Outlet Fun

[Sir_Matthew]

Wonder if anyone's got some advice for me on grounding outlets?

I live in a rent house, & my second bedroom is my studio space. The whole house has two-prong outlets throughout, so it's unlikely there's a ground anywhere.

Since my studio equipment has three prongs, I switched out the outlets for the three-prong variety, attaching only the wires that were there, as there was no ground wire.

Of course, that didn't fix the problem of buzz & hum when I plug my acoustic guitar or bass directly in to the recorder (VS-880).

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? Can you safely ground the outlets within the outlet box without going into the attic or the wall & generally tearing the place up?

 

[Brian Grey]

A pain in the rear end...

I'm an electronics technician so I know what you're dealing with. What you did, replacing the old outlets..., is way against code But it's ok as you don't tell anyone. And unfortunately there is no EASY fix. What you have to do is somehow get above the wall and drop a wire down. If you connect that to the ground on the outlet and connect that wire on the other end to the ground bar in the sub panel that will do the trick. Choose the easiest outlet to do this do, because chances are you're only going to want to do it to one. Then just use power strips and plug everything into that outlet. You're not going to overload it or anything, chances are all the outlets in the room you're talking about are on the same circuit anyway, so plugging everything into one outlet is exactly the same as pluging everything into a bunch of outlets.
Hopefuly you can get a wire into that outlet.
-Later

 

[Spider]

how necesary is ensuring your power points are earthing properly? Im using a 4 year old house for recording , running cables to three different rooms.. Could i blame any hiss on power cables ..?? my control room is chockas with leads , yet the sound seems fairly quiet.. Basically , as i add more and more equipment , am i going to need to look at power issues?? im not running a huge desk or anything .. this power stuff kinda worries me a little , is it best for me to get the pros in ?? i really dont need leads lying around though...... anyway , cheers all
spider

 

[Sir_Matthew]

From all the replies I've read here, this is scaring the willies out of me, not being schooled in the electrician's trade.

I think I may opt for the professionals to come in & do me up right. My house is at least 40 years old, & I just found out that we have the original shower fixtures, because they recently broke & we had to completely replace them.

There's no telling what kind of wacky wiring is going on here, so professional advice will most likely have to reign.

Thanks for the input, though! If I get a house closer to my own age, I'll use your notes.

 

[gaffa]

you've got to remember Spider that australia has all power points earthed by law, and the majority of gear is also grounded, so we don't run into these problems so much

- gaffa

 

[Brian Grey]

you've got to remember Spider that australia has all power points earthed by law, and the majority of gear is also grounded, so we don't run into these problems so much

- gaffa

Well it's the law in the U.S. to have all power points grounded too. But that's a relatively new thing, probably 30 years or so. Older buildings are "grandfathered" in.

 

[John Sayers]

Brian - In australia our power is basically unbalanced - i.e. the neutral is connected to the ground at the power box even though it comes to us balanced from the distribution transformer. Is American power systems the same or are you running balanced? I've always wondered about this??

 

[Brian Grey]

I'm such an answer man

Brian - In australia our power is basically unbalanced - i.e. the neutral is connected to the ground at the power box even though it comes to us balanced from the distribution transformer. Is American power systems the same or are you running balanced? I've always wondered about this??

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "balanced" but I'll explain how the power works.
At the power plant they generate 120 volts/200 amps for household power. In the panel where the power is brought in ground and neutral are the same, they have to be. All ground does, is makes it so if the hot wire on an apliance, or light, or whatever, is touching the body of the apliance (and the body is metal) it kicks out the circuit breaker right away. If a ground wire wasn't hooked up to the body of the washing machine, and the hot wire was lose and touching the body, it could start a fire, or electricute the first person to touch it. With that ground wire there the amps shoot WAY up for a split second and then the breacker kicks out. If you understand what I'm saying you realize how good it is that circuits have ground wires.
The electricity is run through the hot to neautral because that way we're putting the electricity through a load, and that is only going to draw maybe 10 amps, or 12 amps, most of the time a lot less. If you run a hair dryer and a vacuum cleaner on the same circuit, at the same time, you may have a problem with your breaker kicking out. But like I said with the washing machine, if you're not going through a load the amps just shoot WAY up.
Does this clear any questions with you? I'm sure it's done pretty much the same where you are, the colors, voltages, and amperage may be slightly different, but the theory is the same. Please ask me again if I failed

 

[John Sayers]

Yeah - That's the same as ours except we get zapped with 240V and you get 110V. Thanks for that
cheers

 

[Brian Grey]

Yeah - That's the same as ours except we get zapped with 240V and you get 110V. Thanks for that
cheers

Wow, that's crazy that you guys get 240v. That's a pretty high voltage for home use. Although, that way the current is lower, so I suppose it probably saves on the power bill.
-Later

 

[Sir_Matthew]

Sorry to get in the middle of your voltage discussion (very interesting, by the way). Since I'm going to go for a professional electrician, can anyone recommend one in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area?

 

[Brian Grey]

Sorry to get in the middle of your voltage discussion (very interesting, by the way). Since I'm going to go for a professional electrician, can anyone recommend one in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area?

Ya got me there, I'm from Wisconsin.

I'm glad you're finding our discussion interesting by the way. It's kind of fun talking about this stuff.

 

[Sir_Matthew]

Sconny, eh? I'm sitting next to a guy here at work who's from Madison.

Anyway, I was curious about your voltage comment, & I looked in my breaker box at home. It says the power is 120V/240V. Now, this being an over 40-year-old house, does that mean I have the standard power level, or does the 120V signify something?

Just curious.

 

[Brian Grey]

Sconny, eh? I'm sitting next to a guy here at work who's from Madison.

Anyway, I was curious about your voltage comment, & I looked in my breaker box at home. It says the power is 120V/240V. Now, this being an over 40-year-old house, does that mean I have the standard power level, or does the 120V signify something?

Just curious.

If you plug in regular devices you buy from the store with no problems, you have 120v. I'm not exactly sure, though, why it says 240 too. Maybe one of your appliances needs 240, which is very uncommon.

You know someone from Madison?? I'm from Madison Kinda, really I live in Verona, but it's less than a mile from Madison and I do most of my living in Madison. So I just say I'm from there. Tell him I say hi.

 

[regebro]

Re: I'm such an answer man

In the panel where the power is brought in ground and neutral are the same, they have to be.

There are some countries, most notably Norway, where this isn't true. Neutral can have any voltage as compared to ground. I guess this is what John ment with "balanced". In Sweden at least we call this "floating zero" when it comes to power.

Wow, that's crazy that you guys get 240v. That's a pretty high voltage for home use. Although, that way the current is lower, so I suppose it probably saves on the power bill.

Twice as cool, twice as ppowerful. High Voltage people need High Voltage electricity.
And *cough*, you pay by kWh, not Amps.

 

[Brian Grey]

Re: Re: I'm such an answer man

Oh details details.

 

[ola]

Right, never mind the details when grounding your power outlets

 

[drstawl]

Yeah you pay by the KWh, but here in CA you also pay for reactive demand on a separate meter when you consume electricity in large amounts (GS-2 rates)- but depending on the appliance, it's generally more efficient to run power-hungry shit on 240V (or 480V if available) than 120 V.

 

[Brian Grey]

I think this thread just died