The modern home of man is replete with a variety of electrical appliances and household appliances. Refrigerators, washing machines, televisions and other electronics are connected to a household electrical network, the voltage in which is a threat to human life. Static voltage, equipment malfunctions can lead to the presence of currents with low power and high voltage on the housing of household electrical appliances, which is quite unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous for humans. How to ground a computer and other electronics and why is it necessary?
What is the need to ground electrical appliances?
First of all, the grounding system is necessary in order to protect the lives and health of people. Sometimes, touching, especially with a wet hand, the metal case of a refrigerator or a washing machine, you can feel the unpleasant effect of an electric current. This indicates poor insulation of parts and wires of household appliances and the lack of grounding. More often this happens in old houses where a ground wire was not provided. Identifying an electrical network without a grounding wire is quite simple - the outlets are not grounded. Although there are reverse situations when sockets with grounding are installed, there is no grounding wire. Or installed outlets without grounding, simply not connected to the required cable.
In a private house
To design and install the grounding system in low-rise buildings, everyone can do it. Usually, grounding in this case consists of a system of vertical and horizontal grounding conductors and a conductor connecting this system to the electrical panel in the house. Vertical elements burrow into the earth and connect with horizontal.
Vertical grounding elements can be made of a 50-mm steel corner, and ordinary vertical steel with a width of 40-50 mm is suitable for vertical elements. As a grounding conductor, round steel can be used. The ground loop is recommended to be made in the form of an equilateral triangle at a distance from the foundation of more than 1 meter. It is not necessary to paint steel elements. Next, consider how to ground the computer in the apartment.
In the apartment
If the house is equipped with a modern grounding system (TN-CS), then in the wiring there is a PE wire, the so-called "protective zero". Determining whether your home has such wiring is not so difficult. In this case, an electrical wire suitable for the power stand should consist of five wires. In such a situation, it is necessary to connect all protective zeros of PE to the common bus, and connect the bus to the body of the electrical panel.
How to ground the computer if a four-wire cable is suitable for the power stand? This means that your home is equipped with an outdated TN-C grounding system. In this case, there is simply no ground wire. The best option in this case is to make the system yourself. It is convenient for residents of the first floors. If mounting the grounding is difficult and problematic, it is better not to connect the neutral wire to anything. Partially solve this problem will help and the installation of RCDs on each wire coming from the apartment distribution panel.
How not to do
Some "experts" throw grounding wires on batteries, gas and water pipes, which is strictly prohibited. Such a “system” will be dangerous not only for your family members and close neighbors, but also for people living in neighboring houses.
How to ground the computer so that the microphone is not phoning?
Have you heard any noise while the microphone is working? The question arose about how to ground the computer system unit to eliminate them? The answer is quite simple: you must connect the computer to a grounded power outlet. The power supply has special filters that suppress interference and compensate for them using grounding. In addition, other factors affect the operation of the audio microphone. This problem occurs quite often, even despite the presence of high-quality microphones, audio interfaces, and cables. The resulting background can be high-frequency or low-frequency.
A significant influence on the appearance of a high-frequency background is provided by an audio cable connecting a passive microphone to a computer via a sound card or a special audio interface. If the cable is not shielded or its braid is damaged, then excessive noise cannot be avoided. In such a system, there is no preamplifier and interference signals occur with a current frequency in household electrical networks. You can get rid of this kind of background using a high-quality cable.
In addition to poor-quality or damaged cables, deformed connectors for connecting equipment, other factors can also influence the appearance of the background. And the matter is not in the microphone itself, but in the presence of other electrical appliances, mobile phones, household appliances nearby. The background emanating from them can even affect an expensive shielded cable. Some noise can occur continuously, and some periodically, during the operation of a particular electrical appliance.