Grounding PC to Garden, is it safe?

[Ryeleigh]

Let's just say the electricity here is bad.

Previously, before my house was renovated, I'd just hammer a nail to the floor and run a wire through it then stuck it to the PC Case, it works to release the statics and the static noise from the speakers dissapear.

But now, I don't really want to hammer a nail through the new Granite Flooring. Because now my PC Desk is close to window, I have an idea to run a cable through the windows and put a nail on the garden soil.

Now, is it safe to do that? The nail and cable will get wet and a puddle may form when there's heavy rain.

 

I actually already use a whatever stavolt is available on the nearest store (its rated for 1000 VA but also cheap, like 15-ish USD using the currency converter) but it doesn't really help, so I'd still like to ground the PC.

 

Thanks in advance for any response.

[da na]

If a grounding cable gets wet, that will not be an issue. Only concern is that water might travel up the cable if it is at any angle between 180 and 90 degrees - sounds like it will be angled the other direction though. 

If anything, water on the cable will ground it better.

[Echothedolpin]

Look up ‘home grounding rod.’ Ideally, your home should have a 6-8ft copper rod driven into the ground outside your house with a clamp that is wired to ground on your home distribution panel.

 

This would  cover the entire home’s grounding needs, but you’d really want to be sure of what you’re doing.

 

Failing that, you can always do a smaller version of the same thing for your system on its own. Just be sure to use a wire rated for the maximum amperage if your system. A ground that burns up the second it’s used will just turn your electrocution hazard into a fire hazard.

[Ryeleigh]

14 minutes ago, da na said:

Only concern is that water might travel up the cable if it is at any angle between 180 and 90 degrees

 

With the plan I had in mind, the nail will somewhat directly below the windows, so it will indeed be within those range.

 

7 minutes ago, Echothedolpin said:

This would  cover the entire home’s grounding needs, but you’d really want to be sure of what you’re doing.

 

Sounds like a professional works, so I'll have to pass on that.

 

16 minutes ago, Echothedolpin said:

Failing that, you can always do a smaller version of the same thing for your system on its own. Just be sure to use a wire rated for the maximum amperage if your system. A ground that burns up the second it’s used will just turn your electrocution hazard into a fire hazard.

 

I plan to use just a 3 or 4 inch nail that will be buried on the garden soil connected through a random wire that I can find and just stick it somewhere near the PSU on my PC's Case or tie it up on the PSU's grill hole, I reckon that will do something? Since that what I previously done just not to garden soil.

Will that won't work anymore or its just going to be inefficient?

[starsmine]

Even with a bad grid I dont understand anything in the topic, Grounding is a wiring issue, not a grid issue. 

And putting a nail into a wood floor doesnt ground you. 

[Ryeleigh]

35 minutes ago, starsmine said:

And putting a nail into a wood floor doesnt ground you, thats still floating.

 

it wasn't a wood floor, it was a ceramic floor, and below that is the cement and just ground, I'm not sure if its more cement, a concrete foundation, a stone foundation or just soil/earth. But at least I'm sure the nail I used at that time is long enough to penetrate the ceramic's cement

[Echothedolpin]

30 minutes ago, Ryeleigh said:

 

I plan to use just a 3 or 4 inch nail that will be buried on the garden soil connected through a random wire that I can find and just stick it somewhere near the PSU on my PC's Case or tie it up on the PSU's grill hole, I reckon that will do something? Since that what I previously done just not to garden soil.

Will that won't work anymore or its just going to be inefficient?

It will technically work, but I’d go with at least a foot length of rebar. And some 16 gauge copper wire or better.

 

I am not an electrician, but I always try to err on the side of safety.
 

If you don’t mind me asking: What country are you in?

[OhYou_]

3 hours ago, Ryeleigh said:

I'd just hammer a nail to the floor and run a wire through it then stuck it to the PC Case

any pictures of this

[Kisai]

4 hours ago, Ryeleigh said:

Let's just say the electricity here is bad.

Previously, before my house was renovated, I'd just hammer a nail to the floor and run a wire through it then stuck it to the PC Case, it works to release the statics and the static noise from the speakers dissapear.

Please tell me you're joking. Cause that's dangerous. You're supposed to "ground" the PC by having it attached to a metal "Ground", eg the ground/neutral wire in the electrical outlet, copper pipes, grounding equipment attached to the house, etc.

 

4 hours ago, Ryeleigh said:

But now, I don't really want to hammer a nail through the new Granite Flooring. Because now my PC Desk is close to window, I have an idea to run a cable through the windows and put a nail on the garden soil.

Now, is it safe to do that? The nail and cable will get wet and a puddle may form when there's heavy rain.

Yes, but don't bother. If you have a grounded outlet, just use that. The computer should have a grounded cable to begin with.

 

4 hours ago, Ryeleigh said:

I actually already use a whatever stavolt is available on the nearest store (its rated for 1000 VA but also cheap, like 15-ish USD using the currency converter) but it doesn't really help, so I'd still like to ground the PC.

 

Thanks in advance for any response.

 

I'm hoping this isn't a chatGPT post.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 hours ago, Ryeleigh said:

Let's just say the electricity here is bad.

Previously, before my house was renovated, I'd just hammer a nail to the floor and run a wire through it then stuck it to the PC Case, it works to release the statics and the static noise from the speakers dissapear.

But now, I don't really want to hammer a nail through the new Granite Flooring. Because now my PC Desk is close to window, I have an idea to run a cable through the windows and put a nail on the garden soil.

Now, is it safe to do that? The nail and cable will get wet and a puddle may form when there's heavy rain.

 

I actually already use a whatever stavolt is available on the nearest store (its rated for 1000 VA but also cheap, like 15-ish USD using the currency converter) but it doesn't really help, so I'd still like to ground the PC.

 

Thanks in advance for any response.

If the house was renovated, why on earth didn't you get the wiring fixed during the renovation?

 

Grounding issues has nothing to do with the "electricity being bad" and everything to do with a problem with your internal wiring, or grounding continuity in your PC.  It should not be ignored as it can be a safety issue.

 

Its not a good idea to have multiple paths to ground.   House wiring and all exposed metal pipework is usually deliberately connected to the same ground for safety, so any faults always go back the same route.  Having a different ground can change the voltage potential and cause other issues.  It may even interfere with the ground fault protection in your electrical panel, assuming you have it.

[Ryeleigh]

7 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

If the house was renovated, why on earth didn't you get the wiring fixed during the renovation?

I do bring it up to the constructor's representative but it just fell to deaf ears since all they ever responded with is "we'll see what we can do". Well, the house renovation is completed and any pending transaction is finalized. Now they just don't care anymore, all their response is bot-like response.

Why don't I check before finalizing it? Because at that time I was so busy I don't have time to check the finished house, and all the contracts and transactions is handled by my mother in the first place. We decided to hire those constructors because from what a relative said, they do decent job with cheap pricing.

11 hours ago, Echothedolpin said:

If you don’t mind me asking: What country are you in?

7 hours ago, Kisai said:

Please tell me you're joking. Cause that's dangerous. You're supposed to "ground" the PC by having it attached to a metal "Ground", eg the ground/neutral wire in the electrical outlet, copper pipes, grounding equipment attached to the house, etc.

Here in Indonesia, its actually not uncommon to have settlement without proper grounding. Aside from design, most people here only ever look to what materials are being used. If electricity works, they just leave it at that. Our renovated houses are one of them. After I bring this up, my father and I opened up the wall socket, none of them have a third wire, only positive and negative, so no neutral/ground wire on the socket.

7 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

It may even interfere with the ground fault protection in your electrical panel, assuming you have it.

We only have electricity meter that are issued by the government (edit: which include a breaker) and 3 MCB that manage the front, middle and back side of the house respectively.

 

 

8 hours ago, OhYou_ said:

any pictures of this

Sorry, I don't have it (yet). I just bend the copper part of the wire, made a U shaped hook and hook it to between the nail's flat part and the ground to make sure it have good contact. I also did the same for the PC's Case, just bend the copper part then place it between the back panel's screw and the case itself before screwing it so it stays in good contact with the PC's Case.

[Alex Atkin UK]

11 minutes ago, Ryeleigh said:

Here in Indonesia, its actually not uncommon to have settlement without proper grounding. Aside from design, most people here only ever look to what materials are being used. If electricity works, they just leave it at that. Our renovated houses are one of them. After I bring this up, my father and I opened up the wall socket, none of them have a third wire, only positive and negative, so no neutral/ground wire on the socket.

I think in that situation you were indeed making the best of a bad situation.  Its probably safer to have a hacked ground, than none at all.

 

Sorry if my earlier comment sounded a bit harsh, its just rather alarming how lax safety still is in some countries.

[Poinkachu]

1 hour ago, Ryeleigh said:

Here in Indonesia

Ahh... that's what I thought when I read your post a few hours ago.

I feel yer pain, since I'm in the same country.

 

Quote

all they ever responded with is "we'll see what we can do".

Why don't I check before finalizing it? Because at that time I was so busy I don't have time to check the finished house, and all the contracts and transactions is handled by my mother in the first place.

That is the kinda reply that would make me snap on the spot.

(I mean the contractor's reply, not your forum reply)

Since it's simply changing 2x cable to 3x cable, bury a ground rod somewhere and connect grounding wire to it.

 

But yeah, really should've checked EVERYTHING, especially with how shit some freelance contractors and/or their employees are.

Especially so with the water pipe & electrical routing, so at the very least later down the road you'll know which portion of wall or ceiling to tear down to fix pipe / cabling. You know.... instead of playing Where's Waldo? and end up tearing down near half of the house before finding the right spot.

 

It is also useful to know how they group the wall sockets to the MCB, but this can simply be somewhat figured out by yourself.

 

I've heard many stories how the employees sometimes put something in the pipe so it'll clog soon too.

Since if it clogs inside the wall, owner will need to tear it down and patch it up after and they're (the contractor / employee) the one who knows where to start dismantling (if the owner doesn't know the route).

 

Quote

Sorry, I don't. I just bend the copper part of the wire, made a U shaped hook and hook it to between the nail's flat part and the ground to make sure it have good contact. I also did the same for the PC's Case, just bend the copper part then place it between the back panel's screw and the case itself before screwing it so it stays in good contact with the PC's Case.

I'm not an electrician, so take what I said with grains of salt. I just ended up learning about stuffs while researching about grounding awhile back.

 

If you have a lawn, my suggestion is to buy a 6-8 foot copper grounding rod (Lots in Tokopedia, cheap one is usually iron with copper plating, pure copper is more expensive. And yes, pure copper one is better) and a grounding wire clamp for it, then drive it into the ground on the lawn instead of using tiny nail. Preferably near a source of water, damp soil = better grounding, plus it's somewhat easier to drive the long rod into ground on damp soil.

 

Run grounding wire from the copper rod to the meter, call PLN (Indonesian Electricity Company, for those of you not Indonesian) and ask them to send technician to connect that ground wire to the meter.

 

Then run another ground wire from the meter to a Grounding Busbar (Add one if you don't have any) (PLN technician need to be the one that connects it to meter)

 

Then from that Busbar you run a ground wire to your room's wall socket and connect it to the grounding pin.

You can also add another grounding wire to that busbar which other end goes to different wall socket.

 

So : Rod -> Wire -> Meter -> Wire -> Busbar -> Wire(s) -> Socket(s)

 

Of course preferably the grounding wire is atleast outdoor rated with big enough diameter. Run it inside electrical pipe if you want to be safest.

IIRC the minimum standard is 4mm² single core pure copper. I recommend to use single core and not strands.

 

If you decide to do it like how you did (connecting one end of the wire straight to your PC), at the very least use a better grounding rod than just 4 inch nail.

A 1,5m grounding rod (iron with copper plating) and a clamp will only cost you like $7 at most.

 

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I think in that situation you were indeed making the best of a bad situation.  Its probably safer to have a hacked ground, than none at all.

 

Sorry if my earlier comment sounded a bit harsh, its just rather alarming how lax safety still is in some countries.

Yeah, here we often have to use hacks and jank system unless we want to spend a shit ton of money for a somewhat mediocre job.

I mean, I daresay that I have more crimping tools, wire strippers, terminal types, check tools, and insulating materials than most of so called electrician in my country.

 

Them : Strip the ends of some wire using a cutter, some of the strands got cut, group a bunch of together, wrap electrical tape around it.

Then call it a good job well done eventhough some bit of the naked wire can be seen from 50cm away.

[Ryeleigh]

7 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Sorry if my earlier comment sounded a bit harsh, its just rather alarming how lax safety still is in some countries.

No worries there, it also upset me how things works here and make me asks a dumb looking questions while the problem shouldn't even exist in the first place, since the solution is actually a basic safety requirement.

6 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

Run grounding wire from the copper rod to the meter, call PLN (Indonesian Electricity Company, for those of you not Indonesian) and ask them to send technician to connect that ground wire to the meter.

 

Then run another ground wire from the meter to a Grounding Busbar (Add one if you don't have any) (PLN technician need to be the one that connects it to meter)

Just to be clear in case I decided to go the proper way. I need to have everything ready, from the buried rod to the busbar that are already installed somewhere, before asking for PLN to send a technician right? Like, they only handle anything related to the meter?

In that case, I probably have to look for a service to have all those things installed. Hopefully it's not that hard to find.

[Poinkachu]

Just now, Ryeleigh said:

No worries there, it also upset me how things works here and make me asks a dumb looking questions while the problem shouldn't even exist in the first place, since the solution is actually a basic safety requirement.

Just to be clear in case I decided to go the proper way. I need to have everything ready, from the buried rod to the busbar that are already installed somewhere, before asking for PLN to send a technician right? Like, they only handle anything related to the meter?

In that case, I probably have to look for a service to have all those things installed. Hopefully it's not that hard to find.

Yeah.

The technician wouldn't want to help you bury the rod and and route the cable and all.
Well..., some of them would, at a cost, when they want to take a side job.

[Echothedolpin]

No condemnation from me for your situation. I’m pretty amused that in my own country a granite floor is very rare but proper grounding is absolutely required. 

 

Your countryman has some great advice, and I’ll second the whole ‘don’t do it if you feel uncomfortable with it’ on electrical work.

[Alex Atkin UK]

46 minutes ago, Echothedolpin said:

No condemnation from me for your situation. I’m pretty amused that in my own country a granite floor is very rare but proper grounding is absolutely required.

Yeah quite bizarre to think about, I'd imagine the floor would cost a lot more than a rewire over here.

[Godlygamer23]

10 hours ago, Ryeleigh said:

only positive and negative, so no neutral/ground wire on the socket.

Minor correction here.

Power coming from Mains will be AC, so the connections are "hot", "neutral", and "ground". Positive and negative connections are strictly DC.

[Gooberinchief]

21 hours ago, Ryeleigh said:

 

it wasn't a wood floor, it was a ceramic floor, and below that is the cement and just ground, I'm not sure if its more cement, a concrete foundation, a stone foundation or just soil/earth. But at least I'm sure the nail I used at that time is long enough to penetrate the ceramic's cement

Without getting too technical, you have the right idea, but you need a much bigger “nail.” A small 3-4” nail isn’t capable of covering the ground fault conditions for a 120 or 240v short. That’s why houses are built with an earth rod. 
 

It strikes me as odd you don’t have one already. You should be able to buy an outlet tester that will light up and tell you if your outlet is wired properly. I’d grab one of those and see if the outlet is correct first. If it isn’t, disconnect the power, check it’s disconnected with your new outlet tester, and look inside the outlet cover to make sure all the connections are there. If they are and you are still having problems, I’d say call an electrician and have them do a once over of your breaker panel or similar to make sure things are wired correctly. It’s not just your PC you should worry about at that point, any devices pulling lots of power like stoves or clothes dryers can be a danger if they develop a short. 

[Echothedolpin]

15 minutes ago, Gooberinchief said:

Without getting too technical, you have the right idea, but you need a much bigger “nail.” A small 3-4” nail isn’t capable of covering the ground fault conditions for a 120 or 240v short. That’s why houses are built with an earth rod. 
 

It strikes me as odd you don’t have one already. You should be able to buy an outlet tester that will light up and tell you if your outlet is wired properly. I’d grab one of those and see if the outlet is correct first. If it isn’t, disconnect the power, check it’s disconnected with your new outlet tester, and look inside the outlet cover to make sure all the connections are there. If they are and you are still having problems, I’d say call an electrician and have them do a once over of your breaker panel or similar to make sure things are wired correctly. It’s not just your PC you should worry about at that point, any devices pulling lots of power like stoves or clothes dryers can be a danger if they develop a short. 

Issue is location, while this is standard procedure in some countries, many more don’t have these requirements.

[Gooberinchief]

Just now, Echothedolpin said:

Issue is location, while this is standard procedure in some countries, many more don’t have these requirements.

Agreed. Unfortunately safety standards aren’t universal, hopefully OP can get some safety equipment installed if needed.

[Ryeleigh]

51 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Minor correction here.

Power coming from Mains will be AC, so the connections are "hot", "neutral", and "ground". Positive and negative connections are strictly DC.

Thank you for the correction.

32 minutes ago, Gooberinchief said:

Without getting too technical, you have the right idea, but you need a much bigger “nail.” A small 3-4” nail isn’t capable of covering the ground fault conditions for a 120 or 240v short. That’s why houses are built with an earth rod. 

At that time I'm not thinking that far ahead, my only concern was why my PC case shocks me when I touch it and why the speakers let out some static noises sometime, ask around and found the method I mentioned above, and it works... to an extent.

15 minutes ago, Echothedolpin said:

Issue is location, while this is standard procedure in some countries, many more don’t have these requirements.

yeah, and upon further research, back in the day, its common practice to also use the neutral as a ground by wiring the ground wire to neutral and doing some other things, which I do not wish to learn more because its been banned anyways. It is now recommended to use the proper rod for grounding, not a requirement yet, only a recommendation.

 

4 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

Yeah.

The technician wouldn't want to help you bury the rod and and route the cable and all.
Well..., some of them would, at a cost, when they want to take a side job.

Thanks. I guess I'll have to wait till the big holiday to pass so I can properly find an electrician to do it... if my parents ever want to and permit it, though. Considering the budget and complexity of the works, they might asks their relatives for advice and use some other simpler method instead, not sure if there's any at all (hopefully not, so I can persuade them to use the proper one).

 

In the meantime, I just gonna go ahead and make my earlier plan a go sometime soon, maybe not with a 4" nail, but the longest one available on the nearest store. Because if I'm gonna buy a proper grounding rod, I'd rather use it for the whole house. And I certainly can't bury a 6-8 ft long rod alone, so it's not an easy fix even if I were to only attach it on my PC Case.

[Mark Kaine]

As a German, I'll never understand the obsession of people in other countries to "ground" everything... my pc isnt "grounded" (the electrician said so) and there's no issue,  power outages (while pc is running) faulty Chinese usb "extension" that somehow put my entire case under power ... exploding "Seasonic" PSU (would not recommend)... its still going strong, i fail to see what a "ground" would have changed,  i think its actually possible with a "ground" any of these occurrences could have possibly damaged something tbh.

 

I'm still really hoping this is somehow a language issue, and your guys ground obsession isnt the same thing we call ground here lol.  

 

but of course, by all means, put an electrical wire into your "garden" and connect it to your pc, what could go wrong! (well it'll probably get fried, but be my guest )