Playing with Earth

[Spectral Morn]

No worries,just trying to help and to keep people safe.I may even try it myself sometime! I know what I'm doing though...sometimes at least!

Keep it up...your doing good IMHO.


Regards D S D L

[Beechwoods]

When someone very wise coined that phrase 'better safe than sorry' they had a point. Experiment by all means, but with full awareness of the risks! Some of us have more enthusiasm than skill (I speak personally) so let's not go assuming anything

[Iain Sinclair]

When someone very wise coined that phrase 'better safe than sorry' they had a point. Experiment by all means, but with full awareness of the risks! Some of us have more enthusiasm than skill

I have neither!

[Spectral Morn]

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, having the sense to doubt yourself in such matters as electricity is IMHO the start of wisdom....it will keep you alive.

Having been blown across a patio once because of a loose wire in a drill I was using (no one knew it was loose as it was internal) I really don't want to experience that again. I am lucky/blessed to still be alive. My finger tips were a little blackened and my heart is still out round about where Saturn is. The pain was awful...Electricity felt like being held in the jaws of some sort of raving beast. It felt like millions of razor blades slicing into every part of me. Never again.



Regards D S D L

[Beechwoods]

I once put my fingers into an empty light-socket walking down into a pitch-black cellar once. It certainly woke me up. I can still feel my arm go rigid. It's good job I was wearing leather upper / vulcanised rubber sole army boots and didn't earth myself across my body... lordy

[Spectral Morn]

I once put my fingers into an empty light-socket walking down into a pitch-black cellar once. It certainly woke me up. I can still feel my arm go rigid. It's good job I was wearing leather upper / vulcanised rubber sole army boots and didn't earth myself across my body... lordy

Did that when I was a child reached over for the night light...no bulb in socket...a digit went into the empty socket....the drill was a similar sensation but amplified a thousand times or more...


Regards D S D L

[Barry]

I'd not realised the dangers until I read the link, now I understand it. My worry is that I'd end up being toast......this is really dangerous.

Like a number of people here, I didn't understand the safety implications of this modification. Reading the link to the WD thread, provided by Ali, and also the link provided by Michael T made things much clearer.

Basically the problem was my lack of understanding of PME systems. Even with those two links, I still had to sit down and draw out a circuit diagram to see how under an, admittedly, unlikely fault situation, a whole street's worth of consumer current could flow through the earth stake and cable in order to return to the transformer at the local sub-station.

Barry

[Ali Tait]

Agreed,the chances are remote.But they still exist.Would you walk across a quiet road every day without looking? The odds are you would get run over sooner or later.I think you have to look at this the same way.As I said earlier,I,ve buried 7 collegues in the last 25 years.This tends to make you extremely careful!

[Mike Reed]

I had completely misunderstood the crux of ALI's warnings, believing that these referred to INSTALLATION dangers rather than the potential CONSEQUENTIAL dangers, as they derived from Martin's successful installation.

I, evidently among at least a few, wasn't aware of this until I read the link about PME bonding problems. I 'phoned my physics lecturer (and ardent hifi)friend, who was aware of this, and that he DIDN'T have a PME system, but wasn't able to tell me how to tell whether I had.

If I understand correctly, ALI, this potentially disastrous situation can only occur if a house is earthed using this PME system. I believe you or MARTIN said that this usually applied to NON suburban properties (and I am suburban), so, ergo, is likely to be more prevalent in rural (or possibly urban properties?).

I shall be 'phoning an electrician to ascertain this info, but if you have any clues, I'd be grateful, as I had been considering sticking in another one or two earth spikes and daisy-chaining them.

[Ali Tait]

Hi Mike,
Yes,my warnings were entirely directed at the potential consequences of doing this.In regards to your question,I would not be willing to say anything for sure as I haven't seen your installation for myself,so on the grounds of safety I'd urge you to seek the opinion of a qualified electrician.Generally though,as long as you have your supply protected by RCD's or,even better, RCBO's,you should be ok.I would also ensure the spikes are part of the earthing in the house so that they within the equipotential bonding zone of your house.If you do get someone in,I'd be interested to see if you do in fact end up with a lower impedance supply,as I think you would normally struggle to beat what you have now!