Improve your premise's ground earthing...

Hi, would like to share the experience. The hifi sound can be improve by making the earth point less Ohm. I do this by finding the earth point ( normally cover
by black plastic box ) and get a 3 feet long copper pipe, use hammer hit into the ground adjacent to the plastic box ( 3 feet apart ) then connect the copper tube to the ground point. I have a ground tester, and by doing this the ground point improve from 4 ohms to 2 ohms. The result ? background music more quiet and more details.. happy..

WARNING - IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS ABOUT< DO NOT TRY> ELECTRIC SHOCK HARZARD.

Usually the electrical contractor is the best person to do it .
And also one rod is not enough. They normally will pound a few more rods deep into the ground in a perimeter fashion, hook all the rods up with thick gauge copper wires to the main rod, and then connect the main rod to the plastic box where all the internal house's earth wiring would converge. if your house has lightning arrestors, make sure its got its own earth point that is NOT connected to the main one for the house. They usually put the home earth on one side of the house, and the lightning arrestor's earth on the opposite side of the house.

mugenfoo wrote:Usually the electrical contractor is the best person to do it .
And also one rod is not enough. They normally will pound a few more rods deep into the ground in a perimeter fashion, hook all the rods up with thick gauge copper wires to the main rod, and then connect the main rod to the plastic box where all the internal house's earth wiring would converge. if your house has lightning arrestors, make sure its got its own earth point that is NOT connected to the main one for the house. They usually put the home earth on one side of the house, and the lightning arrestor's earth on the opposite side of the house.

There's no stopping you or the DIY'er from doing ownself if one is with knowledge and the earth tester. The contractor is just an easily available and convenient avenue to getting it done for a price because they're in the profession and experience to install it. Most people aren't going to dirty their hands doing this.

Multiple rods are required ONLY if after earthing resistance tests you don't get the required maximum resistance spec due to various reasons of the ground earth is no good. An increased number of rods will reduce the resistance collectively, done only if neccessary where the owner is certainly going to foot the cost of it all. Nothing is free. This applies for domestic homes where in most cases a rod or two is likely to meet the requirement. Its different for highrise or complex buildings.
Perhaps I could guess, if anyone can afford it, put lah another 10 rods if it'll improve your hifi sonics?
Whatever it is, its nearly always the earth rod clamp rot or corrode away in a few years and there's no earth. Some people renovate their home front where the earth chamber is located, it disappears for good and forgotten it was ever there, then when lightning strikes and takes the fridge, TV, hifi, telephone...then only start to think what the hell happened?

i know one guy , who goes and water-hose & sprinkler's his garden right before he wants to do some serious hifi listening session.

Swears by the earth (literally & metaphorically) that it makes a night & day difference to the sound.

Anyone else tried this b4 ?

As I said, the earthing should ideally be a few ohms at best or optimum. Maybe his earthing or the surrounding earth could be a few hundred ohms or some higher resistance than ideal when dry, so when the earth is wet, there's better conductivity and the resistance decrease greatly and better earth, translating to better hifi sonics? hehehe...perhaps he can also get best hifi sound after a downpour or rainy season?.
Whatever it is lah..home earthing IS necessary and safety for your electrical system. It must be maintained or checked once a while for deterioration. I do think this could be most forgotten or neglected issue for most homeowners. Simple test would be, where is your earth chamber?

well, lets hope he's not using Electrostatic speakers ... coz after a downpour, the high humidity would surely more than kill the sound despite the "improved ground".

hey.. you are right.. I really heard better sound after the downpour..

wabun wrote:hey.. you are right.. I really heard better sound after the downpour..

May be fresh air after rain got more negative ion,
so put some ionizer in your room, this also make your system sound better.

wabun wrote:hey.. you are right.. I really heard better sound after the downpour..

OK..perhaps all the more you should take the effort to check your earthing installation if you've not done in the past. I renewed my earth clamp and termination last year, cost me only a few bucks and dirtying my hands a bit.
This time I sleeve heatshrinked and siliconed the whole terminal so it may last against weathering and corrosion. My residential area is quite prone to lightning strikes and have heard of some other neighbors unfortunate incidents where their electrical equipment (TV, PC, telephone system) have been fried.

The important is to check the earth continuity from your socket outlet connected to your audio system until the earth chamber, i.e earth wire from socket to earth terminal @ consumer unit and earth cable from consumer unit to earth chamber.

No point if you have <1 ohm resistance but no continuity for your earthing system which forms floating earth.

If you are going to hammer in a new earth point, might as well make it a dedicated earth for the hifi system only. Run the new earth wire from the earth point to your hifi area. Disconnect the earth wires from your plugs and connect only one of these wires to the new earth wire. Good sound but high risk for your hifi components.

Of course there's many possibilities by DIY or contractor installed depending how much you'd like to spend on it all. One for main DB, dedicated one with separate DB and earth for hifi, (don't mix it with your a/c and other current bleeding appliances) another for lightning arrestor. All are certainly going to cost money and expert contractor and a test certificate for your record.

Believe it or not, the earth stake at my parent's place is right underneath the garden tap. There is a reason for it yes ?

mugenfoo wrote:i know one guy , who goes and water-hose & sprinkler's his garden right before he wants to do some serious hifi listening session.

Swears by the earth (literally & metaphorically) that it makes a night & day difference to the sound.

Anyone else tried this b4 ?

Regards,
Joe Ling

joeling wrote:Believe it or not, the earth stake at my parent's place is right underneath the garden tap. There is a reason for it yes ?

mugenfoo wrote:i know one guy , who goes and water-hose & sprinkler's his garden right before he wants to do some serious hifi listening session.

Swears by the earth (literally & metaphorically) that it makes a night & day difference to the sound.

Anyone else tried this b4 ?

Regards,
Joe Ling

Maybe should bond the earth to the water pipe. In Singapore this is a requirement.

I had seen contractor pouring bags of salt into the ground to get the required reading.

If not mistaken, water pipes (GI or whatever) are NOT the normal to be used for main earth. Its always using copper alloy rods easily available at industrial electrical supplies vendor supplied to contractors. A lot of homes are with PVC water pipes now, so earthing is not possible. Here, its still the old fashioned way, a industry standard copper rod hammered into the ground with visible earth chamber and termination. Should be nothing short of that.

Copper copper and only copper. My guess is that the GI water pipes are only to be "earthed" . But not to act as the main earthing point itself.

Yes, all metal pipe, i.e. gas (if applicable), water pipe need to be earthed and connected/bonded to main earth bar or earth rod into earth to form continuity.

If there is leakage current travelling these metal parts, it can be grounded, it is part of parcel of electric safety (indirect contact). Direct contact is direct touching live parts of electric components.

DrWho wrote:If you are going to hammer in a new earth point, might as well make it a dedicated earth for the hifi system only. Run the new earth wire from the earth point to your hifi area. Disconnect the earth wires from your plugs and connect only one of these wires to the new earth wire. Good sound but high risk for your hifi components.

Dr Who,
Why would you say it is high risk for the hifi components, with the connection to the new dedicated earth ? What is the theory behind the risk ?

The earth configuration suggested by me only allow one of your equipments to earth directly. The rest of the equipments are only earthed via the interconnects. This provides less protection. This configuration will also bypass the ELCB, which is suppose to trip the curcuit in an event of a short circuit.

Aah ! That eliminate ground loops right ? AM i missing somethng else.

Funny thing is that even some high-end equipments has no connection to the ground pin of the power cable. Some high-end stuffs does however. I wonder why that is so ....poor design ?