407300855&sr=8-46&keywords=Gas+Discharge+Arrestors


What do you think about this one with the grounding block already attached to it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016AIYU6/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2GTW9AGN806R2


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## christheman (Feb 21, 2013)

tarheelblue32 said:


> What do you think about this one with the grounding block already attached to it:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016AIYU6/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2GTW9AGN806R2


That looks good too, since it combines the two.

Here is the manufacturer's own documentation
http://www.tiitech.com/repository/datasheetlibrary/NYMDS036-0710.pdf


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

I replied in the splitter thread.

I don't agree with the advice here. Modern splitter are designed to take on the role of grounding block, splitter, and protector, all in one, and have been for a long time. If your splitters were missing grounding screws, that's where the block would come in. But, that's more a reason to change the splitter, than it is to use a grounding block.

All I see here is advice that might have been good advice a decade ago.

I can honestly say I've tried the coax protectors, and all they did was create problems, until I took them out. I gave every kind a chance, from the ones you'd put at point of entry, to the ones on surge strips and UPSs. If you are using MoCA, you want nothing to do with anything extra, beyond what is built into the splitters.

My shortened answer, from the other thread: Connect the copper wire from the grounding rod that is driven into the ground (called a single-point ground), to the first splitter in the chain, and call it done.

If you want to be picky, make sure all the grounding connections, especially to the rod, are very clean. That's good practice.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Right now, the grounding wire on the coax coming into my house is just attached to the first splitter's grounding screw. Is this good enough, or is it better to get a separate grounding block?


Is your cable service entrance near your electrical service entrance?

Does the cable's grounding wire attach at its other end to the same grounding rod as the electrical system's grounding wire does?


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

unitron said:


> Is your cable service entrance near your electrical service entrance?
> 
> Does the cable's grounding wire attach at its other end to the same grounding rod as the electrical system's grounding wire does?


The first question is kind of irrelevant, unless there's a great distance between the two, and any wire connected as a ground is hard to trace, or is separate from the main utility ground. This is not always bad, as long as it's done right. Some would advise to rip out walls, and dig trenches, insisting all grounds must lead to a single-point. One such thread already exists, with hundreds of posts, and a guy who always called ground "earthed", combined with a dialect indicating a European telling us how to do things here. If this thread goes that direction, I'll just post a link to it and excuse myself, like I did from that mess.

If the answer to the seconds question is "Yes", that's a proper ground, as long as the grounding rod, and all grounds connected to it are done to electrical code specifics (or better).

FWIW, the box, or pole, at the street should have it's own rod, and the ground at the residence is a safety redundancy, in the event of an electrical fault in the residence, while the coax to the box/pole is opened, where holding the disconnected ends makes you a meat-based resistor, completing a current path to ground.

My in-home coax from the house-build runs parallel to bundles of AC wiring. Enough so, that when it was being used, I'd get mico-shocks when disconnecting coax. The AC inducted over to the coax. A nail, or staple, in the wrong place, could make coax lethal, under the right conditions, thus all the extra grounds (and why some have to use ground isolators, when properly grounded, but abnormal conditions exist).

One of my biggest headaches, was ground-loops caused by computer TV cards, that shared cable ground with case and power supply ground, and having a ground plug on the PC power supply, creating a ground-loop, and lots of problems until I insulated the card bracket, or installed an isolator. Shortly after that, I noticed newer cards that made sure the coax nipple passed through a much larger bracket hole, without touching the bracket.

I have a TV that is also a computer monitor, with the same 3-prong PC-style plug, and it had the same issue if a ground-isolator wasn't used, to stop the ground-loop it would create, by having a chassis ground connected to coax ground. Without the isolator, it creates two paths to ground, of different impedance. Digital cable is less forgiving when these conditions exist.

I have no idea how (badly) this could make things when MoCA gets thrown-into the mix. I suspect a good potential for headaches...


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## westom (Jan 16, 2010)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Right now, the grounding wire on the coax coming into my house is just attached to the first splitter's grounding screw. Is this good enough, or is it better to get a separate grounding block?


It is sufficient.

Appreciate why a coax cable connects short to earth. First, required by code for human saftey. Code even says how short. That ground from block or splitter must connect to same ground used by AC electric. Even eliminates (or diminishes) other problems including and not limited to ground loops and what were described as microshocks. Not to any other ground such as safety ground in a wall receptacle or a cold water pipe. It must connect short to the one earthing electrode that another accurately describes as single-point ground.

Ground can be made by a $3 ground block, by the splitter's ground, or via that coax cable in-line (TII 212) surge protector. That in-line protector is suspicous. Since it is only rated up to 1 Ghz and typically costs less than others that do not harm the signal; do not result in pixelations and increased noise. Ground connection must be mechanically sufficient to clamp a 10 AWG solid wire. Note a screw clamps a wire inside that hole.

Now that is a ground mostly for human safety. That same ground is also your critically important surge protection. Best surge protection is a wire low impedance to the earthing electrode. Low impedance means short as possible (ie 'less than 10 feet'), no sharp wire bends, no splices, and not inside metallic conduit. Other relevant guidelines include separate from non-grounding wires and all ground meet at that common earthing electrode.

Splitter should make connections inside a box or cover to protect connections from rain that may diminish or subvert signals. Focus more attention on how that wire connects a splitter to single point earth ground.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

My MoCA pretty much works fine with a bunch of surge protectors in line. YMMV.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

Bigg said:


> My MoCA pretty much works fine with a bunch of surge protectors in line. YMMV.


Probably because your plant hasn't even upgraded to 860MHz, IIRC?

I did neglect to say "YMMV", and didn't make my one-millionth reference to me being on a 1GHz network. Until you've been on a mostly copper 1GHz RF cable network, still supporting analog, and using SDV, count your blessings. For mine, even things claiming to be 1GHz-rated, have a 50/50 chance of working.

PS: Beware, westom has entered the thread. Do a search, if you are confused what I mean.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

westom said:


> <snip>Appreciate why a coax cable connects short to earth.<snip>


This is the guy/bot I was talking/warning about. Certain thread subject lines trigger the programming of this guys/bot's AI to participate. Last time I dealt with this entity, I told him he had a dangerous fault condition, should go earth himself, unsubbed, and excused myself. I did check back later, to find the thread in ruins.

Anything anybody says that this guy/bot can find 0.001% of disagreement with, is in for far more of a ride than you want (trust me on this, especially if you think I'm bad).

Here's a link to most most recent thread he/it killed off (that I could find), now that he's here, this one is doomed. He never leaves, never quits, and like some have suggested, might be a turing test for AI.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=8322788&highlight=westom#post8322788


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

nooneuknow said:


> The first question is kind of irrelevant, unless there's a great distance between the two, and any wire connected as a ground is hard to trace, or is separate from the main utility ground. This is not always bad, as long as it's done right. Some would advise to rip out walls, and dig trenches, insisting all grounds must lead to a single-point. One such thread already exists, with hundreds of posts, and a guy who always called ground "earthed", combined with a dialect indicating a European telling us how to do things here. If this thread goes that direction, I'll just post a link to it and excuse myself, like I did from that mess.
> 
> If the answer to the seconds question is "Yes", that's a proper ground, as long as the grounding rod, and all grounds connected to it are done to electrical code specifics (or better).
> 
> ...


It is relevant.

If they're close, he needs to use the same ground electrode, but with a separate clamp.

If not, he needs a separate grounding electrode, but it should probably be bonded to the main one also, depending on how far apart they are.


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## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

As a retired Verizon tech I can tell you right now that it should be connected to the electric companies ground. The new meter boxes have a lug just for doing this. The same goes for you telephone company ground. If you are going to use a separate ground rod then the resistance between the coax ground and the electric company ground has to be less than 1/10 of an ohm.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

unitron said:


> It is relevant.
> 
> If they're close, he needs to use the same ground electrode, but with a separate clamp.
> 
> If not, he needs a separate grounding electrode, but it should probably be bonded to the main one also, depending on how far apart they are.


I did use "kind of" for a pretext, and then "unless" with a rather large amount of things supporting your question as valid. Your second question had more weight to it, IMO, since the answer to it could negate the first one. If the order had been reversed, with an "if/then", it would have un-complexified things, and I wouldn't have said anything.

Grow some skin back. I'm not trying to undermine you, or let our differences continue on in public, unless I feel the merit reaches a threshold.

If you want to be picky, N.E.C. allows for multiple grounding wires per clamp, or grounding screw (even multiple under a single ground/neutral screw, inside the breaker panel). I avoid this, as I prefer not to compromise other grounds/neutrals, if I add/change/remove one, during the time I'm doing so.

Where your statement is an "absolute", which is how you stated it, would be that you don't want to disturb/disrupt the electric utility box ground clamp connection to the rod, or to the wire to the clamp, to ground something else to the rod, using that same clamp (or share it, in the first place).

Unless nobody ever properly grounded anything else to the rod, there should be at least one other existing clamp on it that might have a hole big enough to be used to insert the wire (just not the same one for the breaker box).

I'll provide a real-life scenario I encountered, that required me to get another clamp, and clean a spot on the rod for it: All the houses in my subdivision used a single ground rod, with a single clamp, to the main breaker panel. All the other utility grounds were bonded to the ground bar inside the breaker box (which were also bonded to neutral), and there was no space left to insert any grounds there (or even more neutrals). I didn't like that way of doing it. I bought a heavy-duty clamp for the rod, cleaned a spot, installed it, then moved all the other utility grounds (except the existing AC electrical utility) to the rod, directly, by slipping all of them into the hole, and then tightened the screw.

You made it sound like every ground to the rod needs/requires it's own clamp. In many cases, there wouldn't even be enough length of exposed rod to accommodate that. In some cases, there's only enough exposed for one clamp, and short of installing a new rod, you have the choice of using the same clamp, or clamping the new ground to the wire going into the clamp on the rod (or running it inside the breaker panel, as a last resort).

I'm sure "westom" will compute this and spit out all sorts of exception errors. I'm not even going to engage, no matter what he/it says.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

SNJpage1 said:


> As a retired Verizon tech I can tell you right now that it should be connected to the electric companies ground. The new meter boxes have a lug just for doing this. The same goes for you telephone company ground. If you are going to use a separate ground rod then the resistance between the coax ground and the electric company ground has to be less than 1/10 of an ohm.


This I agree with this, although I wouldn't do it the way I just described (prior post), where my cable ground (and every other non AC ground) was originally run up into the AC breaker box, and secured under a screw with two neutral wires under the same screw. I moved all non-electric utility grounds out of the box, and directly to the rod. That improved the SNR of my cable signal significantly.

Sometimes it's nearly impossible to have a proper single-point ground, and an isolated ground rod must be used, when utilities enter at different parts of a house. Often, people remodel old houses, make additions, skip inspections, get exceptions/exclusions, or are unlucky enough to buy a house after all the hodgepodge work has been done. I have been unlucky in this. People thought I was crazy to rent a trench digger, and to rewire my whole house, all over grounding issues. Most of them still think the same. Trying to explain it to them is like teaching string theory to an earthworm.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

nooneuknow said:


> I did use "kind of" for a pretext, and then "unless" with a rather large amount of things supporting your question as valid. Your second question had more weight to it, IMO, since the answer to it could negate the first one. If the order had been reversed, with an "if/then", it would have un-complexified things, and I wouldn't have said anything.
> 
> Grow some skin back. I'm not trying to undermine you, or let our differences continue on in public, unless I feel the merit reaches a threshold.
> 
> ...


I was actually originally attempting to converse with my fellow NC resident, tarheelblue32, and not really seeking to engage with you.

"If they're close, he needs to use the same ground electrode..." because NEC.

"...but with a separate clamp." because as a general rule homeowners shouldn't be messing with the electrical system's service entrance, including the grounding electrode connection.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

unitron said:


> I was actually originally attempting to converse with my fellow NC resident, tarheelblue32, and not really seeking to engage with you.
> 
> "If they're close, he needs to use the same ground electrode..." because NEC.
> 
> "...but with a separate clamp." because as a general rule homeowners shouldn't be messing with the electrical system's service entrance, including the grounding electrode connection.


I've been in an ongoing discussion with him for quite a while, and he posted about the same issue in the thread we were conversing in, with a mention that he also posted here.

I took it as he created a new thread, then figured he'd just ask the guy he'd been conversing with already, in the existing thread, which was about splitters and MoCA: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10200965#post10200965

If you want to have chitchats with fellow residents, and don't wish outside input, that's what PMs and other non-public messaging was made for.

As I've been told by others, if I don't want others' input, don't post in a forum. I'm just passing that along, not telling you what to do, or implying I agree with this. Although, it does seem logical and reasonable.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

nooneuknow said:


> I've been in an ongoing discussion with him for quite a while, and he posted about the same issue in the thread we were conversing in, with a mention that he also posted here.
> 
> I took it as he created a new thread, then figured he'd just ask the guy he'd been conversing with already, in the existing thread, which was about splitters and MoCA: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10200965#post10200965
> 
> ...


You could at least have waited for tarheelblue32 to answer my question to tarheelblue32 to see where I was going with it before jumping in to scratch what seems to be your never-ending itch to announce, once again, to all and sundry that I'm wrong.


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## christheman (Feb 21, 2013)

unitron said:


> You could at least have waited for tarheelblue32 to answer my question to tarheelblue32 to see where I was going with it before jumping in to scratch what seems to be your never-ending itch to announce, once again, to all and sundry that I'm wrong.


Yeah, really. This is one of the reasons I don't post on forums as much as I used to.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

unitron said:


> You could at least have waited for tarheelblue32 to answer my question to tarheelblue32 to see where I was going with it before jumping in to scratch what seems to be your never-ending itch to announce, once again, to all and sundry that I'm wrong.


If everybody waited for "their turn", and didn't reply to posts not directed at them, or waited for a response from whom it was.... Well, heck, I'd wonder what forum I'd wandered into. You might as well hand out speeding tickets on the highway to hell, if you're going to be an etiquette nanny here.

I'm not saying the way it is, is right. It just is what it is...

<this post intentionally left stopped here>


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

In 1997 when the cable co installed the incoming cable into my new home the green ground wire (from a ground block) they put in went to the closest water pipe they could find, the water pipe is grounded from the panel box to the water pipe entrance to my home that about 70 feet from the panel, the cable entrance is about 2 feet from my panel, should I reconnect the ground cable wire to the panel ground ? as the cable ground now would have to go about 70 feet down the water pipe to where the panel is grounded to the incoming water pipe than another 70 feet back to the panel.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

All depends on where the other end of the grounding wire is. IF they are grounding the cable plant outside your home to your splitter than this doesn't sound right.

IF they grounding your splitter to a ground outside your home then this sounds more like it should be.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

trip1eX said:


> All depends on where the other end of the grounding wire is. IF they are grounding the cable plant outside your home to your splitter than this doesn't sound right.
> 
> IF they grounding your splitter to a ground outside your home then this sounds more like it should be.


Are you talking about the cable ground wire, if so one end in on a cable co. installed ground block, the other end is on a water pipe by using a ground clamp on the water pipe. This ground is before any splitters, cable amp, and MoCA POE filters.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

nooneuknow said:


> Probably because your plant hasn't even upgraded to 860MHz, IIRC?
> 
> I did neglect to say "YMMV", and didn't make my one-millionth reference to me being on a 1GHz network. Until you've been on a mostly copper 1GHz RF cable network, still supporting analog, and using SDV, count your blessings. For mine, even things claiming to be 1GHz-rated, have a 50/50 chance of working.
> 
> PS: Beware, westom has entered the thread. Do a search, if you are confused what I mean.


Could be. Yeah, my cable plant is 650mhz, so MoCA could be running about anywhere. I haven't checked where it's actually running...


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

lessd said:


> Are you talking about the cable ground wire, if so one end in on a cable co. installed ground block, the other end is on a water pipe by using a ground clamp on the water pipe. This ground is before any splitters, cable amp, and MoCA POE filters.


I'm just saying that having a ground wire from a run of cable hooked up to a splitter doesn't exactly tell me what is actually going on. I would have to know what the other end of that ground wire is hooked up to.

Yes the correct procedure for these guys is generally as you describe.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

lessd said:


> In 1997 when the cable co installed the incoming cable into my new home the green ground wire (from a ground block) they put in went to the closest water pipe they could find, the water pipe is grounded from the panel box to the water pipe entrance to my home that about 70 feet from the panel, the cable entrance is about 2 feet from my panel, should I reconnect the ground cable wire to the panel ground ? as the cable ground now would have to go about 70 feet down the water pipe to where the panel is grounded to the incoming water pipe than another 70 feet back to the panel.


This is a contentious topic, that never goes well.

I could give you my opinions, but fear the nitpicking, and westom-izing of the thread, which is coming, unless his programming had him abort the thread.

Have you checked the National Electric Codes, and your local codes for what it has to say about this? IIRC, any grounding involving water pipes is only allowed to ground the plumbing, and insure there are no gaps in the grounding (like at a water meter, water softener, water heater, etc). IIRC, using the water pipes to ground anything at all, through the pipes, other than the pipes, themselves, is forbidden. I think it used to be common-practice, until PVC started replacing sections where it used to always be copper.

Due to some weird condition, that I can't find the source of, I had to install heavy-duty clamps and copper jumper wires at all the places the plumbing passed through things (other than copper pipe), or the water heaters in two houses would fail every 1-2 years, with signs of electrolysis/electro-pitting happening at the connections. Even those copper flexi-pipes for water heaters have insulators between the nuts and flare-end, plus a rubber washer between the flare and pipe, insuring no connection between the IN and OUT of the water heater. Once I installed the jumper, and a huge solid copper ground pack to the panel ground rod, from the water heater, from the IN pipe, at a point before anything not soldered together began, this issue went away. Since some plumbing is encased in concrete, some is in walls, some is in the attic, and some can't even be found, I can't inspect every part of the pipe runs.

I think, in your case, as long as the plumbing is properly grounded to the single-point utility ground, the cable being grounded to the plumbing should "work", although it likely does not meet code, and any renovations with an inspection, might result if failure to comply, unless grandfathered.

Many will insist you "fix" this "problem" right-away. Most would probably be right, if going by code, plus best-practice measures. I know the longer the run of a ground wire, the thicker it needs to be.

If you have an easy way to just take the ground off the water pipe, and move it to the rod, panel ground, or bond it to the wire between the panel and rod, that's probably the better way. While the plumbing should be grounded, it shouldn't be used for grounding other things.

I think I'll defer on this, at this point, for now.


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## westom (Jan 16, 2010)

nooneuknow said:


> I think, in your case, as long as the plumbing is properly grounded to the single-point utility ground, the cable being grounded to the plumbing should "work", although it likely does not meet code, and any renovations with an inspection, might result if failure to comply, unless grandfathered.


Always amazing how nooneuknow gets so emotional. Especially when most of what he says is spot on. Far more accurate than others who only want to argue.

However on one point, he screwed up. He knows what must be done. But does not know why. Cable cannot be grounded to a water pipe for many obvious reasons starting with a code violation. That is grounding only for human safety. Grounding to pipes can create other problems including ground loops, the resulting noise, and inconsistent conductivity.

Another critically important reason for earthing a cable is surge protection. That wire connection is part of a home's best surge protection. But only if connected low impedance (ie 'less than 10 feet') to earth. nooneuknow and others have properly described how a grounding wire must connect to a common earthing electrode. Waters pipes compromise surge protection due not being part of a common connection, excessive impedance, and other factors. Sharp bends and solder joints are two more reasons why pipes do not make a good ground especially for transistor safety.

An eariler post described how that wire must be connected and routed so as to be sufficient for both human protection and transistor protection. nooneuknow has almost completley described what must be done. But not why it must be done.

Meanwhile some cable guys take a company grounding lecture and still do not get it. One connected his cable ground block to a wire stuck into a flower box on a porch. That was his earth ground; without an 8 foot copper clad electrode. It was not connected to a single point earth ground. And created had a few other problems.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

nooneuknow said:


> This is a contentious topic, that never goes well.
> 
> I could give you my opinions, but fear the nitpicking, and westom-izing of the thread, which is coming, unless his programming had him abort the thread.
> 
> ...


That what I wanted to hear as it will be easy to move the green ground wire from the water pipe to the ground block in my generator ground block that comes before the panel as the generator is for my total home. That ground block ground wire (00 cu) goes about 35 feet under the garage floor to the outside main and meter box, that the only place the ground, neutral and ground rod are connected. My neutral is not grounded in the panel itself. (I do have a jumper wire across my water meter)

The setup I now have did pass the inspection by the town, that may not be saying much.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

lessd said:


> In 1997 when the cable co installed the incoming cable into my new home the green ground wire (from a ground block) they put in went to the closest water pipe they could find, the water pipe is grounded from the panel box to the water pipe entrance to my home that about 70 feet from the panel, the cable entrance is about 2 feet from my panel, should I reconnect the ground cable wire to the panel ground ? as the cable ground now would have to go about 70 feet down the water pipe to where the panel is grounded to the incoming water pipe than another 70 feet back to the panel.


When you say panel box, are you referring to your house's electrical power service entrance, where the meter is, and where the electrical system's grounding electrode is?

And if so, how far from there is the cable service service entrance?


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

lessd said:


> That what I wanted to hear as it will be easy to move the green ground wire from the water pipe to the ground block in my generator ground block that comes before the panel as the generator is for my total home. That ground block ground wire (00 cu) goes about 35 feet under the garage floor to the outside main and meter box, that the only place the ground, neutral and ground rod are connected. My neutral is not grounded in the panel itself. (I do have a jumper wire across my water meter)
> 
> The setup I now have did pass the inspection by the town, that may not be saying much.


It sounds easy enough, if I'm not missing anything. There's nothing that says you can't add length to an existing wire. I usually sand the two ends (clean and scuff) for at least an inch of length, wrap bare stranded copper around the two overlapping ends, then flow plenty of solder in. I usually do an overlap, as opposed to the ends side-by-side, point in the same direction. Shrink tube (slid-on before joining ends), makes for a nice, professional appearance.

EDIT/ADD: If you are running it into the breaker panel, and don't have neutral bonded to ground (usually done by installing a screw into the backplane, or not done if the screw is left-out), just be sure to put the end through a buss-bar screw hole, as close as possible to where the wire to the grounding rod is. Multiple wires per buss-bar hole are allowed. Bare, or green jacketed, wire is allowed (but, some codes might say one or the other).


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

unitron said:


> When you say panel box, are you referring to your house's electrical power service entrance, where the meter is, and where the electrical system's grounding electrode is?
> 
> And if so, how far from there is the cable service service entrance?


The panel is the electric home one and see post 28 for how it is wired as it is more complicated than most homes because of the home generator switch over box before the electrical panel and the 35 feet to the meter and main breaker ground point that is outside, all fed underground.


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