Grounding a new installation

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We all know we could debate this subject to our fingers bleed from typing:p The fact is if your equipment is not grounded correctly and you do get hit by lightning that your insurance company may deny your claim. Whether your better off not grounding your equipment is not what the NEC states. I have had antennas mounted on a roof that where not grounded at all and have been hit by lighting. The coax was disconnected hanging down the side of the house not touching the ground and the end was within a foot from a iron fence. The lightning followed the coax jumped to the fence and went to my neighbors house and blew and I mean blew his electrical panel right off the wall. Just because the installer didnt ground those dishes doesnt mean they are immune to a direct hit. Just a luck of the draw. Of course even with a properly grounded system a direct hit by lightning isn't going to save your dish and more then likely may damage your equipment (the power of nature). The final and most important thing here to remember is, the main reason for grounding your dish and coax is for protecting your equipment from static discharge not a direct hit from lightning.

I wrote this earlier in the post

Grounding anything in your home does not guarantee safety from lighting strikes. The purpose of grounding the dish and coax is for static discharge. During storms if there is a lot of lighting in the area it can sometimes be close enough to create static in electronic equipment. Planes even create this energy under normal flying conditions. This is why airplanes use static dis chargers on the aircraft for there on board electronics. This is why it's very important to ground your dish and coax. It gives the static buildup a path to discharge. To give you an example we are all familiar with is what happens when you drag your feet on the carpet and touch something, zap!! You just discharged all that static buildup. Last year one of my co-workers grab a different chair to sit on and within one week he had replaced his phone headset four times. We finally narrowed it down to his chair in which every time he sat in it he built up enough staic that when he picked up the phone he would get shocked and it blew the headset. This is the purpose of the grounding your satellite equipment. Dish and coax.
 
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The lightning damage I have seen has many "burn open" sections where the charge followed a romex line with ground, burned that and jumped to another ground path like a basement window frame.
In no case did I see a long cable run with damage at either end. It just jumps elsewhere following the straightest path. A steel building with grounded walls just got a 1" hole but the breaker panel & a switch were just gone.

I did see a well pump damaged by lightning that followed the pipe. The wire serving the pump was ok and the TV antenna grounded to the pipe was undamaged as was the TV.

The next strike will probably be different.

Joe
 
Hi. My new installation has posed a similar dilemma. The coax point of entry is on the side opposite the service ground (water main) of my dwelling. Home Association rules prohibit cable runs down the front (or street facing) sides of the house.

So, the installer grounded to the AC service panel on the roof. The AC electrical wiring does run on the exterior of the building straight to the service panel. I'm guessing that this does not meet code, but will it at least dissipate the static and not cause a ground loop?

Another easy option for an alternative ground location is an outdoor water spigot that is within a few feet of the point of coax entry. I checked the piping and it runs directly to the main with one intermediate branch just before the main water supply pipe.

Would one of these be the better choice than the other? Installing a grounding rod and bonding it to the main via underground work is not practical as this would involve breaking concrete walks in common areas.
 
Hi. My new installation has posed a similar dilemma. The coax point of entry is on the side opposite the service ground (water main) of my dwelling. Home Association rules prohibit cable runs down the front (or street facing) sides of the house.

So, the installer grounded to the AC service panel on the roof. The AC electrical wiring does run on the exterior of the building straight to the service panel. I'm guessing that this does not meet code, but will it at least dissipate the static and not cause a ground loop?

Another easy option for an alternative ground location is an outdoor water spigot that is within a few feet of the point of coax entry. I checked the piping and it runs directly to the main with one intermediate branch just before the main water supply pipe.

Would one of these be the better choice than the other? Installing a grounding rod and bonding it to the main via underground work is not practical as this would involve breaking concrete walks in common areas.

I don't know if a water pipe can be a safe way for grounding, all I can say is if the house is new, likely what is behind that spigot/wall is all plastic, which certainly can not provide any grounding.
 
Hi. My new installation has posed a similar dilemma. The coax point of entry is on the side opposite the service ground (water main) of my dwelling. Home Association rules prohibit cable runs down the front (or street facing) sides of the house.

So, the installer grounded to the AC service panel on the roof. The AC electrical wiring does run on the exterior of the building straight to the service panel. I'm guessing that this does not meet code, but will it at least dissipate the static and not cause a ground loop?

Another easy option for an alternative ground location is an outdoor water spigot that is within a few feet of the point of coax entry. I checked the piping and it runs directly to the main with one intermediate branch just before the main water supply pipe.

Would one of these be the better choice than the other? Installing a grounding rod and bonding it to the main via underground work is not practical as this would involve breaking concrete walks in common areas.

By grounding to your ac unit that would be considered daisy chaining which is not allowed by the NEC. Now as far as to grounding to your water spigot the would be fine since your are within 5 feet of the coax entry point. Not sure why the installer didn't do this during the install. Just make sure your plumbing as stated in the above post is not pvc. One other question I have is where the coax enters the structure is there a grounding block there? If so what is it grounded too? You must use a grounding block at point of entry.
 
By grounding to your ac unit that would be considered daisy chaining which is not allowed by the NEC. Now as far as to grounding to your water spigot the would be fine since your are within 5 feet of the coax entry point. Not sure why the installer didn't do this during the install. Just make sure your plumbing as stated in the above post is not pvc. One other question I have is where the coax enters the structure is there a grounding block there? If so what is it grounded too? You must use a grounding block at point of entry.

Thanks for your input, but after re-reading this thread from the beginning, and following all the links, I read this info at this link:

NEC Grounding- DIRECTV DISH Network HughesNet Wildblue

Which states that a water spigot is not OK if it is more than 5 feet from where the pipe enters the premises. There is even a picture there of a water spigot with the evil red-circle over it, which means I probably shouldn't use it - since the water pipe runs probably 35 feet under the house before it connects to the main and the main enters the ground.

As the installation sits now, the grounding block is on the roof. Then, the two sets of dual cable RG6 run down the back of the house, maybe 50 feet, to an enclosure that contains the multiswitch, and from there to the rooms.

There seems to be no practicable answer. All I'm wondering now is which is better of these two; 1. Leave the ground connected to the AC power box, or, 2. Remove the ground completely. I know the best answer is to run the coax down the front of the house and fasten a grounding block near the water main - but such a cable run isn't allowed. The cable can't be run down the sides of the house either, because both sides are street visible. The back is my only option.

I did see some note here that making a 12" loop of the cable up by this dish might be a good idea, so I may do that if anyone else can confirm the usefulness of doing so.

I also may walk around and ask some of my neighbors if they encountered this problem. This sort of installation must somehow past muster with the installation contractor because not only did the initial installation guy set it up this way, but some quality control guy came by (without an appointment) a week later and looked at it all - and nothing was changed.
 
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I just got a new install a couple of days ago. After seeing this thread I went out and looked to see if my dish or coax was grounded. I see no grounding at all. The coax goes straight from the dish to the DVR (actually to a B-band converter , whaterver that is, then DVR).
I don't know if I should call to see about getting it grounded or not. The installer was nice and did a good job. I even tipped him pretty well. I don't want to get him in trouble.
There actually is no place on that side of the house to ground to.
 
Thanks for your input, but after re-reading this thread from the beginning, and following all the links, I read this info at this link:

NEC Grounding- DIRECTV DISH Network HughesNet Wildblue

Which states that a water spigot is not OK if it is more than 5 feet from where the pipe enters the premises. There is even a picture there of a water spigot with the evil red-circle over it, which means I probably shouldn't use it - since the water pipe runs probably 35 feet under the house before it connects to the main and the main enters the ground.Iquote]

That info is correct but it doesn’t even apply to you since your spigot is only a few feet away from point of coax entry as you stated in the above post;)
 
I just got a new install a couple of days ago. After seeing this thread I went out and looked to see if my dish or coax was grounded. I see no grounding at all. The coax goes straight from the dish to the DVR (actually to a B-band converter , whaterver that is, then DVR).
I don't know if I should call to see about getting it grounded or not. The installer was nice and did a good job. I even tipped him pretty well. I don't want to get him in trouble.
There actually is no place on that side of the house to ground to.

akaRadar, exactly. The installer here did a very good job, and wasn't rushed at all. I think these installers may be in a very difficult position where if they followed the code strictly, they would simply have to refuse service to a substantial number of potential customers.

Anyway, I know if I call directv, the installation contractor will hear about it, and will probably get some kind of demerit. Plus, I will probably just have to switch back to cable (which I may just do anyhow).

So, I'm going to try and handle it on my own - since it is my house. I'm having an electrician come out. But, based on the research I've done so far, I have a feeling he will tell me that there is nothing to be done.
 
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NEC Grounding- DIRECTV DISH Network HughesNet Wildblue


That info is correct but it doesn’t even apply to you since your spigot is only a few feet away from point of coax entry as you stated in the above post;)

I probably wasn't clear enough with my description:

1. Front of house; water main (cable tv and phone come from underground and are grounded to this).

2. Rear of house; exterior water valve. The copper pipe for this valve runs through a raceway in a slab foundation to the front of the house.

So, if my understanding is correct, the pipe for the rear water valve has crossed into the premises for more than 35 feet before I would connect the ground to it.

True, the coax enters the premises in the back, but the piping to the back water valve runs all the way from the front of the house, through and under the premises for 35ft, before getting to the back where the coax enters the premises.

The 5ft reference in the code seems to relate to how far the water pipe has extended into the premises. Meaning, a ground should be connected to the water supply pipe within around 5ft or so from when it comes out of the ground.

If I connect to the rear water valve (or pipe), I would be connecting at a point around 40 ft after the water supply pipe emerges from the ground - plus at a point after the pipe has run through the entire length of the house.
 
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