No Ground Wire On New Dish Installation

[dishcomm]

Most houses around here you'll see a #6 or #4 bare twisted copper wire going from inside the house/basement to the outside to the ground rod. The top of the rod should be a few inches above ground, but they can get covered up over time or if they use mulch for landscaping. If you look at your circuit breaker box, you should see the copper wire coming out of it, if it's not drywalled in. In fact, by code here, there should be another bare copper wire going from the same box to the water pipes, if they are copper. That's why I was surprised to see a well built new house with no ground wires anywhere, and pass inspection.

On occasion I will service a home where the homeowner has re sided the house and covered the GND wire. At thta point I will look around to find the GND rod. It's findable. You just have to look.

 

[highdefjeff]

Grounding is not going to affect your reception, or how your system works, no matter what. Most of the older techs like me and many others that I know, all know that the ground really doesn't do anything except make people feel safer.

Saying the ground doesn't do anything is incorrect. For example, you can have audio and visual noise from a ground loop. That certainly affects your system. Static electricity from the wind across the dish can build up and discharge to the LNB causing damage. Stray signals collect on the dish and to prevent them from entering the system as noise, the dish unit needs to be grounded. And grounding isn't to be able to absorb or pass a lightning strike, but to create a zero potential so the lightning will avoid the dish.

There are a few reasons to ground.

 

[Mike_H]

Saying the ground doesn't do anything is incorrect. For example, you can have audio and visual noise from a ground loop.

A ground loop is created by a difference in grounds, not lack of ground. If the house electrical ground is in one spot, and the coax ground is in a different spot, the difference in ground potential can induce a current flow through the coax. This current can be sufficient to energize the casing of the DVR, as well as damage the LNB or the receiver.

that is why if the dish is far enough out that it needs its own ground rod, that ground rod then must be bonded to the home ground via the proper copper conductor.

 

[highdefjeff]

A ground loop is created by a difference in grounds, not lack of ground. If the house electrical ground is in one spot, and the coax ground is in a different spot, the difference in ground potential can induce a current flow through the coax. This current can be sufficient to energize the casing of the DVR, as well as damage the LNB or the receiver.

that is why if the dish is far enough out that it needs its own ground rod, that ground rod then must be bonded to the home ground via the proper copper conductor.

I didn't say no ground produces a ground loop, I said "Saying the ground doesn't do anything is incorrect."

 

[highdefjeff]

But I will say this, not grounding does create an antenna effect on the dish system. This is from Dish Network training information:

“Radio Frequency interference (RFI) occurs when Stray RF signals
are picked up by the cables and if not grounded, can find their way
onto a customer’s TV. This can cause a disturbance of distortion of
the satellite signal.”
“Without a proper ground, the wires outside the house work like a
big coat hanger antenna.”

 

[installwell]

Ok um, "dude", is it?...How about I give you a chance ot edit your post to take out the following statement: "Installers do not like to put in correct grounds
I get real cranky when I see generalized statements that have no basis in fact and are just the rantiungs of a pissed off person who knows no better. Now if you don't want to get flamed, I suggest you rephrase that real quick..I 'll give you a clue. Try inserting the word "some" before the word "installers"...have a wonderful day.

instead of the word "some" i would use "many", and my favorite nono ground is the cold water clamp on a PVC pipe fed spigot. Always good for a laugh.

i have honestly seen so many ungrounded systems i start to wonder if techs even have ground wire on the van. haha

another favorite, ground blocks not even a foot from a perfect ground point, yet no ground wire. ha

i know there are good installers out there, but they are rare, and theres many reasons for that. Lack of decent pay would be a big one.

 

[vegassatellite]

OK...If lightining hits the dish the last thing I would worry about is the charge going across the cable. Trust me the cabole will not be able to contain that much current. The cable will melt and the enormous power of the lightining would most certainly damage the home in other ways.
I GND everry system. That's by the book and I believe in it. But what I know about lighting and it's potential as one of the most powerful forces of nature makes me chuckle when a customer asks about the Dish and lightining.

It takes a couple milliseconds for the copper center conductor to reach a melting point. How long depends exactly on how much current was passing through at the time. I have seen a calculation where 50,000 amps (potential available just from power company transformer) shorted onto a coaxial cable at 120 volts would deliver over 450 amps to a point on the coax approximately 50 feet from where the short entered the coax before the coax rose in temperature to melt. Obviously, the coax would melt so fast that the remaining 49,550 amps wouldn't pass through before the circuit was opened. Still, 450 amps is not something I would want running down my coax in my attic. I would much rather that current blow up the line between the dish and ground block and the ground wire takes the brunt of it instead of into the home first.

 

[vicdanj]

Yes it is..as long as the fixture is properly bonded and has a ground screw it is an acceptable NEC ground. We got that straight from the DNSC by the book QC head honcho.
I am friends with two master electricians and one journeyman .I asked..Trust me I pick their brains all the time.

would that work for an external security light attached to the house....? the typical flood lights you see on the corners of homes.... please let me know cuz that would be a life saver for me.

 

[dishcomm]

would that work for an external security light attached to the house....? the typical flood lights you see on the corners of homes.... please let me know cuz that would be a life saver for me.

Yes..As long as the ground wire in the fixture is bonded. Which is pretty damned likely.

 

[navychop]

ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT!

Almost 4 years. I guess "search" works. And for a first time poster!