I fried 2 Motherboards - Why?

[gerf]

This certainly make sense, and practical answer to how to earthen electrical appliances, computers, monitors, etc if you're living in an apartment; just tie a cable to any available metal water pipe on one end and you have the ground at the another end.

OMG no, that's not exactly what I meant. I was using the classic "electricity is like flowing water" example that helps so many mechies pass their singular Circuits class.

If you ground to a pipe, that pipe might pass by a gas line. That gas line might leak a wee bit, which is enough to fill a remote crevice of a building with enough gas to be explosive. A pipe used for grounding near that gas leak could spark, and blow you to smithereens.

Of course, I also recall the story of a guy who accidentally ground a groove into an Acetylene tank. He got yelled at by his boss, cause he coulda easily blew it up and died. Then, he proceeded to fill it with WELD and grind it down again. The lucky SOB lived, when a lot of people have died doing less..

But, I wouldn't toss the dice by grounding to a pipe. There's just so many bad things that could happen.

[lightofsky]

OMG no, that's not exactly what I meant. I was using the classic "electricity is like flowing water" example that helps so many mechies pass their singular Circuits class.

If you ground to a pipe, that pipe might pass by a gas line. That gas line might leak a wee bit, which is enough to fill a remote crevice of a building with enough gas to be explosive. A pipe used for grounding near that gas leak could spark, and blow you to smithereens.

Of course, I also recall the story of a guy who accidentally ground a groove into an Acetylene tank. He got yelled at by his boss, cause he coulda easily blew it up and died. Then, he proceeded to fill it with WELD and grind it down again. The lucky SOB lived, when a lot of people have died doing less..

But, I wouldn't toss the dice by grounding to a pipe. There's just so many bad things that could happen.

I know, your using the classic "electricity is like flowing water" gave me the inspiration.
I said water pipe and they don't usually pass by a gas line. By experience , I've tried this method few times in my life without any problems.

[gerf]

I said water pipe and they don't usually pass by a gas line. By experience , I've tried this method few times in my life without any problems.

Yeah, I know. But maybe i'm just a chicken-sh1t, huh.

[Platypus]

Sigh, it never ends does it?

Despite the fact that it mostly doesn't kill you, it's not safe to earth electrical appliances to ad-hoc grounds like water pipes or the aforementioned neutral line.

This will work as long as the pipe system is actually securely grounded, which is not a certainty. But even under non-fault conditions, it can cause ground loops, accelerated pipe corrosion and the possibility of spark ignition already mentioned. Under actual fault conditions, rare as they may be, the results can be quite dangerous.

[TripleRLtd]

Has building construction EVER been up to code??
Yeah, it's really sad, the "quality" of work we have to put up with.
How about your country? Is it the same for the most part?

[Platypus]

Australia has quite high standards under our electrical regulations. Some countries still allow a certain amount of wiring to be done by unlicenced operators, but no fixed wiring can legally be done here by homeowners etc.

[gerf]

I was just watching This Old House, and they plumbed the place with this plastic tubing instead of regular copper... That's so mess up your grounding plans.

Oh, and I was just recalling some industrial wiring with "grounded" and "ungrounded" systems. With the "grounded" systems, there was a main, good ground provided in the building. With the "ungrounded" systems, the main beams of a building were used, but certain safety features were needed. Basically, more warning lights in case of a short were needed, as well as fuses in case of a short, to keep too much current and voltage from passing through the "ungrounded" building structure.

So, I guess that some rigged grounding is OK, just make sure it's accounted for.

As for the Aussies requiring licensing for electrical work... Man, that'd suck. I'm glad I'm in the US and can do what I want to my house.