Earth Wire

[leon]

i have all my power chord going into a mains condtioner .i have a bad earth supply in my house but i would like to take out the earth in the one power chord going into my condtioner to test it and see if my speaker hum goes away .. if i do this for a quick test what are the risks of my system blowing up or me getting a shock ?? if it solves it im going to run a dedicated earth to my system ..ive seen you can buy earth stakes but what size earth wire should i use ? the total wattage is around 3000 watts thanks

[mr-gobby]

I doubt any electrician would suggest you do it - purely because it's more than their job is worth! Regulated to the hilt.

An earth is a safety feature to provide electricution and fault protection and takes current away to the ground before it damages you or whatever it's connected to in the event of a problem.

Some people run dedicated power circuit just for their systems directly from the fuseboard. This way other electrical appliance cant cross contaminate the power.

You could also get an earth rod installed for your fuseboard or get the earth tested. Most modern houses earths are directed to a sub station, the distance from it can determine their effectiveness.

You can do what you propose but whatever the risk level,, an element of risk will always be there but personally I doubt you'd be electricuted. Nobody will tell you 100% there will be no problem though!

Consult an electrician about a possible solution is probably the most given answer you'll get.

[Nickiniquity]

Don't 'lift' the earth to your system.. it's a w-e-l-l dangerous thing to do. If a piece of equipment develops a fault such that the metal casing becomes connected to mains Live, a connected earth cable would safely short the current to earth and cause the fuse to blow from the fault current. If you remove the earth, *you* could end up taking the fault current...which would be unfortunate. /lecture

If the problem is that you are getting mains hum from your speakers, it is likely that you have created an earth loop with the signal cables connecting your equipment together. Another possibility is that one of the signal cables has developed a bad connection. The best place to start is by unplugging all the signal cables from your amp/processor leaving just the amp attached to your speakers. Plug the amp into the mains without the mains conditioner. Check if there is any hum. Now connect your source equipment to the amp one item at a time, and see if you get hum. This way you should get to find which connection causes the problem.


Nick

[eviljohn2]

Nick's right on the money with this. Lifting the earth is a very brutish way of going about things and if you have to ask if it's safe then it's not a good idea since you clearly don't understand the consequences (no offence intended).

The earth should only really be a safety feature and hum's are more likely to occur from ground loops elsewhere in your system as Nick says. Check that all of your connections and terminations are secure by taking them apart where possible and giving them a good inspection. Also make sure everything's plugged into one wall socket where possible using an extention.

[leon]

thanks for the advice today o bought a 1m earth rod and 15mtrs of 6mm earth cable and ive installed the stake in the ground and ran the cable back to my system via the conditioner and house earth and wow my light in my house have stopped flickering (every now and then) the system sounds awsome .. i still get a very very faint hum from the amp when it warms up but im over the moon the electican wanted £150 for doing the job and it cost me £23.00

[steve.noyes]

I very much doubt that the earth is your problem, it sounds like your speaker wire is running along with mains cabling.

[davehk]

Originally Posted by leon

thanks for the advice today o bought a 1m earth rod and 15mtrs of 6mm earth cable and ive installed the stake in the ground and ran the cable back to my system via the conditioner and house earth and wow my light in my house have stopped flickering (every now and then) the system sounds awsome .. i still get a very very faint hum from the amp when it warms up but im over the moon the electican wanted £150 for doing the job and it cost me £23.00

And if your house is on a poor TN-C-S earth you may possibly have created the conditions for a lethal situation to arise if a fault should arise in a NEIGHBOUR'S installation. This could result in your very thin earth conductor handling his neutral return current and lifting all the earthed appliances in your house to a potentially lethal voltage.

Though the changes of this occuring are probably small, it would have been preferably if you had got the electrician to do it, or at least test it, as he should know what he is doing and have the equipment to test the earth impedance, PSC etc.