Home data cabinet advice - earthing

BarmcakeTastic

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Hi I'm looking into getting a data cabinet to hold a 24 port patch panel, pdu, switch and maybe a few other small devices. The PDUs and patch panels seem to have earthing cables and some of the cabinets seem to have an earthing cable too.

Do I need to earth the cabinet? Was thinking of getting a floor standing cabinet.

Thanks.
 
Ideally yes it should be grounded. If for any reason it became live it should trip an RCBO. If it wasn’t grounded and you touched it, you may become the path to earth. In reality, many people don’t ground / earth them in domestic settings
 
Ideally yes it should be grounded. If for any reason it became live it should trip an RCBO.
Thanks. So is there an easy way for the average home user to ground it or does it need a call out to an electrician?
 
Most power strips designed for these cabinets have an earth terminal for easy connection to the cabinet. Any doors or loose panels will also have earthing terminals or flying leads and in an ideal world you would connect them all up.

In a home environment you need to consider what the chances are of the cabinet becoming live - and whether casual earthing via an earthed piece of equipment bolted to it provides enough protection. I'm not suggesting that it does, that's for you to assess. Commercially we would always earth a cabinet as well as any metal structures carry mains equipment, but the risks there are higher due to the presence of 3 phase 408V supplies and much more complex circuit topologies. (Not to mention the higher possibility of someone suing for electrocution...)

It you are concerned, there's nothing to stop you running an earth wire from the earth terminal on the wall socket to the cabinet. It should be of the same gauge as the neutral - as some failure modes can lead to the earth becoming the neutral / return without tripping the RCBO. Try and earth to one point on the cabinet - star earthing, as this will keep ground loops to a minimum
 

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