Electronics shocking me (literally)(not static)

[phoon]

Hey guys,

 

I recently moved to Lebanon to be with my family after what happened a while back and one thing that's been bugging me is the lackluster safety standards in 99% of homes in this country.

 

Most homes built here, as modern as some might look, have a very bad plumbing and electrical infrastructure. This is caused by people being uneducated on the importance of electrical safety and hiring less qualified and uncertified (not that we have a certification system) electrical workers whom I will never in no universe call them electricians.

 

Let me stop rambling. Baseline; most homes aren't grounded. My PCs and laptops are shocking me, sometimes it's a small jolt other times it's a constant uncomfortable tickling. I don't mean static lol.

 

The only exception is my main rig which I connect to a UPS.

 

As an engineering student I understand how important grounding is for safety and electronics' longevity. I can clearly see a higher fault rate in appliances and other electronics like PCs and Laptops.

 

My brother's rig gives electrical shocks that fried the M.2 SSD after only 3 years for use. It keeps crashing now even after I've installed Windows on a new harddrive.

 

Another problem is different mainline sources. In this country some parts of the day you get electricity from the government and other parts of the day that power cuts out and the backup generators (owned by a local business) kick in to power the local area. Don't ask why, it hurts to explain.

 

The problem is that one source is 220V and the other 230V. I know this because we have a voltmeter display installed in our breaker box, not sure if that difference in voltage is bad, but my gut tells me a voltage regulator for the whole house would be a good thing.

 

I know this is a lot. But I need your help.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

TLDR; Most houses here aren't electrically grounded, I'm wondering if that has anything to do with my PCs and laptops shocking me like consistent electrical tickling or sudden mini needle like shock (not static).

[mahyar]

well here almost none of the houses have grounding we haven't had any problems but

as a person who get shocked more often that electroboom i say your right

[Moonzy]

yea sounds like a non-grounded issue

get a electrician to ground it properly?

 

some safety feature in PSU wont trip if it's not grounded too, from what I read (from jonnyguru)

[phoon]

5 minutes ago, mahyar said:

well here almost none of the houses have grounding we haven't had any problems but

as a person who get shocked more often that electroboom i say your right

Do you know any way this can be fixed, installing ground is near impossible, we'd have to pass wires in concrete walls.

[mahyar]

Just now, phoon said:

Do you know any way this can be fixed, installing ground is near impossible, we'd have to  in concrete walls.

well there is no way to do it you just have to live with it

[phoon]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

yea sounds like a non-grounded issue

get a electrician to ground it properly?

 

some safety feature in PSU wont trip if it's not grounded too, from what I read (from jonnyguru)

Yeah that's a good point, this is worse than I thought.

[phoon]

6 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

yea sounds like a non-grounded issue

get a electrician to ground it properly?

 

some safety feature in PSU wont trip if it's not grounded too, from what I read (from jonnyguru)

Could you link me the jonnyguru article please.

 

Thx

[Moonzy]

43 minutes ago, phoon said:

Could you link me the jonnyguru article please.

Thx

it's not an article, i asked about it in a thread in this forum, and he said so

i could look for the post, but it's been a while

 

edit: here you go

 

[greenhorn]

1 hour ago, phoon said:

Do you know any way this can be fixed, installing ground is near impossible, we'd have to pass wires in concrete walls.

Having a grounding wire (attached to a proper grounding rod or similar device that works as ground for the building) would be the first choice. It is possible that at least the bathrooms have grounding available (that's how it used to be in Europe decades ago before grounding became mandatory for all outlets).

If that is not the case or isn't possible, then we are moving to the more creative methods. They might work, but you should know what you are doing or else try to find a professional.

You can have a look at the plumbing: what is it made of? If it is made out of some type of metal, it is possible to use it as grounding (providing there are no "gaps", which can occur if part of the metal pipes get replaced by plastic ones for example.). Lightning rods could theoretically work too, but honestly I wouldn't risk that.

As for PSUs: As far as I know, the grounding pin is directly connected to the casing, which leads the computer case to also be grounded. As for the input voltage, you usually have an input voltage range given for each PSU. Devices supporting 220V usually also support 230V (even the specs for European power grids allow for some tolerances there). What would be of more interest are the potential spikes that may occur when those backup generators you mentioned are taking over. I would consider using a UPS that has some filtering capabilities.

[phoon]

On 10/15/2020 at 12:13 PM, greenhorn said:

As far as I know, the grounding pin is directly connected to the casing, which leads the computer case to also be grounded. As for the input voltage, you usually have an input voltage range given for each PSU. Devices supporting 220V usually also support 230V (even the specs for European power grids allow for some tolerances there). What would be of more interest are the potential spikes that may occur when those backup generators you mentioned are taking over. I would consider using a UPS that has some filtering capabilities.

Wow that's so interesting, I had no clue that the grounding pin was connected to the case. This can actually help me narrow down the source of the electrical build up.

 

And unfortunately our plumbing is that green coloured thick PVC not sure that'll cut it.

 

Thank you